To raise their rent every year?

[Fev11]

For various reasons I have recently started renting out a house and plan to keep doing this for a long time. The tenants have said they plan to stay for at least 10+ years if possible.

What is reasonable as far as future rents are concerned? If they were only planning to stay for e.g. 2 years, I would probably keep the rent the same, but 10 years is a long time so my gut feeling is to put something in place where it rises each year in line with inflation.

The tenants are great but I suppose I am doing this on a business footing. For any long-term renters and landlords out there, what do you do, or think is fair?

From being a tenant myself please dont raise the rent or maybe only every 3 years and inform the tenant with plenty of time. The last place we were in went up by £25 a month every 12 months and we ended up leaving as our wages didn't reflect this and we could no longer afford the rent. We had a 2 bedroom property started at £850 went up to £875 after the first 12 months along with paying £125 just to sign a new 12 month contract and then again went up to £900 with another £125 renewal fee so we left. Was a complete rip off when most other 2 bed properties in the area were max of £825.
As well as this we were sent a letter with the renewal and rent increase and only had 14 days to decide if we were staying on for another 12 months and if not we had to be out of the property within 3 weeks which was completely impossible so we felt very trapped so had to stay. We ended up breaking contract half way through and leaving as we just couldn't afford £900 a month.
If you have really good tenants hold onto them like gold dust! We were very good tenants and had no issues and the landlord really liked us but financially it didn't work for us.

Low rent is better than no rent.

I rent out a couple of properties. One is in the SE, near London, and rents in the area keep going up. We raise the rent about once every 2 years and it's low-ish for the area. We have had very stable tenants for that property.

The other is in the north and rents have actually gone down, so when we had a change in tenant we reduced the amount we were asking.

Just keep an eye on similar properties and what they're being advertised for, then follow that lead. Give a reasonable amount of notice if you do increase, and never increase by a huge amount.

My rent gets raised periodically....she could be trying to squeeze me out but then i pay rent 4 months in advance so she'd be daft.

Whoa. I've just done a rent check for where my house in the UK is and my tenants, despite the rent increases, are sitting at nearly £250 pcm below market rate

Well, I'm still not going to put it up because they're great tenants but wow!

Op..ive only had on ll raise rent in our ten years of renting. We gave notice and moved to same but cheaper property in same street. Property was vacant for six months then was up again six months later. Your choice but tenants will vote with their feet. Depends on market. Then you got to readvert etc and hope another tenant. In our street theres one house thats had three different people living in it within a year. One did a midnight flit and according to next door neighbour broke back gate.

If they're good tenants, looking after the place well and always pay the rent on time, you're in a much better position then repeated shorter term lets, empty periods, cleaning charges, council tax etc. They're doing you a favour so why not cut them a bit of slack and review the rent every 2 or 3 years? If you keep on putting the rent up each year, they may just start to look elsewhere.

When I rented, my landlords always put the rent up each year (usually by more than £100, as the market would bear it). I moved every time; usually to smaller and smaller, less and less attractive places. I was a great tenant, and it was absolutely miserable.

At the same time, I worked with landlords who'd gleefully come into the office saying that their letting agent had advised them to put up the rent by £75 or £100 on all five of their properties.

I'm clearly biased, but my answer is obvious.

If I've got good tenants in I generally don't raise the rent very often. Possibly after a few years if they are long term starters but not annually. I tend to reset the rent to market rates again when a change of tenancy occurs.

Be aware though just because they say they are going to stay 10 years it doesn't mean they actually will. A lot can happen over 10 years.

You are right to keep it the same rather than automatic increases. If you have good tenants who stay ten years you will be very lucky. If putting the rent up makes them decide to leave in general you will be far more out of pocket. You will have to pay for deep cleaning and possibly decorating. Your property may stand empty for a few months which would lose you far more than the increase. Good long term tenants who treat the property as a long term home are good for you and good for them.

@NoMorePoliticsPlease

Ha. You sound like my landlord!

would be extremely douchy of you to do so unless they are bad tenants.

DH and I have just moved out of a rented flat, he has been there ten years and I moved in 6.5 years ago. The rent hasn't increased once in that time.

I think the landlord was just happy he had good, stable tenants and guaranteed income.

A good tenant?

Welll if their good payers and OK otherwise then suggest you leave it as it is.

Example montly rent £1000

you put the rent up they get the hump they then say stuff it we're off.

You loose a months rent (or more) whilst getting in another tenant.

So if you were going to increase it by say 100 a month now your having to wait ten months at the higher rate to recoup your losses and hope that tenant 2 is a good one and will rent at the higher rate.

Loose Two months, recovery time almost 2 years!!

It's really not normal to have regular rent increases if you are in a long term private rent. I've been in mine 10 years and had 2 increases in that time, each time by £50 and then it stayed the same for 3 years.

We rent w house. With a much lower market price. They wanted to rent to a family. When we applied for this house. The agents didn’t let us know that 6 other families had also applied. They said they’d put it to the landlords. I thought that was us out easily. As we had 2 young children. However. We got picked. Our landlords aren’t in the uk. They have raised our rent. But dislike to do so as they like us as tenants. We repair anything ourselves. Keep the place nice. Don’t ever contact them. If they increase it again. However it will be out of our range.

For the person who asked upthread, my insurance is through a company that the co op refer business onto.
I haven't had to make a claim though.

ScreamedAtTheMichelangelo

Letting Agents generally suggest an annual rent rise if market rates have gone up. The landlord then says yes or no.

Personally as a Landlord once I've got a good tenant in that is more valuable to me than a small rent rise. If they move out even a one month gap between tenants is more of a loss than not increasing the rent.

I like to think I'm a pretty good Landlord - they do exist (even though Mumsnet would probably say I'm not because I don't let tenants redecorate).

@snappycamper we use Direct Line. Only had cause to claim once when a fella trashed the places and had high costs to remedy but as I recall they were good and sorted it speedily.

I would leave the rent alone for a couple of years but then it would be reasonable to make a small increase. Remember, you have to give them three months notice of the increase and they have to agree to it. If they are good tenants you don't want to lose them, so tread carefully.

My friends dad rents out a lot of properties. He always says it’s the changing of tenants that costs him money - no rent, redecorating, deep cleans - also replacing things that the current tenant might be happy with but a new tenant will want new.

I wouldn’t raise the rent unless it’s unavoidable as you might find they give notice and then you’ve lost excellent tenants and worse, your property stands empty if you can’t find new ones.

@Lindy2 Yep, that's fair. I didn't have good landlords, so I speak from jaded experience, but I know they exist.

If they are good tenants, keep them sweet.

My mum has a tenant who has been there for 11 years now. I think she's raised the rent 3 times in that period and the most recent was last month

I moved into a flat some years ago and it had been completely redecorated with new carpets and new kitchen. The neighbours told me that the previous tenant had trashed the place and caused thousands of pounds worth of damage not just to the flat but also the communal areas. They'd also had to involve environmental health because of the stink and noise coming from the flat then it had taken the landlord ages to evict her which was also very expensive.

If you've got good tenants, do what you can to keep them. You have no idea what the next one may be like

My previous tenant trashed my home and it cost thousands to get back to a good standard (working overseas and letting it out). My current tenants are great they love the house and they take good care of it. I hope they stay a long time.

I'm actually shocked to hear the amount of people who are in private let/were in private let, and never had a rent increase. Everyone I have known personally who has been in private let has always had the rent increased every year.