To think this is pure greed

[Dobbysgotthesocks]

Just received a section 13 notice on my home. 23% increase in rent and given one months notice.
AIBU to think this is nothing more than pure utter greed!

If you have to put prices up for your clients then so be it. They will be paying a fair price for what your work costs. The amount that care costs and the way that people are struggling is a difficult issue, but it’s a separate one to the issue you’re facing.

It’s not your landlords job to provide you with below market rent so that you can subsidise the prices you charge for your work.

When you are paying a fair market rent, then you will have every right to expect central heating etc. Or, when you’re budgeting to pay market rent, you will be able to afford a different property with central heating.

@FairyCakeWings

If you have to put prices up for your clients then so be it. They will be paying a fair price for what your work costs. The amount that care costs and the way that people are struggling is a difficult issue, but it’s a separate one to the issue you’re facing.

It’s not your landlords job to provide you with below market rent so that you can subsidise the prices you charge for your work.

When you are paying a fair market rent, then you will have every right to expect central heating etc. Or, when you’re budgeting to pay market rent, you will be able to afford a different property with central heating.

@FairyCakeWings if you had read what I put you will see that the landlord is asking for the same amount as properties available locally which have central heating, have off road parking, have a decent sized garden. All things my home doesn't. So he is putting it above what it is worth.

@Dobbysgotthesocks

Ffs!!! I work fucking hard every flipping day. I've worked 7 days a week from the start of the pandemic till recently when I became to ill to do so. I provide decent quality care for people at a AFFORDABLE and REASONABLE price. For me this means putting my prices up for my clients. Clients who are already making choices about how much to heat their homes and how much they eat. Putting my prices up is only going to make it harder for them - the most vulnerable! And what for? To line the pockets of my landlord who can't be asked to put the basics like central heating in the house or send workmen round to deal with the broken loo. Am I angry? To right I am.

So it's ok for you to put your prices up because you can't afford to live on what you earn, but it's not ok for landlords (not just yours but ones on this thread) to do the same thing??? Can't you see the hypocrisy in your post?

I had sympathy with you at the start of this thread and think in your specific situation your landlord is probably being greedy, but your anger and vitriole to other posters who didn't choose to be landlords and are in just as precarious situation as you as a result is doing you no favours

I did read what you put and my answer still stands. If you are paying market rent then you will have the right to expect all the things that go along with it, or you have the choice to move. If you’ll end up paying the same rent either way, then you may as well move, and then your landlord with either have to reduce his rent to get a tenant, or make the property worth the rent he wants.

You are the customer here, and if you aren’t getting a good enough service or decent value for money, you are free to take your custom elsewhere.

your anger towards @Woahthehorsey is ridiculously over the top and completely unnecessary

@Dobbysgotthesocks you are experiencing what Londoners have experienced for years- lots of demand from people who want to live in London/ foreign investors and local people being unable to live where they grew up. My DH is the only one of his siblings who has bought in London. My DH'S siblings moved abroad and are lucky to have that option but I think many Londoners don't have much of a choice.

[quote onlychildhamster]@Dobbysgotthesocks you are experiencing what Londoners have experienced for years- lots of demand from people who want to live in London/ foreign investors and local people being unable to live where they grew up. My DH is the only one of his siblings who has bought in London. My DH'S siblings moved abroad and are lucky to have that option but I think many Londoners don't have much of a choice.[/quote]
I don't live in london. I live along way from london. This situation is precisely because people are moving here from places like london.

[quote onlychildhamster]@Dobbysgotthesocks you are experiencing what Londoners have experienced for years- lots of demand from people who want to live in London/ foreign investors and local people being unable to live where they grew up. My DH is the only one of his siblings who has bought in London. My DH'S siblings moved abroad and are lucky to have that option but I think many Londoners don't have much of a choice.[/quote]
What was the point of posting this exactly?

People are moving to Devon and Cornwall because the same thing has happened to them in London, they have been priced out. This is a problem in many parts of the country, but Devon and Cornwall do seem to think it’s exclusive to them.

I live in none of these places although I am in the south, and there’s no way my adult children will be able to live in the area they grew up in, just like I could never afford to move back to the area I grew up in.

@CharlotteUnaNatalieThompson I CAN afford to live on what I earn. I don't overcharge to line my own pockets. I charge a fair and reasonable rate. I'm a decent human being. I don't have an extravagant or wasteful lifestyle.
My landlords costs have not risen. They own these properties outright. They do the bare minimum. They make huge profits. It is morally disgraceful to be making huge profits providing services which are a basic human requirement.

There is no way your landlords costs haven’t risen, even if he does own the properties outright.

@FairyCakeWings

People are moving to Devon and Cornwall because the same thing has happened to them in London, they have been priced out. This is a problem in many parts of the country, but Devon and Cornwall do seem to think it’s exclusive to them.

I live in none of these places although I am in the south, and there’s no way my adult children will be able to live in the area they grew up in, just like I could never afford to move back to the area I grew up in.

No they are moving here because they can now have it all. The highly paid wfh job and live in a pretty place. Meanwhile locals are forced out. Meaning those of us who do bloody important jobs - those of us key workers you all clapped for at the start of the pandemic - now cannot afford to live.

Where the hell does that leave society??? Oh yeah in the mess we are in right now where there is no care, no nhs, no binmen.
This capitalistic mentality is literally destroying us.

@FairyCakeWings

There is no way your landlords costs haven’t risen, even if he does own the properties outright.

The estate agents have confirmed the landlords costs have no risen in line with the rental increase

@daimbarsatemydogsbone cos OP was blaming Londoners for moving to her village... Well many of those who moved couldn't afford London either....

No, they probably won’t have risen by the 23% at the same time, but they will have gone up. Even smaller charges like the gas safety certificate are more expensive this year than they were two years ago. Taxes are higher, maintenance costs are higher because materials cost more and labour costs more (although I appreciate that’s only relevant if your LL actually does any maintenance).

I’m sure there’s more than one reason for people moving from London to your area. Some will probably want the pretty location at the same time as not being able to afford to live in London anyway. Either way, the country belongs to all of us and no one has an automatic right to be able to afford to live in the same place their whole lives.

@Dobbysgotthesocks My landlords costs have not risen. They own these properties outright. They do the bare minimum. They make huge profits. It is morally disgraceful to be making huge profits providing services which are a basic human requirement.

I don't understand this POV. So farmers shouldn't profit from growing food? Supermarkets shouldn't profit from selling it? Energy and gas companies break even only? Sounds like communism.

And your estate agent can't know if your landlord's costs have changed. Tradesmen have got more expensive, as have raw materials, so any repairs or maintenance will likely be more expensive. There have also been recent tax changes that may have reduced their income.

Oh we haven't even reached historic highs with regards to property prices. In the 1860s (when records began), average house prices were 12 X average income.. currently (in London), they are 10X average income, 8X average income in the UK. So there is still scope to grow in terms of income multiples. In Chinese cities, average house prices are 35X of an average income so in my humble opinion, UK wouldn't be quite as bad as that but I would not be surprised at an average home being 15 X income. So if an average income is £40k, that would mean average home is £600k.

I am not saying the property market wouldn't crash; it probably would at some stage but it would recover and people are even less likely to afford their homes as the main issue actually isn't property being too expensive but people earning too little.

Maybe, just maybe, seeing how the OP has responded with such vitriole over the last couple of pages the landlord is just hoping that OP will give notice and leave if she treats them in the same manner.

Maybe the landlord has set the rent at a too high raise so that OP leaves for that reason, they can renovate the property and get it up to a better spec whilst empty so that they can achieve a market rent for it.

If that is the market rent for a similar property that has been renovated maybe the landlord wants to earn that from his property.

The question is does OP want to stay or look for somewhere else that does have heating and pay market rent for a similar property or downsize to a smaller one she can afford?

The reality is these types of threads always end up in a slanging match between landlords and tenants but this one has become even more with the "you lot come down here" stuff thrown in!! And the anger directed at one poster because of situation they found themselves in is simply rudeness and a lack of awareness itself.

You will seriously lose the crowd if you aren't careful.

[quote WeddingFavour]**@Dobbysgotthesocks* My landlords costs have not risen. They own these properties outright. They do the bare minimum. They make huge profits. It is morally disgraceful to be making huge profits providing services which are a basic human requirement.*

I don't understand this POV. So farmers shouldn't profit from growing food? Supermarkets shouldn't profit from selling it? Energy and gas companies break even only? Sounds like communism.

And your estate agent can't know if your landlord's costs have changed. Tradesmen have got more expensive, as have raw materials, so any repairs or maintenance will likely be more expensive. There have also been recent tax changes that may have reduced their income.[/quote]
Our world can accommodate the needs of us all. It cannot accommodate the greed of us all.

Farmers are not making huge profits. Most are barely breaking even. I don't shop in supermarkets because I want to give back to my local community not line the pockets of a billionaire.

This really sucks for you @Dobbysgotthesocks
You sound like a hard working person who is rightfully frustrated

If rents fell, and you could get a better place for less money by moving, would you be quite happy to carry on paying the same rent or would you ask for a rent reduction/move?

@WeddingFavour well there is an energy price cap. And as for food, it is a product that is ideal for capitalistic market competition- if you can't afford Waitrose salmon, you can buy them at Lidl etc...if British farmers ask for too much for their produce, Sainsbury's can buy strawberries nfrom other countries etc. It's not so easy for housing, you can't magic up lots of houses overnight and the alternative is to move further away to smaller places but at a certain point, the transport costs outweighs any saving you may have made in rent esp if you are an essential worker who can't WFH. The places further away also don't necessarily cost less; I just found out yesterday that the office cleaner is paying £1400 for a 2 bed flat in Harrow (zone 5). I pay only £1k for a 2 bed flat in zone 3 and even if I rented, a flat like mine would rent for £1500.

Ideally, there should be competition between the private sector and the government. The government should build a lot of homes for rent and for sale to low income and middle income families, and the private sector would provide housing for higher income people or people who have temporary living arrangements (expats/students). I didn't much mind short rental contracts when I was a student. And if I earned lots of money, I probably wouldn't buy a home either because at the higher end of London properties, it is cheaper to rent Vs buy esp when you take maintenance into consideration. Renting higher end properties is also a different experience and if you have higher income, you can cope better with uncertainty. It is average people who can't suddenly stomach rent increases and they should be protected by the state.

@SeasonFinale

Maybe, just maybe, seeing how the OP has responded with such vitriole over the last couple of pages the landlord is just hoping that OP will give notice and leave if she treats them in the same manner.

Maybe the landlord has set the rent at a too high raise so that OP leaves for that reason, they can renovate the property and get it up to a better spec whilst empty so that they can achieve a market rent for it.

If that is the market rent for a similar property that has been renovated maybe the landlord wants to earn that from his property.

The question is does OP want to stay or look for somewhere else that does have heating and pay market rent for a similar property or downsize to a smaller one she can afford?

The reality is these types of threads always end up in a slanging match between landlords and tenants but this one has become even more with the "you lot come down here" stuff thrown in!! And the anger directed at one poster because of situation they found themselves in is simply rudeness and a lack of awareness itself.

You will seriously lose the crowd if you aren't careful.

It's not vitriol it's exhaustion. Unless you are living what I'm going through you have no idea.

All I want is somewhere that I can call home. That's not going to be pulled from underneath me at a moments notice. Where I can rest and face what's happening to me without fear of having nowhere to go.

I have been nothing but nice to my landlord. I have been polite and more than reasonable. I have used this thread to let off some steam. But I stand by what I have said.

[quote onlychildhamster]@WeddingFavour well there is an energy price cap. And as for food, it is a product that is ideal for capitalistic market competition- if you can't afford Waitrose salmon, you can buy them at Lidl etc...if British farmers ask for too much for their produce, Sainsbury's can buy strawberries nfrom other countries etc. It's not so easy for housing, you can't magic up lots of houses overnight and the alternative is to move further away to smaller places but at a certain point, the transport costs outweighs any saving you may have made in rent esp if you are an essential worker who can't WFH. The places further away also don't necessarily cost less; I just found out yesterday that the office cleaner is paying £1400 for a 2 bed flat in Harrow (zone 5). I pay only £1k for a 2 bed flat in zone 3 and even if I rented, a flat like mine would rent for £1500.

Ideally, there should be competition between the private sector and the government. The government should build a lot of homes for rent and for sale to low income and middle income families, and the private sector would provide housing for higher income people or people who have temporary living arrangements (expats/students). I didn't much mind short rental contracts when I was a student. And if I earned lots of money, I probably wouldn't buy a home either because at the higher end of London properties, it is cheaper to rent Vs buy esp when you take maintenance into consideration. Renting higher end properties is also a different experience and if you have higher income, you can cope better with uncertainty. It is average people who can't suddenly stomach rent increases and they should be protected by the state.[/quote]
Thank you! I agree completely!

Former housing officer here...you could ask the citizens advice bureau legal team and shelter for assistance with the issue of the rental leap. Look at your tenancy agreement carefully and identify any clauses relevant to rental increases. Read this:www.gov.uk/private-renting/rent-increases. In your circumstances, I would seek help from environmental health with regards to the condition of the property. Take photographs and make detailed notes of the key issues. I guess you must have condensation/ damp without proper heating for starters. If environmental health step in with enforcement, you may get a notice to quit out of spite. However, you will have ensured the landlord is brought up to rental compliance standards at least.