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

Surely you know that many tenants can't afford to buy and that the figures you have quoted here are ridiculous and not at all representative of what people need to pay.
You must have bought your house, which you think is worth 800k, many years ago when it was worth much less, so the 800k is irrelevant, or have had a huge deposit and only taken out a small mortgage. Currently, you need an approx. 200k salary to be able take out an 800k mortgage and it would cost many multiples of your £1000/month. Really poor advice!

This is just going to get worse, so many landlords now selling up, before Labour puts the the renters reform bill in, I think something like a million less properties on the last 5 years and this is going to escalate it a lot faster.

so with supply being limited and demand increasing for the limited supply , rents will go up and up.

this is now coupled with interest rates increasing due again sadly to Labour budget, costs obvs being passed onto renters as private landlords are not social landlords, it’s a business. And we don’t have the council houses to house people in either,

of course he needs to formally notify via section 13 , a text is fine as first informal heads up explaining it, but he then needs to follow up with the formal notice.

hopefully he isn’t charging exactly what he is paying and has room to reduce for you, it does appear he is charging below market rates, but the condition of the flat may be bad,, if he is not you may need to look for alternate accommodation if you can’t afford it.

its a hard time for renters and it’s going to get so much worse sadly,

This . It sounds like a sneaky way of evicting you OP . He or she is hoping you just give your notice in and go . Then they will get in a tenant who will pay this rent .

@m00rfarm Have you thought about evicting your tenants and finding new ones?

And if the OP can't do a £300 increase, where do you suggest she gets an £80k deposit from?

If you say you can’t afford it he may well give you notice to end the tenancy and get someone to move in who can afford it.

Totally agree. Previously people who were this greedy would have been judged harshly, now it seems to be pretty standard behaviour in some groups and greed is generally admired. I'm still in the judge harshly camp!

Go to the housing section of the Money Saving Expert Forum. There are lots of landlords on there who advise tenants on their rights. They really do know what they are talking about.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/house-buying-renting-selling

Unfortunately they aren’t- they are wrong.

It’s one month notice for a monthly tenancy and the need for a s13 notice depends on whether or not the lease has a rent review clause and wording that covers what happens when the fix term ends.

OP you need to check market rents in your area for similar properties and then get expert advice. Nobody can fully advise you without seeing your contract.

Anecdotally it is cheaper to rent than buy in my area at the moment.
A 3 bed house on 100% mortgage would be 2.5k in mortgage and 2.2k to rent.
Trouble is some landlords want ALL their costs covered and expect to benefit from rise in equity and house prices.
If he can’t cope with a period of loss he needs to get out. Sounds as though he can probably get the increase if he relets though. Best bet is that you can pay less as he will factor in voids and risk of a poor tenant next time.

OP people have already given you some good advice about Shelter and negotiating a smaller increase, but longer term have you thought of looking into shared-ownership properties as a way to get on the housing ladder? if you can get a shared-ownership house especially, it can give you more security.

I started by buying a shared-ownership flat in East London because that is all I could afford and then sold it and bought a small terrace in Kent.

Being at the mercy of private landlords is just horrific. So many are just greedy parasites...

I agree you must negotiate - that is far to big a hike. But be aware that landlords might choose to sell if they are making a loss on the property.

Are you in a position at work to ask for a pay rise? Or is anyone else in your family?

Landlord’s aren’t charities and in this instance they aren’t doing anything wrong. So what that they want to raise the rent to the market rate? It’s completely fair. If OP won’t pay then there’ll be plenty of people who will.

That’s not a mortgage payment on an 800k mortgage though. You mean you’ve paid off most of it which is irrelevant to renters.

For some of us there are only two choices raise the rent or sell. My mortgage comes to an end in July at the low rate and will increase by around 500 a month. It is a large mortgage. Currently the rent already does not fully cover the cost of the mortgage, insurance etc. So in July, it will be way down. No increase for 8 years so far. I can either raise it by 300 or 400 a month (which still leaves me losing a significant amount of money) or I sell. I cannot keep going at such a loss. I have only 8 more years or so on the mortgage, which is why I have been struggling to keep the property. It is way under the rental value of properties in the area. But I don't think the tenants will be able to afford any increase. So I am stuck.

If you're "running a business" then you should have done some financial planning around this. Why didn't you model for interest rate rises? Why haven't you put the rent up in 8 years if you're already not covering your costs and you knew you couldn't handle the mortgage rate increase? If you'd charged an extra £50/month over those 8 years you'd be able to cover 12 months of an additional £400/month. Instead some poor sods will likely be made homeless.

As someone who runs a business (a real one) this stuff makes me really cross.

Yes sorry, a bit out of touch clearly. Maybe privilege isn't the right word as we have both worked our tits off for 35 years, had to earn every penny we have and never had any input/inheritance from anyone. Probably disconnected may be a better description - my admission.

TBH I think it's fair enough, if they're a good landlord, and they're meeting an additional cost then they need to pass it on.
I'm a private renter, and my lovely landlord had to put up the rent because his mortgage had gone up. He's only upped the rent once in 8 years, and he gave us notice of about 4 months (see I said he was lovely!)

And we actually responded that it was fair enough, backdated the additional £200 to the previous rent payment and started making it on every payment moving forward.

I think if he's a good landlord you might need to just pay. The rental market is a blood bath and has been for quite some time and there are lots of really dodgy landlords, and I'd pay through the nose if I had to, to keep a good one.

Yes, this was the other thing I was going to say. OP, you may be entitled to some local housing allowance. Applies to people in work.

https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/benefits/local_housing_allowance_lha_for_private_renters

Agree. And there seems to be plenty on MN.

I think if you intend to be a landlord, you have a certain responsibility too, especially towards your tenants. If acquiring a second property, simply don't stretch yourself too far, to the point that you expect your occupants to cover the shortfall.
In other European countries the rents are much more controlled, for example across the channel, if the lease is up for renewal I believe it can only be increased by 1.82%.

I would check the costs of renting similar properties and go back to the LL to say you cannot afford that increase. He may have come off a fixed rate but that is not your problem and although legally he is able to increase rent (perils of renting unfortunately) you are within your rights to negotiate or move elsewhere although of course that is also prone to pitfalls depending on area. I would try and meet in the middle.

The housing situation for private renters is dire.

Looking on Rightmove this morning, there are 18 two bed flats to rent in Barkingside, priced from 1600 - 2500 pcm (the more expensive ones sometimes have two bathrooms); only five are being marketed for less than 1700. Only you will know how your flat compares with those on offer and whether the increased rent reflects the local market.

"No choice " my arse, the greedy bastard. Could you claim any housing benefit, OP?

@ReadingSoManyThreads I wish you were my landlord!

Never met mine. Let through an agent, who recommend huge rent increases every year because the market can bear it. I don’t sleep at night worrying. My kids are happy in our home. I do all the repairs, and have made improvements, done up the garden etc. Get on great with all my neighbours.

In Ilford, there are so many desperate people, if the landlord put it on the market, people would be queuing up to pay 6 months in cash in advance to move in the next day ☹️

For some of us there are only two choices raise the rent or sell. My mortgage comes to an end in July at the low rate and will increase by around 500 a month. It is a large mortgage. Currently the rent already does not fully cover the cost of the mortgage, insurance etc. So in July, it will be way down. No increase for 8 years so far. I can either raise it by 300 or 400 a month (which still leaves me losing a significant amount of money) or I sell. I cannot keep going at such a loss. I have only 8 more years or so on the mortgage, which is why I have been struggling to keep the property. It is way under the rental value of properties in the area. But I don't think the tenants will be able to afford any increase. So I am stuck.