Rent increase - fuck fuckity fuck!!!

[BlondeWaves]

Moved into my house 2.5 months ago and now having to move as had a letter from the landlord to say rent is going up by 150 a month. I KNOW I am being unreasonable but I am sat here sobbing because I've just settled here with my young child and the thought of having to go through all that upheaval again is so stressful. I can't afford the extra 150, I'm already stretched with the way everything has increased. This could happen again and again and I just hate our government and the way things are at the moment. I have no resentment towards my landlord as I know his mortgage has realistically gone up by more than 150 a month, but fuck, I'm so stressed. Don't even know what I want from this thread, maybe a handhold, maybe to be told I need to suck it up (weirdly I respond well to tough love) but I need something. Anyone there? 😭

Why are you assuming that renters are all struggling?

Back when I was last renting we were, like many others we know who rent, well-able to save while renting, as we sensibly rented somewhere that we could afford.

You really are painting a picture of renters that’s very unfair. They / we are not feckless and poor strugglers, and you should really stop trying to imply otherwise.

I was responding to a post about renters who are struggling.

Try to counter the points actually being made.

You might be entitled to help with housing costs via universal credit.

Like I said I'm not an landlord and never have been. I am an economist, though. One of the much maligned "experts", if you will.

If you want to fight like rats in a bag on demand and attack people then carry on. Alternatively, you could look at the causes of the problem, and direct your fury at the people behind that (clue: not the landlords!)

Until people in this country get their shit together and start looking at the reasons for the dire economic situation and pushing for solutions that will actually work instead of attacking each other there is little hope of significant improvement.

I also fail to see how much of this vitriol helps the OP in any practical way.

Oh dear. My “wealth” is all from money paid in salary. Me not giving it to people like you isn’t hoarding it.

I love all the LLs who come on these threads. You have those who think they are some kind of business mogul. And then those who believe they are altruistic and doing their tenants a massive favour.

@lieselotte I, unfortunately, can only dream of owning a flat at Canary Wharf.

but the poster who has a flat at Canary Wharf didn't come here whinging.

her mortgage on the flat has increased hugely. She was only making a 2% yield renting her apartment while she couldn't live in it (2% is very low) renting it to people who can afford high London rates who do not want to buy. The mortgage has now gone up so it's costing her £30,000 a year, why shouldn't she put the rent up? The tenants are choosing to live in a lovely apartment, in London, why should the poster sun them to do that??

if they don't like the rent rise they're free to move elsewhere, doubtful they'll be any better off though.

Actually, i'm not angry at LLs at all - i just don't agree with their chosen course of action or how they justify it to themselves and others.

On the Govt, Truss should be charged with mis-conduct and from Thatcher onward, all governments have ignored the time bomb which is the privatisation of social housing.

Given that no-one has made either of those claims on this thread do you have an example?

As I wrote above, I’m renting our place out as I thought we’d want to live there again one day and renting it made more sense than leaving it empty for five years.

www.thenational.wales/news/20016125.owns-wales-wales-biggest-landlords-based-england/

Under a FOI request we now know who are our biggest landlords. Does anyone know who's buying up English rentals?

@MrMrsJones if the LL sells the flat no guarantee a FTB can buy it as need deposit, income multipliers which have just risen to cover stress test of 8 percent. There are so many houses and flats on market already. Any potential FTB have loads to choose from already, so stop trying to insinuate the LL is in some way stopping a FTB from buying. Lack of deposits and income multipliers plus stress test stop FTB from buying. My son is trying to buy ATM and new stress test stopping him not a LL.

Why was I wrong to rent my flat out rather than leave it empty? Why would that have been better?

I’m sure that I’m also criticised for having a home in France that I don’t rent out which suggests that it’s not the choosing whether to rent that’s got people upset.

Actually, i'm not angry at LLs at all - i just don't agree with their chosen course of action or how they justify it to themselves and others.

What do you mean by this? Many people are "accidental" landlords. They are not milking it as a business. They are barely covering costs. What would you prefer to do? If they sell up, or simply sit on the properties instead of renting them out (in cases of probate, moving area etc) and leave them empty, ut is pretty obvious that this reduces supply further meaning further increases in rent and even more renters who struggle to find somewhere to live.

Your moral judgement on people renting an asset is strange. Someone needs something and doesn't want to/ can't afford to buy it outright so rents it. Leased cars, office equipment, gym memberships, air transport, any kind of public transport in fact. It is an essential part of the economy, always has been. The people doing so are not evil.

I would have been homeless for 15 years if private landlords didn't exist.

Yes more social housing would be a good idea, but that's hardly landlord's fault is it? Again - you are blaming the wrong people.

My DD's partner (FTB) put offers in on over 20 houses, sometimes 5k to 10k over the asking price, each time he was beaten to it by a BTL cash buyer.....who sellers preferred.

He only got to buy when a lady seller insisted to the agent the house must go to a genuine FTB, it was her first house and she wanted it to go to someone similar as she didn't agree with BTLs.

Yes ... agree its very hard to get a mortgage now.

The trouble is to be blunt the way the housing laws are changing I would literally leave a property empty rather than renting out.

Fair enough, although I personally believe that property owners should be liable for council tax and possibly an additional tax if they leave a property empty.

I know people who do this now. Between the deterioration, the limits on deposits, the hassle and the tax situation it must be barely worth it in many cases.

They are.

OP, if your landlord has issued you a dodgy tenancy 'agreement' there's probably no chance he's put your deposit in a scheme. Did you get your EPC and a 'how to rent' guide? He can't issue a section 21 if he hasn't done that and anyway can't in the first 6 months of a tenancy. In your shoes I'd not do anything and wait to see if he tries a legal route, and then take advice from Shelter.

We're landlords- I'm not going to say 'accidental' because I hate it, but one of us is a crown servant overseas on a posting. You can't leave a property empty as it won't get insurance (and will get squatted). Our tenants earn oodles more than we do. We have to rent it out because one of us can't work while on posting and we wouldn't be able to pay the mortgage, nor do I think we should incur stamp duty costs for selling it while we're 'serving the crown'. I've got loads of colleagues doing the same- I've just done the tax return and the house has covered its costs but no more.

We're great landlords- rent hasn't gone up despite the market rocketing, have let them paint and have a dog, everything is fixed immediately (which is obviously the mimimum as it should be). I've been a tenant in at least 6 different properties and the rental market served my needs then. The property system in the UK is totally broken and is exploitative- but it's also incorrect to characterise all landlords as money grabbing big business people or all tenants as poor.

@ToInfinityAgain

that's a great apartment, I'd love your three bed! AND your house in France.

I hope you didn't misinterpret my post, I was saying the poster that said she didn't think it was true/real possible whatever, for you to lose £30,000 a year on one flat. I was saying she clearly had no idea of the cost of flats at Canary Wharf.

of course it would be ridiculous to have it sitting empty, when people could be living in it!

(the video on that advert does it no favours does it!!)

I hope your existing tenants can pay the increase, but if they don't, someone will. They're sought out Apartments in a fab location & some people do have the money & choose to rent them.

Selling one or even many beautiful
aoartments isn't going to solve the housing crisis.

it's on the Govt to sort out the housing crisis, not individuals who rent out a house or Apt.

I don;'t know anyone who does not have a fixed assured shoerthold with rent the same for the year. My son lets his hous out as he lives at home and the recent contract gave the tenant 3 years and the rent can go up once a year by 3% (no more, even though inflation is at 10%) in year 2 and then year 3.

TBH you don't sound like an economist, esp as you don't seem to know the difference between housing and a lease car business or that the economy functioned far better when we didn't have so large a private rented sector, which incidentally i never said shouldn't exist, need both.

Just what proportion of BTL LLs are accidental? 5% 10% ? any ideas? i don't know any, because inherited property is usually sold to be split or to pay for CH costs.

As to "just covering costs" rubbish to that, basic maths? house prices have shot up 5 fold or even more over the last few years, anyone in the market for 10/15 years plus has had their mortgage paid in full & has a very handy asset.

People wouldn't have done it if it wasn't a licence to print money.

In my friends case, 47k house 17years ago, now worth 250 to 300k - rent paid £97k.

I’ve obviously bought in the wrong area, as my house has probably increased by about 1/2 over the last 17 years 😆 it’s not totally out of step with other areas I don’t think though. 5x is pretty unusual.

It's tough all round. I have a flat I rent out which I used to live in and plan to live in again - so more of an accidental landlord than trying to make lots of money as a business.
I've rented it out for 9 years and only put the rent up once. But in the last year the mortgage payments have doubled and I'm now going to have to either put the rent up substantially or sell it and evict the tenants. I don't want to do either but I'm struggling to pay the bills on my own house and can't cover the extra costs in the rental indefinitely.

Not all landlords are greedy - although some surely are. I think the current financial situation will weed out a lot of the smaller landlords with 1 or 2 properties and leave the big guys who tend not to care as much about their tenants

I think you definitely bought in the wrong area. According to Zoopla our house is worth four times what we pad for it in 1999.