Dilemma regarding rent charge for friend

[Plantyshazfan]

Hello, we have a child with a disability that we bought a flat for (either to live in when he is old enough or to live off the rental income)

The flat is in a desirable area and is lovely. One of our friends has lived in it for nearly 10 years, they would struggle to pay the full rental value so we’ve never charged them that. We have just covered mortgage and management costs.

So, now we know that our son won’t ever live in the flat and our friend is loving living there. We are essentially down financially around £3,000 per year and feel unable to ask them to pay more…. They are a good tenant and friend. What do we do?

We don’t need the money ourselves but obviously we are working hard to ensure that we have enough money for our son to live for the rest of his life too as he won’t be able to work…

AIBU to ask for more rent?

You are subsidizing your friend at the expense of your special needs son's future financial security.

Look at it that way and make a decision.

You need to put away as much as you can for him. You need to talk to your friend and tell them you need to raise the rent, and why, ask them to move and find renters who will pay more, or sell up.

Sounds like the good idea.

Your son needs to be earning money from this flat as well as being able to cover all the costs and repairs.

I'd start by raising the rent £50 a month and explain to friend that you need to start being able to cover repairs for the flat.

what are you going to do with an empty house? what is the point in that?

So they can sell it

What about a 10% increase? Your costs etc have gone up over 10 years and you need a fund for maintenance. It's perfectly reasonable to raise the rent each year by a small amount.

And in response to @Grammarninja

To clarify:

Evict. Tell friend it's to sell empty.

Replace with new tenant at market rate.

Even with vacant time, OP is going to struggle to get 3k a year extra out of the current tenant particularly quickly and in 5 months when Renters Rights comes in, there will either be even more renters than properties, which will drive up market rates, or a glut of housing on the market which will slow sales (and is a decent "reason" why OP may decide not to sell after all...)

basically im suggesting she evicas and immediately replaces her tenant and lies about it to friend under the guise of selling and then changing her mind.

I also wonder if OP has a tenancy in place for the current arrangement and increases anyway.

Why not give her the option to pay more rent instead of giving her the boot? She'll have to pay more elsewhere anyway and she's trustworthy.

This happened to an elderly friend. She was tricked into moving so they could charge more, and they had never given her a rent increase. She would rather pay more rent and stay.

Investing your money is probably easier long term but I would t see it as £3000 down but rather you have accepted a lower return for a guaranteed rate of return. Bad tenants can cost a fortune - I would prefer the safe return.

Wow. Some friend you are. Lying is never ok.

You should at least raise the rate by inflation. Tell them you need to do that and they can decide what they want to do.

Have you not increased the rent at all in 10 years? If not, yanbu to put it up from time to time!

Presumably they weren't under market, or as much, in the begging, so this my overstate how long they've had it good for.

Things don't happen that quickly. There would be at least a month's rent gone and then agency fees. I'd be stunned if she wasn't down more than £3000 at the end of it, if done in stealth.

Shes not been charging them market value in a desirable area. They've had it good then havent they really.

I've only read the OP's posts and skimmed the rest. I'm pretty sure others have mentioned it but you must get advice specific to the tenancy OP, most solicitors can only give an overview, but joining the NRLA would give you everything you need very quickly. If you don't act by 30th April you will have changed your circumstances and that of the tenant for a very long time. Have you got all your paperwork and protected the deposit? There are also several landlords' Facebook pages the moderators give free advice:

www.nrla.org.uk

surely what you are suggesting is now illegal though? You can't re let a property for 12 months after evicting to sell a property if the property doesn't sell

so you're left with an empty property for 12 months

What is the long term plan for the flat? For it to be income for your son and someone (when you are not around) will manage it for him? Assume when that happens the rent will increase massively as their job will be to look after your son's best interests? In the meantime I don't see why you can't increase the rent slightly. I am a landlord and have lovely tenants and I felt bad raising the rent but they totally understood. I presume if your place is rented under market rate and you are paying the mortgage and the income tax that you probably aren't making any money at all on it and that doesn't allow for repairs etc and if you aren't breaking even then that seems pretty silly to be subsiding your friend rather than saving for your son's future

The easy option is to sell the flat and invest the proceeds elsewhere…

Good tenants who pay on time and look after the place are worth hanging onto. While on the open market you could get another couple of hundred a month, you also run the risk of a tenant who does a runner, a tenant who causes outrageous damage, tenants who change frequently leaving you with gaps in rental income, or a tenant who you constantly have to remind to pay.

If your current tenant is a good one and the costs such as mortgage and water rates are being covered then you'd be mad to potentially lose her as both a tenant and a friend.

If you really want some extra cash then why not just increase the rent a little - say another £50 a month.

Ultimately though, it seems like you both get a good deal out of the current situation: you get your mortgage paid each and every month with the end goal of a fully paid-off property and your tenant isn't getting price gouged (unlike an awful lot of tenants these days).

I know what I'd do, but it's entirely your choice.

I would be honest with your friend and give them a choice. Say the rental income is less than it's costing and it was supposed to be of benefit to your DS. Ask them if they would prefer to pay the increased rent or find somewhere else at a lower rate. Give them 3 months to look around and help them make the decision about whether they pay more with you or less elsewhere (or more elsewhere as rents are high). Then if they decide to stay increase the rent as you proposed. If not, serve them the correct notice and advertise it at the new rate.

As a PP mentioned, there is a renters rights bill that comes in in May 2026. You may want to take some professional advice as to how this will affect you.

I echo my previous post that I would seriously consider selling, especially considering this.

I think you can increase the rent by £50/mo every other year.
To have had rent frozen for 10yrs is a huge benefit you’ve given them.
They have to have read the news and know that you’ve borne a lot of extra costs over the years due to government changes.

I don’t think you can jump the rent to full market value, but your friend would surely understand a small rent increase is warranted every now and then?

I had a terrible experience with my flat after I stopped letting it to friends. Rent didn't increase dramatically, i paid for management and had a string of awful tenants who repeatedly trashed the place. (One turned ot into a crack den, i recovered it then another left filthy puppy pads all over the place.) I would have paid £3k per year to have costs covered and a decent tenant.

Did you buy the flat as an investment, or did you buy it to do your friend a favour?

you should have increased the rent every year by the market amount, and should increase it now immediately, as much as you can under the current rules, and then further increase it each year. New regulations are coming in, so make sure you know what you are doing.

you should be doing what is best for your child's future, not what is best for your friend.

I think the honest chat is the way forward.

Your friend knows the situation ie that this is an asset for your DS. You can tell her that you now know DS will never use it but he does need to earn an income from it. Tell her that you appreciate she has cared for this flat over the years and you want to keep her as a tenant but that you will also need for the rent to cover all the costs associated with the flat, which is more than just the mortgage as it needs to include building a fund for maintenance etc. Such as has been needed this year on the alarm. So you will need to put the rent up a bit to cover this.

Come to a view on a reasonable rent amount which reflects her good standing as a tenant but also doesn't leave you out of pocket. This is an asset for your DS and so you need to have a financial head as well as a friend head.

Also make sure youve done all the needful landlord things like securing deposit etc