Rent increase

[Lacky301]

Hello all me and dp moved into our 1 bedroom flat in 2018 and we pay £425 a month we are very lucky in that our landlord has never increased the rent I am completely aware of that. Its extremely dated and shabby and no heating there was just a old dated electric fire in the living room which we got rid off as it was awful we just bought our own electric heaters for summer months.
Landlord has hardly spent much on it during our time here he bought it at auction and it more or less stands the same he didn't refurbish it update etc for prospective tenants.
He is now saying he needs to look at raising the rent as his accountant has advised him he should.
They are saying market value is about £675 but I told him that's too much too soon and the place needs updating.
I would rather keep the rent low and not update as we are under alot of pressure financially at the moment.
Please can anybody advise on a fair increase and how I can negotiate with him.

Ok thanks for clarifying. My mistake I had assumed neither of you had kids.

What is the £520 family support payment?

Oh
Electric 80
Netflix 7
Engkish Heritage 10

Where on earth are you living that cheaply? My 1 bedroom council flat is £600 a month 😱

dp children who live in another country on extremely low wages and support to my ds at university.

I'm seeing loads of non essentials in your inventory. Netflix, English Heritage, vaping are all luxuries you can't really afford. Even the mobile internet could be a cheaper deal.

There's ample room for freeing up more disposable income there. I think you are going to need to refine priorities a little.

All in that's just over £1900. You bring in roughly 2.5k a month so still have roughly £600 not accounted for. Your current rent is £425, so for the last 6 years, that's roughly £700 spare every month?

Reapply, but this time get help from CAB or a local welfare rights organisation.

Although the PIP forms look straightforward, there's a mountain of regulations and case law that determine whether or not you get PIP, and it's hard to fill in the form in the most advantageous way if you don't know the "hidden" rules.

CABs etc are very busy in my area (SE) so it might be best to book an appointment for about 3 or 4 weeks time, then ring for the forms, which are currently taking 2-3 weeks to arrive.

Yes I’ve just had a look at this list and while your expenses are higher than I thought due to your kids it’s still not quite adding up how you can’t afford £525 rent - even with the family support.

You said you were saving for a “big essential” how much are you saving?

Either cut down on that or is there any way for your partner to get a higher earning job or to get a few hours bar work every week to bring in a couple of hundred extra a month ?

Or for you to do some casual ad hoc work?

I need £5000 by middle of November

Why?

Dp can do an extra hour a day and generate more

Can only say it's an absolute essential as it's something that needs to be done and out of my control

That’s good he can bring in a
bit of extra money. I often used to do overtime at the awful call centre I worked at but it made a difference to my meagre weekly pay.

It’s understandable you don’t necessarily want to share what the £5000 is for but does leave us wondering as one persons “essential” may not be another persons essential.

Will your son be finished uni soon for summer so don’t have to support him? He can get a job over the holidays. Is the full maintenance loan not enough for him at uni? We top up our son to the equivalent of the full maintenance loan and he manages on it.

It may sound harsh but if you’re struggling yourselves then paying for adult kids on low wages isn’t your responsibility. You could use that money for your necessity thing or to live somewhere nicer.

I think you need to reassess things.

MI

You need to get rid of non essentials like Netflix and vaping. And your adult son at uni needs to get a job and fund himself.

There is nothing I can think of that would be essential and costing 5k. So perhaps ask yourself if whatever it is genuinely essential or just something you feel should be.

Op have you posted about this before, is the money you're saving visa related?
If your partner has children abroad and in a low income country it sounds like he is sending a disproportionately large part of his income home.

You can afford the rent between you. You're choosing not to. He might be saving face, he might feel obliged, but he's sending an amount of money that neither of you can afford.