To think the landlord is taking the piss?

[Slightlyneuroricnat]

So we've been here 2 years now, 2 bedrooms house in Sutton £1000 a month
Nothing special but very near the school we want our daughter to get in to ( she is 3 so will be applying for schools next jan )
Never missed rent, no problems at all and last year redecorated the entire house as it hasn't been done for years
Estate agents came out to look at the work and landlord said he would pay for the paint as husband had done all the free labour.
Come last week and our tenancy was due to expire next month I emailed the estate agents asking if it was still a long term let to which they replied yes, they don't do longer contracts that 12 months but they would even provide a letter to the school if needed confirming this.
Today we get our renewal form through and the landlord is upping the rent by £75 a month.
So we've done all the work to make if up to a good standard for nothing only to be charged more to live here?! Wtf

MoreBeta Interesting assertion, I've not seen anything like that increase in rents in my part of greater london not at all far from Sutton over the last 7 years, rents are barely up at all. In that time I've negotiated two decreases and 2 increases with the others staying the same as local prices have fluctuated a bit. But none of the increases have been 7.5% and never has the landlord rejected a counter offer well below the agents "rent's going up X".

morebeta my DH and my southeast wages sure as hell aren't rising at the same inflation rate as the cost of living costs. If bloody only. Only thing that has been frozen the last few years is our council tax. Expecting that to go up this year too as it hasn't the last few years.

Btw I live in one of the cheaper part of the south east considering the areas around my town. Property market is booming (3 bed houses have gone from £160k to £220k in the last couple of years - pre recession prices). Unemployment is low and all pretty good.

You could try to negotiate rather than just accepting the increase. You'd need evidence on rents for comparable properties locally though. If you are a good tenant the LL is likely to want to keep you.

Our tenant asked for a reduction as she was finding things difficult financially. Always been a good tenant - pays rent on time, looks after the place, etc. We considered costs of reletting and looked at other rents locally. Due to number of places available to rent nearby the rents had come down a bit. Weighing things up it made more sense to keep the tenant so we agreed.

I know that I am going to sound harsh but I think that £1000 per month does seem fairly cheap, for your area for a 2 bed house, but still think that it is worth trying to negotiate with the landlord if you are such a good tenant. (Believe you me - good tenants are hard to find!)

:O I've rented for five years in the south east and never had a rent rise! I can see why you are shocked, I would try compromise?

Thanks for all your replies
Just a little upset as when we moved here I was on maternity Leave and now I'm a stay at home mum so £75 is a lot a month for us to lose

We rent, have done for over a decade. The inside of the house is the tenant's choice. Most LLs stipulate that it has to be the same boring cream/magnolia when you leave. So the rent increase is not because you painted and he was very generous offering to pay for the paint.

The rent increase is less than 10%... seems reasonable. Ours is reconsidered every 2 years, and has just been raised by £80 a month. Yes, it has made us reconsider but it isn't unreasonable.

We have probably decided that being able to rent a house we couldn't afford to buy, and the lifestyle that goes with it, is worth the rent. Is worth not having to repair the roof, windows, wind and flood damage. Is our best option unless we want to move back into a matchbox with very little outside space in a very noisy area.

Swings and roundabouts, really.

I'm in NI so you might want to check if this applies wherever you but my last LL tried to do me over & it's worth knowing that if you are leaving you can sue for betterment if you are leaving the flat/house in an improved condition from when you moved in.

Really? Sue for betterment? Well I know we could, we replaced the worktop and doors in the kitchen because I couldn't live with the perfectly useable but very old existing ones. But would you, really?

If the house is that bad leave.... if the LL is horrendous, leave. But why stay, do the house up and then try and sue? That's ridiculous!

Perfectly normal for landlord to want to put up the rent after 2 years.

Remember it is a business arrangement on both of your sides, so try to keep the emotions to one side. It's not your landlords fault that your personal financial circumstances have changed.

He will be trying to get the best rent he can for his property, however as others have said, he needs to counterbalance that with the fact you are reliable renters and also that it would knock off at least one months rent to find new tenants.

Therefore why not just go back and negotiate as others have said, find out rents in the area.

Making a counter offer on the increase is fine, just do it! You are good tenants and landlords generally prefer not to risk voids.
On the decorating issue, take it as a lesson learnt, don't bother improving other people's assets!

On the decorating issue, take it as a lesson learnt, don't bother improving other people's assets!

Difficult one (my DCs are in this position) as one person's 'assets' is another person's home. And if you're in it for the long term, your home is important to you.

try to negotiate. if its a no go, you either suck it yup, or leave. sutton is expensive and your LL will re-let in no time, and will know this.

why didn't you do a deal regarding the painting? One set of my tenants wanted to paint and change carpet, they did it, we didn't put the rent up that year although contractually we were supposed to. Result all round.

your contract is with the LANDLORD not the agent. Never take an agent's word for anything (and I'm a landlord!). They should say 'we'll pass on your suggestion to the landlord and see what he says'. The agent is not authorised to do anything.

as mentioned, negotiate, but don't cut off your nose to spite your face. Rents have gone up and mortgages do, and certainly will. Your landlord isn't raising the price for the fun of it.

BTW I had a coloured house. The tenants wanted to paint it boring magnolia.

We are ll are the tenancy agreement that our tenants have signed allows us to put the rent up every 12months although in practice we only increased the rent between tenancies.

You should check your tenancy agreement to see what you have agreed to as our agreement is a standard one