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? 😭

What? The landlord's mortgage is the landlords mortgage not the tennants rent. If anything the landlord is expecting the OP to susbiside them! They set the rent too low not the OP.

Please contact Shelter. My understanding is also that the landlord can’t raise the rent for the first year, even if they’re trying to claim you’re on a monthly rolling contract. Not issuing a written contract doesn’t mean an AST isn’t automatically created in law. Even if they’ve said you’re on a short term holiday let it’s likely legally defaulted to an AST if it’s your only home. Housing law is crap for renters but there are some rights that don’t just get signed away.

I am sorry for you op, but he may have had no choice or have to sell failing achieving more rent, in which case you may have had to move anyway.

I would approach him and try to find a compromise. Decent LL will do the best they can to keep a good tenant and be fair.

I am a LL and facing similar dilemmas, the really infuriating thing is l could predict a version of what we are facing now, due to the irresponsible gov decisions over the last 5 years.
These have made Buy to Let, loss making, resulting in mass selling of properties, making the rents go up on those left, combine this with huge mortgage rises and you have a horrible mess.

If Governments want housing to be in private hands, they have to make it possible for good LL that invest in well maintained housing to make a sustainable business and not a loss, or they have to fund millions of homes themselves.

Bloody incompetent Housing ministers.

Good luck op.

Rent rises must be fair, in line with local rent increases.

But ultimately, you are in an immoral business, you want the poorer in society to pay for your house or in your case houses? these people are a captive audience & when they can't pay, the tax payer has to pay your mortgage in the form of housing benefit.

i'd hazard a guess here, when you get a better mortgage deal, (interest rates fall as predicted) you wont put rents back down will you?

People need to remember that ultimately being a landlord is a business. Upping rents is no different to salaries being upped each year. I’ve never upped my tenants rent before since I very started renting out my property but I will have no choice but to next year otherwise I will have to sell.

OP, you need to go to Citizens Advice, urgently. You have rights here and the landlord is almost certainly acting illegally. Unless it’s a short term AirBnB let (which is intended for short term lets to tourists and can’t be used to get around tenancy laws) or the landlord lives in the property with you there is no such thing as a monthly contract in the UK. For the first 6 months you’re on a de facto AST regardless of what the landlord says, and the rent can’t be increased. The “contract” he made you sign is almost certainly illegal - unless he’s a live-in landlord and you’re his lodger.
Has your security deposit been protected? If not he can’t give you notice even at the end of your 6-month period, but your contract becomes a monthly rolling one (this is NOT what you’re on until the first 6 months are up however). He also can’t increase the rent by as much as 18% even after 6 months.

Even if you are on a monthly rolling contract your landlord cannot legally give you notice within the first six months- you are protected by the law here

”It is possible to start a tenancy with a periodic tenancy rather than a fixed term of 6 months or 12 months. You can do this by giving the tenant an initial term of just one month (or a week) and then just allowing it to run on. However, bear in mind you cannot serve notice to the tenant for at least 6 months, because they are still protected by their statutory rights which stipulates a shorthold tenancy cannot be shorter than 6 months. This can only be overturned if there is a mutual agreement by the landlord and tenant for the tenancy to end.”

Whilst mortgage costs have gone up and your landlord may be nice, they have chosen to be a landlord and still need to abide by the law.
I strongly recommend getting advice from shelter.

You can sell the flat. OP will be homeless. Really not the same thing at all.

To everyone worried about the poor landlords and their costs going up - housing is an investment, and you can never guarantee your investment will retain value and you will never lose money from it. Why should landlords be guaranteed a risk free investment? No one is forced to become one, and they’re hardly doing it out of the kindness of their own heart.

OP, contact shelter and citizens advice, make sure you’re claiming everything you’re entitled to. Take advice before moving out as some councils expect you to be evicted by the court before they will support you with housing

The landlord is a scumbag because he set up a monthly tenancy. That's the kind of thing that needs to be against the law to protect tenants.

Even with a rolling tenancy they still shouldn't be increasing more than once a year: For a periodic tenancy (rolling on a week-by-week or month-by-month basis) your landlord cannot normally increase the rent more than once a year without your agreement.
For a fixed-term tenancy (running for a set period) your landlord can only increase the rent if you agree. If you do not agree, the rent can only be increased when the fixed term ends.

My friend (single mum with 1 child) received a formal letter few days ago that landlord increasing her rent £500/month (!!!). She is basically homeless. We are in London, waiting lists for council flat is 8/9 years. There is no way she will find another property, she spent more than a year looking for this one....

I’m a ll. I couldn’t care less how much their mortgage has increased. You don’t put tenant’s rent up by such a steep amount and especially not when the tenant has just moved in. Disgusting greed.

Shelter were useless when we got involved in helping a relative rent a property this summer.

We spoke to different people who alternated between saying there was nothing they could suggest or they suggested he got someone (retired was their suggestion) to rent in their name and then that person (illegally) sublet to him!

Four of us dealt with Shelter who we previously thought were a good organisation and charity and have donated to but are now so appalled at the we will never donate to them again and will only donate to our own local homeless places.

Sorry, that’s not helping you OP but just wanted to relay our experience with Shelter.

As I wrote above, I’m going to start losing £30,000 per year if I don’t increase my tenants’ rent soon. Are you suggesting that I should just accept this?

@ToInfinityAgain it's funny how landlords are happy to accept their properties increasing in value while tenants pay their mortgage but also expect tenants to suck up costs. If you can't afford multiple properties then sell them. Or do you think you are entitled to them, paid for by people who can't even afford one?

Yeah, the monthly tenancy seems really strange to me - what was the rationale behind that?

It does seem strange

To everyone worried about the poor landlords and their costs going up - housing is an investment, and you can never guarantee your investment will retain value and you will never lose money from it. Why should landlords be guaranteed a risk free investment? No one is forced to become one, and they’re hardly doing it out of the kindness of their own heart.

Exactly @PinkFrogss

Some people seem to think that a profitable portfolio of properties is a basic human right! For them only though, not the poor people who have no choice but to pay then rent as they can't afford a property ....

As i said, the stats show UK has the most expensive housing in Europe.

The UK's issue is it sold off social housing almost entirely to the private sector.

They will have set it to cover their mortgage costs at the time.

Our monthly mortgage on the rental property is increasing from £1,400 per month to £5,000. Would you not expect me to either increase the rent by about that much or to sell the flat?

OP I'm so sorry you are going through this stress. Your post about your sons bedroom made me feel so sad for you both.

I would strongly recommend contacting your LL and seeing if there is some negotiation in this. I am a LL and would much prefer to have that conversation with a tenant, and if at all possible give some leeway in order to keep a good tenant in the property. Getting new people in is a pricey nuisance, especially since they've so recently done it. Please have a chat with them, you have nothing to lose by doing so

Sell that flat.
In the long run property prices will go down if people like you stop hoarding them.

I bet you have never reduced rent in response to your costs decreasing.

Have you got a contract? Well you should have and that means they can't put the rent up until the tenancy ends or needs to be renewed. Even then, under tenancy laws the landlord can't just put the rent up, you have to agree to it. The landlord has to send you a letter suggesting a rental increase with a document for you to sign, agreeing to it. If you can't pay the increase then you can discuss what you can afford.

The landlord can't put the rent up until you sign an agreement.

OK, so here's what you do.

Carry on paying only the £850 and tell the landlord you can't afford it and to evict you.

Once you have the section 21, take it to the townhall and say you are at risk of being homeless.

They will either, move you up a band or provide you with temporary housing when the section 21 expires.

I know this as this is what happened to me.

You will lose your deposit though.

I’m not sure why you are throwing the word “entitled” around; I’ve not suggested that I’m entitled to anything. If I have an asset that is no longer productive then I have a choice to make; accept a loss but hope that it will increase in value to offset this, try to increase the rent, or sell.

I may see if the tenants would like to buy it, they can probably afford to, and that may be preferable to them having to find £5-6,000 per month to rent something similar.