To consider moving out over £10 a month?

[Sparklfairy]

I'm six weeks into my latest 6 month tenancy agreement (been here two years), and the agent has just sent me another renewal for when this one ends

They've put the rent up. By £10 they increased the rent last renewal which I accepted even though I thought it was a bit off with everyone struggling with covid.

Now they've put it up again, but it's such a paltry amount I'm a bit confused. I have landlord friends, and no one is putting rents up if they've got good tenants, and all agree £10 is a bit pointless to rock the boat so to speak.

I could move, but it would be a pain in the arse I don't need. I no longer need this location like I did when I moved in, and could move slightly further out to a much bigger place for just £40/m more than they're asking for here, but I wouldn't know anyone etc. I couldn't get anywhere (tiny or not) alone for the price I'm paying.

They also struggled to rent this place as it's so tiny - a very limited market. If you've got someone that pays on time and is no trouble why fuck about over £10

I wrote back yesterday and asked if the figure was correct (could be a typo - not the first time it's happened), but 24hrs later haven't had a reply and now I'm left wondering what to do. Living alone is expensive enough (costs me £800-900 a month in rent and bills) and if they've really put it up by so little it feels a bit like they're trying to squeeze every last penny out of me.

I should add, the "landlord" is a LTD company with over 100 properties, so not a struggling accidental landlord. If they want to sell they could just tell me.

What would you do? And if you're a landlord, would you have done this?

They’re clearly just raising the rent to show that they can aka power tripping. It’s not like a landlord is on the bones of their arse and needs an extra 2.50 per week, is it.

To be clear, I don't mind and expect rent to go up. I'm not one of those MNers who hates landlords and resents paying. I just accept it for what it is. Yes, it's expensive to rent, especially alone, but I don't resent someone having an investment and in return I get a roof over my head.

I do have a problem with a petty rise of £10 straight after a previous rise. If you wanted £560 then say that in the first rise. As @Awwlookatmybabyspider says, this rise clearly isn't because of a rising cost of £2.50 a week.

Costs have gone up for landlords due to an increasing number of requirements. For example, all properties now have to have a an electrical installation condition report (EICR) by April 2021 - this will cost about £100+. Perhaps they are trying to maintain their income by adding these extra costs to the rental income (I would!).

Are you a 'high maintenance' tenant i.e. do you contact the landlord about every last little thing that goes wrong, even those which you should probably be sorting out yourself? If so, they may be increasing the rent to cover all the extra call out charges?

@OnlyTeaForMe

Are you a 'high maintenance' tenant i.e. do you contact the landlord about every last little thing that goes wrong, even those which you should probably be sorting out yourself? If so, they may be increasing the rent to cover all the extra call out charges?

Absolutely not - as I said upthread I'm the opposite and very much keep my head down! The only thing has been a leak in my bathroom from the flat above and a new lock on my front door as mine could be shoved open without a key But haven't contacted them about anything for a year.

@MissBaskinIfYoureNasty
I'd move if I had the means. I don't like pettiness especially when it's someone's home.

You know I sort of agree with this. I think you have a pact with your LL to treat and be treated fairly. I would now wonder about any invoice or bill they sent and if they would try to pull a fast one when returning a deposit.

Saying that I do understand that I maybe cutting of my nose to spite my face with this attitude.

This is only 2.50 a week if this is the only contract that is being increased if they are doing it across the board with higher increase for more expensive properties it is 2.50 upwards times 100 plus properties.

I Imagine that the landlords costs have increased and that they have asked their agents to look for opportunities for rent increases across their portfolio rather than your particular property alone. And the agents have concluded that your property is worth (only) an extra £10 a month so that is what they are asking.

I would definitely NOT move in a fit of pique. Moving is a bloody hassle and expensive.

Is the property worth an extra £10 a month? How does this compare to other properties nearby?

@Sparklfairy

That was kind of my thinking. £120 a year... They'd probably be charged that in agent fees without any lost months etc. And risk getting an awkward or non paying tenant etc.

I keep thinking it must be a typo, but if it was surely you'd just email straight back and say yes sorry it's x not y!

I let my property through a reputable letting agency and it costs me £360 to put a new tenant in. I will be doing everything I can to keep my current tenant in-situ!

I'd also decline. I'd be seeing if this has come from the LL or from the agent too... seems strange that a Ltd company with 100 homes is even using an agent.

You could challenge it if you care- it is likely to cost more than that to advertise the place so the landlord might just waive it if you challenge it. If they are a big company then they probably just have a standard policy of putting the rent up every 6 months.

On the other hand, it's also important to be on good terms with your landlord, and to look at the going rate for other properties in the area. Is what you are paying in line with other places you could rent? Are you getting value for money from your landlord - are they communicative and generally available and responsive to any issues?

If so, I don't know if I would bother. But if it keeps happening every 6 months then that would annoy me for sure!

I remember a thread started by a tenant Mani g if an increase of something like £75 a month. After many posters asking how long they'd lived there and if I'd any increase during that time, they shared that they'd moved in 4 years previously and never had an increase and that the rent was indeed under market value but that surely they should just have increased annually.

You can never please people. They are suggesting a £10 increase for your next contract so that it's easily affordable. They have to give you notice of an increase. If you can't afford it, it gives you the chance to look for somewhere else.

So confused at what you are moaning about. Would you rather they didn't increase for years and then tell you that it's £100 more?

@Whatthebloodyell it's hard to say as when I looked on rightmove/zoopla there are absolutely no studios at the moment. Where I live you can get a lovely modern 1bed for £700, but I don't need to live in the city anymore so can move further out and get an even bigger one bed for £600.

My place is a strange no mans land where for the same price you can get an ensuite room in a shared flat, and only share a kitchen (and living room), but I don't want to live with strangers if avoidable and no friends in a position to share with me. Then there's an abundance of one and two beds but they're quite expensive.

@positivelynegative the agent did say today the landlord asked for the increase. They live abroad so the properties are all completely managed by the same agent.

Ah right. Blimey 100 UK homes and the money goes offshore. It shouldn't be allowed.

Guess it is a paltry amount but if they do it on all 100 properties its an extra £1000 a month, £12,000 a year. So worth it to them.

@dontdisturbmenow So confused at what you are moaning about. Would you rather they didn't increase for years and then tell you that it's £100 more?

I moved in two years ago and haven't had a rent increase until this October. I was grateful when it didn't go up the first year as expected but they don't have much wiggle room - it's not a very lettable space as I said! It was on the market for ages and they struggled to rent it out. Then it went up and I accepted it without a word because I know costs and markets rise. But to straight away put it up again but by only £10 seems stupid, short sighted and is now moving me into the market rent of a big one bed elsewhere anyway.

I'm not 'moaning' I'm questioning the logic. I don't actively want to move, it's okay enough for what I need. Just state the rent you want, once a year, it's not difficult. Don't keep edging it up every renewal with what is seeming more and more out of greed than necessity.

@JacobReesMogadishu

Guess it is a paltry amount but if they do it on all 100 properties its an extra £1000 a month, £12,000 a year. So worth it to them.

Agree, but speaking with a business head on, and knowing landlords in the same position, weighing £1000 a month against the possibility of losing say 3 tenants out of 100, having to pay £360 (what a pp pays) in fees per tenant and the very real possibility of a month or two of no rent on empty property between tenants, you have to wonder if it's worth the aggro?

I don't understand people saying this is petty. If the amount is insignificant, then one can equally say the tenant is being petty quibbling about it.

I don't agree small increases are petty anyway. If you want to raise rents with time at all, it makes more sense to increase rents by small amounts at every renewal, perhaps to match inflation, than to do big increases at very rare intervals.

@RandomLondoner

I don't understand people saying this is petty. If the amount is insignificant, then one can equally say the tenant is being petty quibbling about it.

I don't agree small increases are petty anyway. If you want to raise rents with time at all, it makes more sense to increase rents by small amounts at every renewal, perhaps to match inflation, than to do big increases at very rare intervals.

It's petty when it was £25 after two years, then another £10 6 months later. Just do £35 if that's what you want and another £35 or whatever in a year.

If I'd signed for a year they wouldn't have put it up, and probably just do another routine £25 or even £50 (though unlikely as that's a big % rise).

As for this: If the amount is insignificant, then one can equally say the tenant is being petty quibbling about it. The very reason I posted was to ask if AIBU to be 'petty' and move out, and I haven't quibbled (yet).

I'm a landlord and wouldn't raise the rent if I have a good tenant who pays on time and is no hassle.
If I did raise and the tenant moves out it would cost me a lot more than £120 in fees and possible void costs, so not worth it.
But if your LL has 100+ properties they likely take a portfolio approach. and a 2% rise on a large number would mean £££££s I suppose.

It sounds as if you are thinking about moving anyway so I would just go ahead with that. £120 over a year is probably no more than the costs you will incur with moving - borrowing a car, paying for petrol, the time spent on the phone to utility companies, bank, driving licence change, post redirection etc. I personally wouldn't move for £120 increase, if I was otherwise happy in the flat. It sounds though as if actually it is time for you to move somewhere more suitable for your needs now that you don't need to be in the centre anymore so I would go for it.

@Tyke2

I'm a landlord and wouldn't raise the rent if I have a good tenant who pays on time and is no hassle. If I did raise and the tenant moves out it would cost me a lot more than £120 in fees and possible void costs, so not worth it. But if your LL has 100+ properties they likely take a portfolio approach. and a 2% rise on a large number would mean £££££s I suppose.

You're right, when I posted I hadn't really considered the distanced/removed aspect of looking at the portfolio as a whole. £10 when you have one or two properties isn't worth the hassle for a landlord, £1000 across a portfolio you would probably take the hit for the odd person who wouldn't/couldn't pay and you had to relet. As pp said most tenant couldn't be arsed with the aggro of quibbling either so would just pay it.

Their portfolio isn't my problem though, as an individual now I've got until March to decide whether I can be bothered taking on the stress of finding somewhere else and moving for the sake of £10, or stay and have my rent probably increased slowly every renewal now edging me closer to overpaying for what I can get elsewhere territory. Argh.

But to straight away put it up again but by only £10 seems stupid, short sighted and is now moving me into the market rent of a big one bed elsewhere anyway
Your LL is not to know how long you intend to stay. You could be here for another 5 years, so are you saying he should only increase it every two years, but then you could moan that its £40 in one go and that's too much, you can't afford such an increase etc...surely £10 at a time and you know where you stand.

If it doesn't follow market rental, than indeed he is risking losing a tenant and having to advertise for less, but if this is his main income and he has large portfolio, you'd think he knows more about market values that individual tenants.

You can never please people. They are suggesting a £10 increase for your next contract so that it's easily affordable. They have to give you notice of an increase

This.
I work in a place where we rent out rooms. Typically we put prices up around 3-5% yearly. In some of the smaller rooms the price rise even at 5% is less than £1. We normally keep the room price a whole number of pounds.
What I've found though is that if you don't put up the price one year because the price rise was, say £0.65, and then put it up £1 the following year, then people complain. It's going up "too quickly" or even "you didn't put it up last year so we weren't expecting it."

The one the OP is reminding me of is one whose price was going up £2 total (on a room costing £65 for 4 hours). Hirer was a bit of a bully and had bullied the previous manager into keeping the prices low so she was paying well below what other people were paying for the same room. I got a stroppy email saying how she really felt as a long time hirer she ought to have a smaller rise. So I consulted with my line manager, who told me to give her a rise of £1, so half.
Response: "That's such a ridiculously small amount off, you needn't have bothered".
I would have liked to respond that in that case the price rise was such a ridiculously small amount, she needn't have bothered, but I ignored it.
However there was no way I was negotiating again, so after that she got the prices put up by the corresponding to everyone else, and I refused to change it. A huge sigh of relief was felt all round when she moved on-to somewhere where she's paying nearly four times the amount she paid with us-and keeps moaning to them and they won't move either! :D

It's very easy for people to say just say no and move out, but moving is also expensive (in my experience), so take your time, have a look and see what else is out there and consider your options before you make a decision.