Sudden huge rent increase

[livyaz]

Hi, we have rented out home for almost 2 years now, all fine and very average for area we are in (far north).
Yesterday I got a text out of the blue from the house owner, saying that he was fed up with the letting agents fees and was terminating the contract he has with them.
He also said that he plans to increase the rent from £900 pcm to £1250pcm as "everything is going up in cost"
What on earth do we do??
We have never had an issue with anything, had a couple of leaks over the last 2 years, and a valve on a radiator replaced.
During house inspections the letting agent commented that it was the best kept rented property they had seen, I can't understand how such a hike can be justified, any advice how to respond?

Also, re deposit scheme - it’s not true that agents do that necessarily. The deposit can be handed to the LL by the agent for them to put in the scheme themselves. Agents can charge to deal with the deposit, so LL can choose to do the admin themselves for no fee.

I am an experienced LL and generally charge a little under market value to pick who I think will be good tenants. I did not put up any rents throughout pandemic but this year I will increase rentals. I looked on RM and was shocked at how high rentals had become. I felt bad for renters. As renewals come around I have been giving 2 months written notice of price increases. The first one I increased by £50 pcm. I know the house next door is also tented for £120 more pcm. My tenant seemed relieved and gave me a bottle of wine. Second house I increased by £40. I have good tenants and would prefer them to stay. They pay rent on time and care for property. Third tenants already had a lower rent as couple with children where only one works. When their rent comes up I will increase by £50 pcm as 3 bedrooms and the likelihood of all my properties falling further below similar rentals seems likes. I can still pay mortgages, insurances, repairs and get a little profit, but not as much as many would think due to new EPC. I am having to have internal cavity insulation on one house as has no cavity walls and it is a D energy rating. It already has a newish boiler and I know this will cost siro £11k so my tenant can save £26 pa on heating. I have 8 properties and a waiting list with people often phoning up and asking if I have anything. I would suspect this LL is looking for a way to pay for the government EPC reforms. Sad thing is my own home is rated a D but I wont get that work done.

Rent has gone up in london for all my friends, I was about to enter the rental market here and I’m getting totally gazumped. I am genuinely thinking I can’t actually afford to live in London. I have looked at what were cheaper areas and even those have increased. Friends have had their annual rental increased.

It’s horrid. I’m getting really fed up of it all.

• sold my car due to ULEZ (fine I get that, but the increase in second hand cars has meant I’ve been without for weeks and I need it for work)
• rental increased massively
• heating and electric bills rising
• council tax rising
• irrelevantly my pet insurance almost doubled for no reason
• food prices hiked.

I worked out my finances last night, lowest mobile phone price, can go without new clothes, coffees, luxuries. But if I were to pay the £1600-£1800 for a one bed that flats are now in london then bills unknown I genuinely wouldn’t have a single penny to my name at the end of each month- seems pointless really, I won’t be able to see my friends for drinks, the sorely missed dinners, no holidays, no trips away. Not sure if I’d end up lonely in a cold house in a big city with nothing to do.

Seems really unfair doesn’t it.

Ps~ I’ve always been a saver. I’ve never paid so much in rent. I used to own but annoyingly don’t know.

This is happening quite a lot. Costs are increasing for home owners & they’re passing the costs onto their tenants. I’d look for somewhere else. Challenging it will be stressful & he’ll end up wanting you to leave.

@NoSquirrels

I’d move, OP.

Because if you agree to this rent hike, he’ll do it again in 12 months. He’s shown he’s a terrible LL.

Get the letting agent to give you great references - go to the letting agent now, in fact, and have a chat to see what’s on their books. They know you’re a great tenant and they know this LL is a knob.

I did exactly this when my landlord sold up. The rental agency were on my side as they knew we'd been great tenants and helped us get somewhere else.

I wonder whether wants to get you out and he thinks it's worth trying this so you move of your own accord, rather than his having to go through the section 21 route?

Ours is several hundred below market value. We’ve just increased it by £50 and we gave 5 months notice. Even made it February to give a chance to get over Xmas.

Our tenants are worth keeping and I couldn’t justify a bigger increase than that to myself. Renting rates are ridiculous.

If they leave then we’ll find new tenants and be a lot better off with a true market rate.

I wouldn’t know how to respond to this land lord without being passive aggressive

@deeedeee

“Dear Landlord,

We were surprised to receive your text message regarding your intention to change our rental agreement with you.

We very much enjoy living in this property and have made it our home, looking after it accordingly. We are model tenants, always paying our rent in full on time and have been commended by the letting agency for being one of the best tenants they have ever dealt with.

Therefore we are shocked that you would risk losing us as good tenants in order to gamble on charging well over the market value for a flat in this area.

We hope you understand that financially we would be very foolish to pay the 40% increase you suggest as it is hugely over the market value for this property and would mean we were paying an unnecessary £4250 on accommodation over a year. This is obviously far above inflation and with the price of living and energy costs rising, it’s just not good financial sense for us (or indeed any other propective tenant). Even factoring in the costs of moving, we would still be financially better to move into any other similar property in the area as you would have made yours very uncompetitively priced.

We would really hope you would reconsider your intention, as we are very happy in the property have no intention of moving , meaning that you still have guaranteed income from your flat, avoiding any costly empty period when you try to find new tenants at your new uncompetitive rent.

We would be really happy to negotiate a rent increase in line with market value and inflation and would suggest “£?”

If this makes good financial sense to you then we’d be happy to accept and continue looking after the property. You would need to serve us a Section 13 Notice to increase the rent and allow a full rental period of notice before the new rent can take effect.

If after careful consideration you still feel that you want to risk acting as an agent yourself to rent a property 40% over the market value in the current financial climate, then we will sadly need you to start eviction proceedings towards us. We understand that these can be costly and take a long time and would urge you to reconsider.

All the best

Us “

I’d email something like this with appropriate links to information about legal processes etc.

This is really good.

Agree @Lampzade @livyaz send @deeedeee's letter. It's brilliant.

Ignore the posters saying not to send it coz it's 'pass agg' ... So what if it is? Who gives a shit?

Remember that good tenants, who plan to stay for a long time, are clean and tidy, and who look after things are what landlords want. It’s not all one sided his way like he thinks it is. Better the devil he knows! Remind him of this!

It depends on the local market rate. Rental prices around me have gone up by at least 30% over the past 6 months. The house I rent out is now way under market value, and I could easily achieve at least £250 more when the contract is up for renewal (I won’t as my tenants have been great so far so it will be a small increase being asked for). There is also a shortage of properties available in many places so offers come in straight away - my rental house had 3 over asking offers from an open day with 8 people which booked up in less than an hour, and the market has only got hotter since… yes the landlord sounds very greedy in this instance, but they are likely responding to a crazy market and someone else will likely snap up the property at the higher rate.

Does it reflect the current market value?
We are being forced to leave due to landlords selling and we’ve found ourselves in the same boat! Everything is 3-400 pounds more than what we currently pay, I don’t know what to do!
Do you get any housing benefit to help top up your rent? If you don’t it might be worth looking into if you’ll be eligible for any help.

I was advised recently by an estate agent that landlords can't raise the rent by more than 5% ?!

This happened to me and I had to move. It’s horrible and there should be laws in place about it.

I wouldn't send that letter. It won't fix his attitude, it just gives him tips on how best to proceed.

I'd just flat ignore his text and find myself a new property. He hasn't served proper notice and if he doesn't, can't charge the rent he wants to.

@lollipoprainbow

I was advised recently by an estate agent that landlords can't raise the rent by more than 5% ?!

Like most estate agents, that one was talking out of his arse. There are limits on rent rises on social housing and for other protected tenancies but the private rentals will take whatever the market will bear.

@everythingcrossed I did wonder ! My landlord is selling and it was in relation to another landlord taking my flat on, he seemed to think he couldn't increase my rent by more than 5%.

Good grief.
I rent out my house (4 beds!) in the far north for £750 pcm with no rent increases the last 3 years and no plans to and my tenants are a pain in the arse. How far north are you??

But seriously this is shitty of your landlord. I'm so sorry. Even if you get him to back down I probably wouldn't want to stay renting off someone like that.

I rent in a block of four flats including mine and I found out from my neighbour yesterday that everyone is moving out as the landlord has increased all their rent to £150 a month extra and no one can afford it. I'm the only flat with a different landlord but he is selling and there's a chance the other landlord might buy mine. By all accounts he is useless, doesn't fix problems for weeks/months on end etc if at all. He'll definitely put my rent up. The estate agent who came to take pics of my flat said landlords can't raise rent by more than 5% ha ha.

england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/private_renting/rent_increases

I’d contact shelter and get advice, your landlord shouldn’t be able to do what he’s doing and they’ll be ways he needs to do this

Later this year we will see the end of section 21s which will mean tackling stuff like this is easier

@LittleOwl153

As a landlord using an agent I do understand that he might think the agents are overpricing things like the electrical certificates. My agent did similar wanting a minimum of £285 for something a local electrician I trust charged about £95!

That said my agent keeps my property fully let and I can send in folks I know for such things as electrics so all works well.

Agents DO overprice /take commission for arranging work.

Some years ago, lived ib a huge villa which was divided into 6 flats... Outside needed painting... The flat owners were astonished that the agent quoted between £35-39 k.... The landlords got together and found a good local company to do the same work for £7k!

The email up thread is good from Deedee

The landlord sounds as if he isn’t upto date with how to legally do things which can work in your favour

I’ve seen many supposed section 21 sent to tenants, only due to them not being worded properly they have no standing. So the tenant waits 55 days and tells the landlord it’s not legal and won’t stand in court - wastes a lot of time - especially if the landlord sends another which is also not legally standing, that’s another 55 days waiting till the tenant tells them. Mean while they pay their rent (at the old rent, as if you pay it at the new rent that’s agreeing to the raise) and wait it out

But contact shelter

Agents DO overprice /take commission for arranging work.

Some agents, not all

I have not read the full thread, but just in case it hasn’t been mentioned, they will now be saving costs on management fees from the estate agent…could you point out to them that they are already making a saving?