Rent increase by £300!!! What do I do? Is this normal? Please help!!!!

[Lele101]

Just got a text from landlord

“mortgage gone up and I’m paying 300 more for service charges and insurance to the council I have no choice but to raise rent by 300”

we live in ilford, Barkingside. It’s a 2 bedroom flat. Currently paying 1400, now he wants 1700.

last increase was 16 months ago. (From 1225 to 1400)

im shocked. Is this normal?? Please advice. I don’t know what to do.

I think some people confuse social housing with private landlords and want private landlords to provide the same altruistic service. In fact it feels many feel entitled to it.

it is simply unrealistic. We are no more entitled to that than we are going down Sainsbury’s and buying a loaf of bread for half price as that’s what we can afford.

This

Exactly!

People seem to think landlords have a moral duty that other businesses don’t have.

Demand outstrips supply, LLs can charge what they like.

Alternatively you can argue that people like OP who has rented below market rate for a while should have realised how good she had it and saved as much as she could, preparing for a potential rent rise and therefore making herself less vulnerable. Everyone knows interest rates have gone up in the last couple of years.

Don't pay it, if you pay you legally accept the request.

A rent increase is a request not a demand, if you do not agree and if you disagree then he has to seek approval through the courts by proving the amount is fair and reasonable to charge.

If the courts agree with him you either pay it or move out, if the courts disagree then your rent remains the same or increase a court deemed reasonable amount.

Unfortunately there is really nothing you can do than to look elsewhere. I'm an accidental landlord (my OH's job took us temporarily to another part of the country so we rented our home while we were gone rather than leave it empty). The rent wasn't really enough to pay the whole mortgage to begin with and now the payment has gone up even further. Everything I've seen in the news suggests that the service charges for leaseholders are also massively increasing. And that is without including the cost of mandated upgrades that the government is proposing.

I have few friends who are in a similar position, they are actively losing money when letting a property and it is thebquestion of sellingand essentially leaving tenants homeless or raising rents. The property values are not going up that much either especially when compared to cost of improvement works that the government will require. It is an absolutely awful situation for people who need to rent because of mobility, changing needs and being unable to afford buying and maintaining house due to caring and other responsibilities.

Presumably, if you take a LL to court, you get blacklisted and can't rent at all?

Where exactly do you feel people will live if there wasn’t btl landlords? There isn’t enough social housing, and we have seen over a million rentals being sold off in recent years and house pricing continues to rise; it is an utter fantasy that if they didn’t buy and rent out house pricing would be cheap and folks could buy. The evidence is there that it is far from the truth.

there is a huge shortage of social housing. If there wasn’t private landlords people would be on the streets.

and as more and more exit, more and more people are finding themselves homeless, in temp accommodation, and that temp accommodation is far from acceptable in many cases, as there isn’t enough rentals to feed demand, meaning shortage of properties and high rents.

we need private landlords, we need as many of them as possible, so supply outstrips demand, and prices drop, forcing them out is what makes people homeless. For the simple fact there isn’t enough social housing and house buying will always be far beyond many renters means due to deposit requirements.

I’d feel terrible about that. If I sell my plan was to give them their deposit plus another 5k as compensation. I don’t think I would rent again, as karma on that would be horrendous. I’m not cut out to be a landlord.

Maybe that particular poster doesn't rent, but it doesn't hurt to look at the other side of the story.

if you wish to provide a charitable service and give people thousands of your money, then there is nothing stoping you. Clearly don’t sell, and charge as little rent as you can. Cover all costs as you can. Honestly, go for it.

She doesn't take him to court he takes her to court, the onus is entirely on him by law to prove that its a fair and reasonable rate.

Landlords can't just set random numbers and charge anything they want, there are laws and they have to request increases. Most do it informally like in the OP (where it has to be reached as a civil agreement) but legally he has to have court approval to formally demand an increase.

She will still be considered troublesome, though.

*I think some people confuse social housing with private landlords and want private landlords to provide the same altruistic service. In fact it feels many feel entitled to it.

it is simply unrealistic. We are no more entitled to that than we are going down Sainsbury’s and buying a loaf of bread for half price as that’s what we can afford.

This
*

No. Not "this". If Sainsbury's double their prices then you go to Tesco or one of the many other options. If your landlord doubles your rent then you lose your home. Your kids might have to be taken out of school. Worst case scenario you're made homeless. These things are not the same.

lol, yeah. As all the supermarkets are known to have vastly different prices. They don’t compete at all.

and if you can’t afford food, you starve.

Yes and with no proof of what he says being true.
He should negotiate with you and treat you nicely if your a good tenant which I'm sure you are.
Good tenants are worth their weight in gold remind him.

If you go he will have to reset and will loose money. He may not get a good tenant next time.
Alot of landlords are selling up. Good luck.

@Queenofthejabs is correct on supply v demand

There's new policy that impacts supply which means prices will increase

Renters will feel the brunt even more

Also why do you feel it is the private landlords job to house you? It isn’t, again, this confusion between private and social landlords. If you will be homeless then it’s down to the fact you can’t get social housing, it is not the private landlords job to house you. Don’t get me wrong it would be lovely if they were all providing a charitable service. But like sainsbos; they are not. People need to accept this basic and fundamental fact.

Landlords are selling up though fed up of bad tenants and the rules and regulations coming in.
God knows what will happen if there aren't enough houses to rent.
The councils and local housing can't house everyone.

The next door MP, Jas Athwal (Ilford South, you're Ilford North - I know because I'm local), is a rogue landlord. It finally reached the national news when he was elected last year. It's shockingly common to have landlords take advantage of your precarious position as a renter. Sadly, the figures you're talking about aren't out of line with the local market.

But you've had lots of good advice upthread about what to do and where you stand legally. Good luck.

I get what you mean. am in a similar position. I now wouldn’t be able to afford to buy my current home even though I earn more than double what I did when I bought it.

those of us who bought 20+ years ago are really lucky. ( and that’s the privilege)

Not sure if you pay your own rent or already receiving the LHA amount and paying a shortfall but you could see if you’re eligible for some help with housing costs by claiming Universal Credit.

@PassingStranger yep it's madness. Councils can't afford more and landlords are in shorter supply which means they can charge more plus be choosier on the tenant

Those who are at the lower end of the scale and can't do private rent any longer do what exactly

You seem to miss the point that a lot of renters actually want to buy a house to live in, but are stuck renting because they can't afford to buy the starter homes that are still being snapped up by landlords with multiple properties who are also fuelling ever increasing house prices. They're the ones with existing funds in place via commercial loans or profits from the multiple houses they rent, they're "known" to the estate agents as "easy" sales, so the estate agents know they're not going to end up with delays as first time buyers have to wait for mortgages, government ISA subsidies, etc. If "professional" landlords start selling up or stop sucking up every new "cheap" house that comes onto the market, existing renters would be better placed to buy them themselves. So, you'd get a huge proportion of renters out of the rental market (the ones who don't want to rent forever), meaning fewer properties available to rent, but fewer tenants wanting to rent them. Unfortunately successive governments have encouraged professional multiple landlords, which has prevented many renters from being able to buy!

Rents will continue to increase.

it is the same all over.

our food is going up, as nmw and employer ni, electricity, heating, rates, water, all have increased, fuel on deliveries, it’s all went up, all being passed to the consumer.

there is another thread where a woman’s had a 26 percent increase on nursery fees for the same reason.

we all knew this was coming, there was no secret. Yes Labour lied about how hard they were going to hit us, but it’s only going to get worse. And we knew.

as unemployment rises, so does our benefits bill, so they are desperately trying to take benefits off of people. they even took the winter fuel allowance as the caps went up.

peiple cold, more and more in temp accommodation, landlords selling up due to the renters rights bill coming in. Not enough social housing.

this is just the start of it. The impact on us is huge. And I remember back those crowing on here about how they’d be happy to pay more.

well here it is. And this is just the start, before the full impacts are felt.