Renting. Does this sound right??

[Happyluci]

Since I’ve moved in 2 years ago my rent has increased around 18%. It’s set to go up again in June and this will be around 28% higher rent than when I got the keys to the house.

My landlord says his mortgage has doubled and has gone up 14 times in a year.

does this sound right or does it seem an unfair increase?

I know about inflation and mortgage rates going up but 28% higher rent in a year seems a lot to me but I could be wrong so just looking for advice. Thank you

Really depends. Unless you've not been following the news at all in the past few months, you'd know that interest rates have hiked. Many landlords are using all the rent to pay the mortgages and then some. So the options for many landlords is a) sell up and evict the tenant or b) increase the rent to cover the mortgage.

Personally, I would hate if my landlady resorted to the first option. At least with the second I can either take the increase in rent or look for something cheaper- though I'm unlikely to find this in my area. With the increase in rent I'm left with less disposable income but at least I'm not homeless.

@Densol57 wow.. just had to comment. Do you not realise how stuck up you’re coming across on this thread?

please get off your high horse. You’re not better than the OP or any other renters because you ‘own 2 mil in properties’. You’re just one of those that give Landlords a bad name

About a third of new builds are buy to rent, so if you get rid of landlords then a lot less houses would get built and make the housing shortage even worse and demand and rents higher.

Of course it’s a business, and what hard work are you talking about ?? The tenant paying rent? Is that your definition of hard work ? No , let me tell you , it’s paying your way in life , not expecting someone else to pay it for you .

I own so no skin in the game. That said renting out property is a business not a charity. It doesn’t make sense to expect a business to not pass along increases in costs. Prices of everything have gone up food, fuel. It’s hardly a shocker when Tesco / bp respond to market conditions by raising prices.

I do think we need to invest in social housing which would give people long term security and protect them from suddennrate rises

Firstly - To buy a house on a buy to let mortgage you have to put down a minimum of 25% so thats in the bag straightaway.

Secondly -Mine are in East London. Mine HAVE gone up in value.

Thirdly - I have been making overpayments on my mortgages ( nothing to do with charging extra rent) so I am increasing the equity.

Sorry but you won't catch me out 🤣

If you had the capacity to read the WHOLE thread, you will not that I was actually helping the OP and giving her advice as to why this situation had happened.

My point was towards the prat mums netters who were doing their usual landlord bashing and offering no advice at all 🔨🔨🔨

Who do you think pays when the boiler breaks? When there's a leak? When windows need replacing? Or gutters?
Where do you think that money comes from?

Twinkle you are so misinformed. Firstly, most LL have 'interest only' mortgages so the tenant is not paying the LL mortgage. Secondly most LL don't rent to people on benefits so taxpayers are not paying money into the pocket of the LL's. If a LL is on a tracker mortgage they have gone up 14 times 2 years. This is true. It's not unreasonable for a LL to put the rent up once a year by whatever inflation is if they are on a tracker that has more than doubled the interest on their mortgage. The tenant has the choice to stay or go. No one forces them to stay. If they moved out the LL would get on average 15 applications for each house they advertised. If a LL overprices their property they won't get any takers. Most LL price in line with advice from local EA's. This means if you look on RM at similar houses in one area they will have similar rents.

Ziggy will own equity in the portfolio. LL's have to put down at least 25 percent deposit. When Ziggy says she owns £2million I assume she owns £2million in equity. You must be aware houses go up in value over time. If you bought a house for £200k 10 years ago it will be worth a lot more now. You must know this is how equity grows.

I've got 3 mortgages on trackers and they have gone up 14 times over 2 years. The mortgages on these 2 houses are almost triple over 2 years. Obviously it would not be reasonable for a LL to put up rent by 300 percent. 28 percent might be reasonable. I've got others on a 5 year fix and they obviously haven't gone up. Ice got a few on a 2 year fix that will be up in about 8 months. As a LL you make more on some houses than on others but rent increases average out over the entire portfolio. For example I don't leave the rent the same on a house in a 5 year fix but put it up double on a house on a tracker. I average out rent increases across my portfolio. Maybe the LL the OP refers to doesn't have a portfolio to do this so have increased rent by 28 percent to break even.

@Densol, some people are not too bright and can't grasp the concept of a LL never owning the property. Save your breath.

No rent caps in England. In Scotland more LL's are selling up than in any other area of the UK.

I do because I own my house (well, bank owns some of it still).

But when I did rent (which was for many years and a few different properties) the places I lived in were maintained appallingly.
And as for leaks, I moved into a property, there was a very heavy rain and the ceiling got a bit darker looking/discoloured in one of the rooms, it was clear there must've been some sort of a leak in the roof. Landlord's response - I must've been burning candles in the room to cause the discolouration (???). I didn't even own any candles.
Of course tried taking hundreds off my deposit for painting the ceiling when I was moving out but was obviously unsuccessful.

I wonder how many more heavy rains it took before he actually got someone to fix the roof or if he was simply painting the ceiling in between tenants and tried charging them for it each time.

I just don't think it's realistic to expect money a tenant pays should cover all your mortgage + provide you with extra money to put aside for repairs. At the end of the day, the person is paying your mortgage and you'll be left with a house which you will own and can sell or continue renting. Even if you have to cover some of the mortgage yourself, your tennant is already doing you massive favour for paying the majority of it.
Repairs is another subject and is a pain but definitely not as bad in a flat compared to a house.

Like you I own nowadays but I rented for a good decade. Landlords provide a service ( A good one for me, repairs dealt with, easy maintenance.) but it’s a business. Loss making businesses either increase prices/ cut costs or go out of business surely?

I do think we need much more social housing. With higher interest rates the private landlord model is really unsustainable.

The mortgage might not be the OPs problem but equally the landlord can't make a loss can they.

Have a look at your contract OP. If you have a standard agency contract there will usually be a clause which will allow them to increase the rent periodically, but it’s usually tagged to a specific index. Some LL do try to raise the rent beyond this so it’s worth checking.

I dug up an old contract, and it was linked to RPI. If you have the same clause, then you can use this calculator to see what the maximum he should be charging you is. Also, it’s usually based on the anniversary of the contract so he won’t be able to tell you the exact figure until closer to your renewal date .https://www.colliers.com/en-gb/services/retail/retail-lease-advisory/rpi-cpi-rent-review-calculator

I think I've just bled out from my heart.

The poor landlords!! Let's all us plebs have a whip round!

What a shame we're all too stupid to properly understand their plight.

And in advance - forgive my 'unnecessary comments'

@twinkletoesimnot - totally agree with all your comments.

There definitely needs to be better regulations to stop landlords ripping people off.

And to the OP a 28% rise is absolutely ludicrous but you have some good advice on here of where to turn to.

@twinkletoesimnot

If you cannot see that a tenant paying someone else's mortgage is totally unfair then it's not me who is unreasonable.

If* you *can’t see that it’s irrelevant what the landlord spends their rental income on, then it really is you being unreasonable. Wether a property is mortgaged or owned outright, a landlord is still going to charge market rent rent for it.

Trnants don’t pay landlords mortgages, they pay to live in property owned by someone else and for the service of having the property maintained and serviced. Landlords take the risk and the financial responsibility on themselves, and the tenants pay them for that. Most people have to pay for the roof over their head, there is nothing unfair about it.

It’s a perfectly fair transaction, no different to when I go and buy the bread and milk at Tesco, even I I do think the essentials are too expensive.

I maintain mine immaculately. People pay good money to live there and whatever needs doing is done straight away.
We're not all scumbags

Of course it is realistic.
You expect a landlord to find 25 % of the cost of the house plus whatever the stamp duty is to buy the place, then spend money on making sure it's compliant with the safety regulations, then spend more money on background checks of prospective tenants..... and you don't even think those tenants should cover the mortgage? You think it should be run at a loss?
And no, repairs are not a separate issue! The cost of the repairs are running costs. Do you think the landlord should pay this as well as covering some of the mortgage?
FFS!

The market would be flooded with houses that LL no longer want. The supply will bring house prices down, thus allowing those tenants the opportunity to buy whereby they weren't able to before