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

Yes and with no proof of what he says being true.
He should negotiate with you and treat you nicely if your a good tenant which I'm sure you are.
Good tenants are worth their weight in gold remind him.

If you go he will have to reset and will loose money. He may not get a good tenant next time.
Alot of landlords are selling up. Good luck.

lol, yeah. As all the supermarkets are known to have vastly different prices. They don’t compete at all.

and if you can’t afford food, you starve.

*I think some people confuse social housing with private landlords and want private landlords to provide the same altruistic service. In fact it feels many feel entitled to it.

it is simply unrealistic. We are no more entitled to that than we are going down Sainsbury’s and buying a loaf of bread for half price as that’s what we can afford.

This
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No. Not "this". If Sainsbury's double their prices then you go to Tesco or one of the many other options. If your landlord doubles your rent then you lose your home. Your kids might have to be taken out of school. Worst case scenario you're made homeless. These things are not the same.

She will still be considered troublesome, though.

She doesn't take him to court he takes her to court, the onus is entirely on him by law to prove that its a fair and reasonable rate.

Landlords can't just set random numbers and charge anything they want, there are laws and they have to request increases. Most do it informally like in the OP (where it has to be reached as a civil agreement) but legally he has to have court approval to formally demand an increase.

if you wish to provide a charitable service and give people thousands of your money, then there is nothing stoping you. Clearly don’t sell, and charge as little rent as you can. Cover all costs as you can. Honestly, go for it.

Maybe that particular poster doesn't rent, but it doesn't hurt to look at the other side of the story.

I’d feel terrible about that. If I sell my plan was to give them their deposit plus another 5k as compensation. I don’t think I would rent again, as karma on that would be horrendous. I’m not cut out to be a landlord.

Where exactly do you feel people will live if there wasn’t btl landlords? There isn’t enough social housing, and we have seen over a million rentals being sold off in recent years and house pricing continues to rise; it is an utter fantasy that if they didn’t buy and rent out house pricing would be cheap and folks could buy. The evidence is there that it is far from the truth.

there is a huge shortage of social housing. If there wasn’t private landlords people would be on the streets.

and as more and more exit, more and more people are finding themselves homeless, in temp accommodation, and that temp accommodation is far from acceptable in many cases, as there isn’t enough rentals to feed demand, meaning shortage of properties and high rents.

we need private landlords, we need as many of them as possible, so supply outstrips demand, and prices drop, forcing them out is what makes people homeless. For the simple fact there isn’t enough social housing and house buying will always be far beyond many renters means due to deposit requirements.

Presumably, if you take a LL to court, you get blacklisted and can't rent at all?

Unfortunately there is really nothing you can do than to look elsewhere. I'm an accidental landlord (my OH's job took us temporarily to another part of the country so we rented our home while we were gone rather than leave it empty). The rent wasn't really enough to pay the whole mortgage to begin with and now the payment has gone up even further. Everything I've seen in the news suggests that the service charges for leaseholders are also massively increasing. And that is without including the cost of mandated upgrades that the government is proposing.

I have few friends who are in a similar position, they are actively losing money when letting a property and it is thebquestion of sellingand essentially leaving tenants homeless or raising rents. The property values are not going up that much either especially when compared to cost of improvement works that the government will require. It is an absolutely awful situation for people who need to rent because of mobility, changing needs and being unable to afford buying and maintaining house due to caring and other responsibilities.

Don't pay it, if you pay you legally accept the request.

A rent increase is a request not a demand, if you do not agree and if you disagree then he has to seek approval through the courts by proving the amount is fair and reasonable to charge.

If the courts agree with him you either pay it or move out, if the courts disagree then your rent remains the same or increase a court deemed reasonable amount.

Alternatively you can argue that people like OP who has rented below market rate for a while should have realised how good she had it and saved as much as she could, preparing for a potential rent rise and therefore making herself less vulnerable. Everyone knows interest rates have gone up in the last couple of years.

Demand outstrips supply, LLs can charge what they like.

Exactly!

People seem to think landlords have a moral duty that other businesses don’t have.

I think some people confuse social housing with private landlords and want private landlords to provide the same altruistic service. In fact it feels many feel entitled to it.

it is simply unrealistic. We are no more entitled to that than we are going down Sainsbury’s and buying a loaf of bread for half price as that’s what we can afford.

This

I agree. Mortgage rate changes are to an extent predictable. Basic accounting is being taxed on a profit by deducting expense from income as a normal business would be. However, it's the tax change to not allowing a mortgage interest payment to be treated as an expense which is the real issue.

@Huckyfell I haven't rented since my mid 20s which was a while ago. I'm shocked by these prices too

But I can see how tough it must be to get ahead, with food, council tax, water bills going up, and rents likely to as well it must feel really hard

Btw I agree on your NI point

And the tenants affordability should not be the private landlords.

they can put it on the market, offer it up, decide their price, and it is up to the individual if they wish to rent. The landlord can increase the rent annually, if the tenant can no longer afford it, they give notice and leave. They are not entitled to live in a private individuals house for a price they decide they can afford.

I think some people confuse social housing with private landlords and want private landlords to provide the same altruistic service. In fact it feels many feel entitled to it.

it is simply unrealistic. We are no more entitled to that than we are going down Sainsbury’s and buying a loaf of bread for half price as that’s what we can afford.

Yes, on our 3rd mortgage in 30 years, paid 2 off. But I'm just not up to date in the rental side so shouldn't have contributed to this thread. It is big money

Local Housing Allowance for 2 beds, ie the ceiling on what Universal Credit will pay, is around £1250.00

"You are renting, not a bank for the Landlord's lifestyle/gambling/coke habit ..."

Actually, that's exactly what you are if you rent.

On the flip side, a tenants affordability isn't a landlords problem, especially as the property already appears to be under MV for the area.

A LL - who may well be a pensioner trying to keep afloat - may not wish to fund a tenant who smokes, drinks and gambles.

Isn't that an awfully judgemental thing of me to say? Of course it is!! So why are people happy to think all LL live some exclusive lifestyle when most are just trying to set up a pension pot for themselves because the Gvmt fails us all.

Most landlords are not professional LL. Most have only one investment property. The Gvmt and Media keep that quiet because it's easier to turn tenants against landlords and vice versa. How better to control us than to turn us against each other.

The benefit of renting used to be freedom to move, not worry about repairs, not have huge buildings insurance, not having to decorate and just move when you weren't happy. No mortgage ties, just rent to your affordability. Move if the neighbourhood got bad without the stress of trying to sell.

Now it's a necessity under a struggling housing model. Not enough social stock. Too many nuclear families each needing housing rather than generational housing. Too many people. Huge taxes and ridiculous prices. It needs a huge reform but no one wants to take that risk

It's like the NHS; Broken, and we all suffer the consequences of endless bad decisions

I guess you can apply that argument to any business, why cover their costs, as they will end up with a valuable business, maybe even bricks and mortar at the end of it. Take supermarkets, maybe they should sell to us all food below cost, cheaply, as those stores are worth a small fortune.

it’s not how business works though, and we do need to recognise private landlords are not providing a charitable service. The only landlords people should feel entitled to low cost rent from is social housing.

I agree. BTL landlords have screwed housing for "ordinary" people and are contributing to homelessness and people getting into huge debt just for somewhere to rent, and all to feather their own nests. It's criminal that successive governments have not only allowed it to happen but encouraged it.