To think rent increases “because of inflation” are immoral when many landlords own outright?

[RentRealityCheck]

I keep seeing rent hikes justified with “inflation”, even where the landlord has no mortgage and their costs haven’t meaningfully increased. At that point it feels like pure profit-taking, passed directly onto tenants who already have no leverage and with huge knock-on effects for stability, mental health, family life and society more broadly.

AIBU to think this isn’t just market forces but greed and that pretending otherwise ignores the damage being done?

Sometimes it's greed. But a lot of things have gone up - insurance, cost of repairs, costs of replacements, costs of servicing, agents fees- it's not just about mortgage rates.

i think most tenants expect incremental yearly increases of maybe up to £100 per month. Some of the figures landlords give tenants are extortionate. Pay up or get out.

Unless you want your rent to increase massively because the windows needed repair, then the rent needs to go up a bit every year to cover the cost of repairs spread over several years.

So Landlord is paying a wage to the rental agent and handyman, if he has them. He’s paying increased cost of materials. He’s paying increased cost of insurance, and an amount every year to be ready for the inevitable need to replace carpets, white goods, windows, repairs…

All that goes up.
And yes, employers aim to give a cost of living increase every year if they can. If this is the landlord’s job, he’s going to want that too.

Do you have the same moral qualms about farmers (or Tescos) raising food prices btw. Food also being an essential and most people not having the ability to be self sufficient?

YABU. Being a landlord is a business like any other. While I don't deny that there are greedy and unscrupulous ones, it also shouldn't be expected that they don't run their business in order to profit. They aren't charities and they take on a lot of risks, especially now it has been made next to impossible to get rid of problem tenants.

YABU. Lots of landlords do have mortgages which will have gone up, landlords also have responsibility for maintenance as well, again that’s gone up and continues to go up. It’s not like they can pass increased costs on straight away most will have had to absorb some increases in costs until the next rent review

in the same way that if you own a house and have a mortgage that goes up you have to find the extra to cover

I think the issue it tenants tend to assume landlords are rich . When people end up being landlords for loads of reasons.

Our landlady owns our flat outright, in the last 10 years she has only put the rent up twice, but l know her service charge has gone up every year, so would be fair if she wanted to increase more. But she values us as tenants who cause her no issues.
She said last week if we move she will sell the flat its to stressful with the new renters bill.

No , I never said the argument should be ignored.

What I'm saying is that the argument gets used to shout down all other arguments.

So basically landlords should be able to make whatever profits they want, because if they aren't allowed to do that, they will leave the market and it will all go to hell.

It's the same childish argument we get for why Amazon shouldn't be taxed properly, why the 1% and billionaires shouldn't be taxed properly in the UK... "but what if they leeeaaave?!!"

It's so predictable.

Yeah landlords can happen "accidentally" as many love to say on here.

But can we be real at some point - many landlords become landlords because they don't like the idea of investing in pensions, they don't "trust" the stock market despite decades of evidence of growth in long term positions, and they don't have an idea for a business.

So to "grow their wealth" they turn to bricks and mortar because someone, probably their boomer mum or uncle, told them it was "the safest bet".

And that's it.... that encompasses so many of the landlords we see in Britain today. They treat it like an investment product - they want maximum returns without paying the fees.

Would you feel better if I told you I put your rent up to cover the cost of VAT on my kids school fees or because I wanted a new bathroom, rather than general inflation/rising living costs? Probably not. The rent our tenants pay forms part of our income and that needs to increase each year for us to maintain our standard of living. Everyone looks after themselves at the end of the day. You can call it greed, I call it providing for my family.

Its not just about the mortgage payments though is it. Do you know the cost of maintaining a home? Then having a BTL is an investment, LLs don't do it as a charity. I've just sold mine, the returns weren't great and finding decent trades seems to be near impossible.

Perhaps all these landlords that cant afford their second properties should sell up? A month or two of vacant between properties would land them in financial turmoil anyway.

Do wages not go up every year?

Do they? I'm working in the wrong place

I think landlords are immoral full stop so this behaviour tracks. A necessary evil but to be a LL you have to be inherently immoral.

I can’t see the issue here. They don’t have to justify anything - they can charge whatever people are willing to spend. They can say they’re raising it because of inflation or taxes or because they want an extra holiday - it isn’t really important to justify it.

whether I think the entire system is fair is another conversation but this specific complaint doesn’t seem particularly relevant.

Why?

To me it is giving the same vibes as when companies have layoffs due to financial concerns and then celebrate their best year yet.

My buildings monthly maintenance fees went down. My landlord didn't increase the rent because of it and hasn't increased in 4 years. My neighbours rent is increased every year.

I agree 100%, and I say that as a LL myself. I keep a watch on properties in the area where we have our sole rental, so I’ll often know - not whether there’s a mortgage on it, unless I’m nosy enough to check the Land Reg (never have so far) - but that the owner so often bought it ages ago for relative peanuts. And lately has been racking the rent up to what seems truly extortionate levels - because they can, and there will still be people queueing up.

My landlord has no mortgage, I know because of the type of building I have you can't get a mortgage on it, but they've raised my rent from next year because I'm sitting at below market rates and their costs have increased like everyone else's. I don't sit stewing that they ought not because they don't have a mortgage, they owe me nothing but peaceful occupation of the building they own that I pay rent for - they aren't morally obliged to keep my rent low because they don't have a high rate mortgage.

This post is the definition of entitled -
It's a free market dictated by the lack of housing in my area.

Presumably because @JHound thinks that those who can't afford to buy a house should be sleeping in the gutter (or maybe the workhouse).

Anyone can find this out for a few pounds if they check Land Registry

You are correct. Which is exactly why I described landlordism as a “necessary evil”.

Rising by inflation is probably the fairest raise if you ask me.

I just had my boiler serviced. £50 last year. £76 this year. Nothing done on it. I've had tradesmen in lately too, their prices have gone up too. So has everything I buy...and minimum wage has too, unlike mine.

Because I think it takes a particular mindset to wish to make money off the provision of shelter. I acknowledge they need to exist but it still takes a particular type of character (a bit like becoming a police officer.)

Accidental landlords excepted.