Rent increase by £300!!! What do I do? Is this normal? Please help!!!!

So why is there a problem in areas where LLs are pulling out of the market then? Reality is the market needs LLs. If that is made a really unattractive investment option there won't be any.

It's market forces and economics. Not rocket science.

However none of this debate helps OP.

OP, you are in a good position in that you live there, you pay the rent, don't trash the place or otherwise cause a nuisance. The LL will want to keep you. If you move out he will likely have to fund a void period, pay for redecoration and refurbishment (no shade to you, but between lets properties need work), he will incur agents fees for the inventory, and paperwork. It will be very expensive for him. He knows this. Negotiate. Make a counter offer of what you can afford.

Despite what people will tell you on here it isn't the smartest move to not pay and wait for eviction. Particularly not if you want to rent elsewhere. You won't get a LL reference, and without one you will be bottom of the list for a new place.

Good luck. The economy sucks right now for everyone. Thank you Covid. Shut the economy down for months on end and boom watch the result.

I just read your update. Do you receive housing benefit or the housing element of UC?

OK, there’s two things to understand here. One is the legal position (what can the landlord do by law) and then negotiating tactics.

Without seeing your tenancy agreement it’s impossible to know for sure, but chances are the landlord is in a position to increase your rent and there is no legal limit on the rent he can ask for. All this needs to be done in the correct way of course.

If you think the rent is excessive compared to other similar flats in your area you can try to challenge this by applying to a rent tribunal. This would certainly be worth considering if you thought this was the case but it sounds like you might have been paying a comparatively low rent for the area, in which case the tribunal wouldn’t get you area if the landlord is just being the rent into line with the market rent in the area.

You might want to consider informal negotiation with your landlord. Two things to bear in mind here (which pull in opposing directions).

1. It costs landlords to evict a tenant and find a new one, and it is not without risk. If you are a good reliable tenant then he might well want to keep you and be willing to consider a lower increase.

2. From this summer, new laws will be coming into force which make it much harder to evict tenants. It is possible the landlord is aware of this so he may be trying to raise the rent now, and if you complain about it, serve notice.

So I think you’ve got two choices.

First one is to negotiate now and see if the landlord will agree a lower increase, but risk the landlord getting cold feet about you and serving you a s21 notice.

Second one is to keep quiet. Try to keep up with the rent payments in the short term and look for a new place to live, in the knowledge that From summer, the landlord will have to wait for you to get significantly behind on the rent before they can serve you notice (unless such as they want to sell the house or move into it themselves, But even then they will have to give you more notice than they do now).

Depending on the relationship you’ve got with your landlord, personally, I think it is worth a gentle negotiation: You don’t want to leave him, thinking that there’s no way you can afford the extra £300, because otherwise he might decide to try to find someone who can.

Errmm.... they are supplying housing. That's a pretty important service. Do you want them to not supply housing?

They're not supplying housing. They're buying up a limited resource and then leasing it back on the market at a premium. If all the BTL landlords actually invested in building houses (which we desperately need) then we'd be in a very different situation.

I'm not surprised you are worried sick but you do have a choice as per lots of advice on this thread. You do not have to pay the increased rent.
Has your ex, pensioner husband applied for council housing? Does he contribute or is he also on a very low income? If he is on pension credits, he can claim housing benefit and pay that to you off record. But do negotiate with your LL or tell him that you can't afford the increase and see what he says. Alternatively, you could look a bit further afield in your area as some properties may be a bit cheaper.

Have you spoken to Shelter yet, @Lele101 ?

£1400 may actually be still around market value. If there are plenty for rent at £1600, then it’s not far off.

dont forget rental agencies- like house sales- often advertise at a higher price. Often they over estimate because the LL will go for letting agent who says they can get the most. There’s also some room for negotiation with tenants. It easier to come down in price than up.

I get that the market is hot right now and people might be paying full whack, but he may end up with property staying empty for a while

They are all competitive the food prices.

Errmm.... they are supplying housing. That's a pretty important service. Do you want them to not supply housing? Because where that's happening (Scotland) tenants are really struggling with lack of supply and massive numbers of people bidding on every property. That forces rents up. It doesn't help the poorer as you call them (although I'd question that as many tenants are choosing to rent rather than forced to rent for a myriad of reasons)

The problem with your way of thinking is you haven't factored in mobility of capital. Or the fact that if the variables in any situation are changed behaviour will be changed. As evidenced by the tax the rich bastards policy of whacking up stamp duty at the upper end of the market. Net result, stamp duty revenues fell so the Treasury and by default the public purse was worse off. It was a popular policy despite this.

My 'poor' tenant approached 'rich' me and asked to buy the property. On doing the math he realised just how much more he'd pay in mortgage and service charge than he would in rent and quickly retracted the offer. Make of that what you will. For the record I'd have bitten his hand off.

A tenant is a nice bonus along the way, not something to be relied upon as the sole payer of the LLs debt
@Dutch1e 👏
Landlording is an investment activity, in the same way that investing in the stock market is an investment activity.
If someone borrowed money to buy stocks and shares and then started crying when the interest rate went up (wiping out the profit from the appreciation of the stocks and shares) then you would think they were an overleveraged twit.

Buying a house is the very definition of 'operating at a loss' until the house is paid off.

If a LL cannot afford to repay the bank for the term of the mortgage they have no business buying the house in the first place.

A tenant is a nice bonus along the way, not something to be relied upon as the sole payer of the LLs debt.

NIC is paid on profits by individuals running a business, not just on their staff wages. But it's not paid on profits made by a landlord renting out property.

The landlord is an eejit who doesn't know what he's doing!
You might be able to work that to your advantage op?
Being a landlord is an investment activity, the main financial benefits is on the appreciation of your asset. He clearly doesn't understand this and he is over leveraged such that his business model is no longer viable.

You absolutely cannot be penalized by refusing to be extorted... that would also be illegal discrimination.

She only has to pay what she was contracted to pay, anything else the LANDLORD needs permission to do... its not on her at all.

What planet do you live on where tenants are held responsible for the LL not following the laws set out to protect tenants?

It's more complicated than "theft is theft" anyway. Landlords are hoarding a vital but limited resource. If those of us who are forced to rent choose to upset the landlords' privileged position in this unfair transaction as much as we're able to now and then, it's fair game.

Things like this are why BTL is not a good thing for most people.

It wasn't advice really, I mean whether it makes sense to completely withhold rent or not depends on your situation and for me it helped that, at the time, I was broke and single with no dependants.

What she could do is refuse to pay the new level of rent that the landlord demands but just keep paying the old rent. Then the landlord has to decide whether he wants to evict which is a long process and can be drawn out for years if needed.

That's why DS lives at home.

Squatting is a criminal act.

I'm glad you're out of debt but it's still theft. You entered into a contract and defaulted because you didn't like the changes. I don't like paying double my weekly shop for the same produce, but it doesn't mean I go into a supermarket and steal because Tesco unfairly raise prices to increase their Director profits.
Theft is theft!

I wouldn't advise anyone to stop paying rent because a CCJ will be hard to remove and you'll be stuck if you want to obtain any credit or future accommodation.

Please don't follow this advice of non payment.

It worked out great, I was in a lot of debt then so I used the money I saved in rent to pay all that off. Ended up lodging with a friend of a friend who was a lovely old lady, much better arrangement all round.

I suppose he could have took me to court but I told him I was broke so maybe that's why he didn't bother.

It was the right decision at the time and I don't regret it at all.

Landlords need to remember that they don't have all the power and these greedy leeches can't just put up rents whenever they feel like it. At least they can't just snatch all the deposit like they used to do, which was actual theft, not just squatting which is what not paying rent is really.

Proud of your theft? Sounds like it.

Do you steal from supermarkets too?

This is not a good example of what to do. Your credit rating could be ruined, making it really hard to get another property. The council does not treat rent arrears favourably so any social housing you may be due would be denied and you'd stuck at the bottom of the list
If the LL goes to court to recover funds you'll get a CCJ lasting 6 years.

Despite what you think, this is theft, plain and simple and I wouldn't be boasting about it

One of the reasons landlords are selling up in their droves. Tenants like this.

Is that not theft?

I used to live in a rental where the landlord decided to add a few hundred onto the rent, and it pissed me off so much I stopped paying rent entirely.

It took him nearly a year to go through the eviction process (though I moved elsewhere before it was completed) and in that time he lost many thousands in rental income, which I never paid back.

It was quite stressful for me too but the retaliation was worth it. Very satisfying to know he was losing money hand over fist. Hopefully he'll think twice before inflicting this sort of demand on someone else.

Maybe this isn't the strategy you want to go for right now but worth considering if you want to screw him over.