Can I contact landlord directly to negotiate rent increase?

[creamedcustard]

The estate agent who acts for the landlord has informed me the landlord wishes to put up my rent in the next tenancy period.
I have some room for negotiation and am wondering if it's better to reach out to the landlord directly (I've never been given his contact details, but can find them online) and ask if he'd consider setting up as a private landlord without the agent acting on commission, as he could get more of the rent amount that way. I know agents sort out the daffy admin and legal stuff the landlord probably doesn't want to deal with, but I'm a long-standing tenant and it'd be a hopefully straightforward renewal of rental agreement. It seems win-win to me, and I wouldn't have to pay as much as the agent is proposing.
Is this bad tenant etiquette? Grateful to hear thoughts on my best approach.

Doubt the estate agent will want you contacting the LL directly, the LL will be paying them a fee to rent out the property.

I’ve had a similar situation, they don’t give a sweet FA if you’ve been a long standing tenant, as they know most people aren’t in a position to be able to move and there’s a shortage of rental properties.

I was told mine would be increasing, and wasn’t given the option of negotiating but told them I can’t afford the increase, so they’ve lowered it slightly but it’s still a massive increase, the only thing I can do now is either dispute it in court, suck it up or go into arrears and face eviction.

The landlord will be under contract from the EA so probably wouldn't be able to exclude the EA anyway .

If I were a landlord I wouldn't want tennants contacting me direct. That's what I pay the EA for.

I would not contact the LL directly by bypassing the EA. The EA represent the LL. I certainly wouldn’t be suggesting they terminate their contract with the EA to save money so you can have lower rent. That would be tantamount to telling the LL they have bad judgement and is faintly insulting.

I wouldn’t. The landlord is presumably aware they could operate without an estate agent if they wanted to, and have chose not to - possibly partly in order to have no direct contact with tenants, in which case they won’t be very impressed by you digging out their details online.

I have an agent to deal with tenants purely because they have a database of repairs people and can sort out repairs to my property much faster than I can. They also chase up re rent etc, sort out gas safety certificates and so on. All things I don’t have the capacity to deal with. So no, I wouldn’t want to cut out the managing agent. There’s a lot of admin associated with a rental.

It will probably just annoy them. DP could technically manage our rentals alone but does it through an estate agent as they handle all admin and any maintenance issues. They are in both our names, although it's more DP's area, so I would just ask a tenant who contacted me directly to take it through the EA, and ask EA to remind the tenant to go to them directly with any queries.
Both of us would genuinely listen to any rent increase concerns, so the landlord may well negotiate, but please do it through the proper channels.

Of course you can contact the LL, and discuss whatever you like. If you don't contact them, you definitely wont get a reduction. If you do contact them, you might get a reduction.

It's bizarre that PP are telling you not to contact your LL.

Too, the EA is legally required to pass on any message or request you have as a tenant for the LL. If you tell the EA you can’t afford a rent increase and would like to suggest a smaller increase, the EA has to pass that on to the LL.

It's because OP mentioned she rents through an estate agent. They charge landlords fees to manage the properties, what's the point of paying for a fully managed service if the tenant just calls you and you end up doing it yourself anyway?

You aren’t supposed to contact the LL directly when they have an EA as their agent. That’s precisely why their contact details are not given to tenants. Most LLs will tell a tenant, please don’t contact me, send any communication via the EA if you do try and bypass. And then they will be annoyed and less inclined to do a tenant any favours.

If they’re a professional LL managing multiple properties, then they are not likely to want to piss off their agency by coming to a private agreement with you.

However, there’s nothing to stop you from contacting them to negotiate, including asking not to have to renew a lease every year but to go onto a rolling contract, and citing saving agency fees (on both sides) by not having to do short-term ASTs every time as you wish to stay long term.

Nothing wrong with it.

I don’t think it’s win win to the landlord though. My parents have a rental and they use an agent as they then have nothing to do with the faffy stuff if something breaks etc. he’ll know he can get more with you lying him direct but he’s made the active choice not to and has chosen a managed let.

Less likely to do any favours? Clearly shows what type of landlord you are

I agree

As a landlord, this is what I pay an agent for - to deal with the whole set up. If my tenant contacted me directly it would annoy me, put me off them and I’d bounce it straight back to the agency to deal with. The LL will be happy with their profits otherwise would have set the rent even higher to make up any gap, especially in the current market. Also… tenant relationships are always great until they’re not - its not worth the potential saving in management fees!

I’d be really pissed off with my tenant if they did that to me. I’m already aware that I would save money on agency fees if I did it privately, but clearly there’s a reason I don’t want to. I don’t need a tenant to state the obvious.

If the landlord is paying an agent, then it’s because they don’t want to deal with the tenant and everything else themselves. Respect that valid choice or find yourself a private landlord that doesn’t use an agent.

The LL pays a letting agency because he find it worth the cost, to have everything managed for him and keep a buffer zone between himself and the tenant. Of course that only applies if the agency does a good job; presumably this one does as you've been a longterm tenant.

It’s not bizarre at all.

She can’t just call and discuss whatever she wants because that would need the landlords agreement, which currently doesn’t exist.

We couldn't ditch a management arrangement part way through a tenancy the estate agent had made the introductions for, so that bit might not be possible.

I'd have also been very unimpressed with being "tracked down" by our tenants - we deliberately paid for management due to the distance we were from the property. I guess or depends on how easy the landlord was to find - I don't use my official first name on social media so it would be a bit of a task to find me.

Almost certainly the landlord's arrangement with the agent will include a rule that they have to pay commission on your rent while you continue there as a tenant just by virtue of the fact that the agent introduced you. The landlord can't get out of that other than by chucking you out and finding another tenant independently. So even if you did persuade them to do a deal they'd still have to pay the agent.

I’m a landlord and my tenant did this, it annoyed me because I pay them to deal with this sort of thing.

My mortgage has gone up and I’ve had to increase the rent and the estate agent explained that. It’s still below market rent. Ultimately the numbers have to add up for me or I have to sell the property.

This also goes both ways- I don’t contact the tenants directly but only via the estate agent.

We used to negotiate via the agent if not in direct contact with landlord.

Don’t contact landlord directly, in some cases landlord insurance requires a letting agent.

I’m not saying if I’m a landlord, tenant or neither. I’m saying that there is an etiquette and when you ignore etiquette, you are being rude.

This would be a case of a tenant being rude to their landlord, imho, and yes generally any reasonable person asked for a favour by someone who is being rude and entitled towards them isn’t going to be inclined towards granting the favour.