Rent increase - just venting really

[Pepperoniextracheese]

First of all, this isn't a begging post. Or even a can I challenge this post. I'm just venting because this couldn't have come at a worse time.

I've just seen an email from the letting agents. My rent is going up by nearly 20%. I've lived here 9 years and it's never gone up, so it is a reasonable amount considering how much rents have changed. I've emailed back asking to meet in the middle, but I don't hold out much hope there.

If i was working right now it wouldn't be so bad. However my fixed term contract ended a month ago and I've barely had a call back since. I'm a single parent to two small kids. One in nursery, the other in primary. Eldest has ASD & ADHD, I'm very doubtful he'd cope in after school club (I'm not even sure they'd take him, given his needs). Because of this I need either part time or very flexible hours. It's so hard. If i didn't have the kids I'd get another job so easily, but I'm so restricted.

They're with their dad 50/50, so no maintenance and he gets the CB for one of them. This isn't a complaint, he's a great dad. It's just for context. Now that I'm on universal credit only one child is included on the claim. How anyone lives off that money long term I've no idea. I'm already dipping into my savings much more than i thought I would.

I've got just over 5 grand, so I'm in a better position than many. It took so long to save that, I always thought if it as the beginning of my deposit fund, for when the kids are bigger and i can work more hours. Get a mortgage, own my own home. That feels further than ever now.

Just....fuck. Fucking fuck. I'm going to have to find the money. Anywhere else would cost at least as much, and who wants to rent to a single parent on benefits?

You never think lifes going to be like this do you?

Probably not the solution you're looking for, but if it comes to this or homelessness until you get housed by the council, which you would with DC, then maybe tell dad he needs to have them almost full time. If he's a good dad and they've got SN it's maybe what's best for them too instead of living in temporary accommodation.

I know you probably don't want to be a EOW parent but it'll be the easiest thing for you career, housing etc.

I note dad currently has them 50/50 and I'm going to assume that's a true 50/50, since he gets one lot of CB and you only get one UC amount for DC. So if he's actually paying 50% of everything and provides 50% childcare, how is he doing it?

You're both theoretically in the exact same position, but I'm guessing he's got a new woman doing some of the childcare for him? Does mean his household would cope better with being the default parent though, if that's the case and their relationship is solid, it would take the pressure off you if all you had to do was have fun with them once a fortnight.

How much is it extra a month OP ? X

She literally says this in the op 🙄🙄

Sorry OP, it’s horrible when this happens. None of us hope this for our lives. Wishing you all the best.

I'm aware the increase is reasonable. The only thing I may bring up is that the house has only had absolutely necessary repairs done in this time. If he was to re-let it he'd need to spend quite a lot to bring it back up to standard. Fully redecorating at a minimum, and probably new carpets. That might give me a little bargaining power.

We haven't yet applied for DLA, that's top of the list. My ex gets the CB for the eldest, so it'll go to him and I know he gets a bit of universal credit. We've already discussed spliting the award, and the extra universal credit he'll get. Thankfully he's a good bloke, he won't just keep the money!

The housing element of my universal credit is already 115 less than my current rent. So no further help there.

Being a TA is something I've considered. My work experience is admin & accounts though, so I'm not sure how I'd go about that. Can you apply without TA qualifications?

Without after school club for the eldest it'd still be difficult though, unless i was lucky enough to get a job in his school!

Yes you can TA without qualifications

Talk to teaching personnel agency

( no i dont work 4 them )

If it had been increased annually, it would have gone up by far more than 20% over 9 years!

Theres a new law in soon which says Landlords can't raise rent more than 5 percent

Tnats why Landlords are raising it before this new law

Yes you can.

I worked as a TA for several years and had qualifications in something quite different. You just have to be the right sort of person to be able to relate well to young people who can have challenging behaviours. Tolerant, patient, non judgemental etc.

Many schools are crying out for TAs at the moment. It's not a well paid job but the hours do suit parents of small children. Just look on the website of your local council for jobs or the websites of individual schools that may appeal to you.

And why a standard 5% rise every year will soon become the norm, whether necessary or not. It's rules like that which cause problems. Good idea in theory, but awful in practice due to them not foreseeing the entirely foreseeable consequences.

Could you use a childminder instead of an after school club? Your Dc may cope with that better as there would be a lot less children and in a home setting. Then you could look for full time or longer hours part time jobs.

I have to reply to this.

First of all, it's hard enough only having my kids half of the week. No way in hell am I going to reduce this further just because of money!

I know it's rare, but it is in fact true 50/50. He pays for everything they need at his and we share costs such as nursery & school uniform fairly. While he does have a new women, she's not doing the childcare. They've only met her a couple of times so far and have no plans to live together.

While we didn't work out, I cannot fault him as a father. I'm still not giving him the kids more though! 😆

Ask him if you can claim child benefit for both of them and give him the cash equivalent. That would boost up your UC claim while he wouldn't lose anything (assuming he isn't claiming UC himself.

Is the eldest entitled to DLA? Maybe look into claiming that too.

If the above are possible it might buy you enough time to keep looking for suitable work.

It’s not really, lots of landlords don’t routinely review rents which actually isn’t such a mean practice. We review every two years and they go up a relatively small amount -£20-40pcm at a time. I’ve been badgering FIL to do the same as his are woefully low. Earlier this year the agents reviewed his and some went up £180pcm which is an unsustainable hike for most people, working or not.

Im sorry you’re in this predicament OP, hope you manage to find a work soon.

Thanks for all of the responses. I've calmed down a bit since posting. It'll be ok. It's only terrible while I'm unemployed. I WILL get another job.

I'll be speaking to the local housing association this week as I've been on the list around 5 years now. That probably means I'm about halfway, but you never know! Going to get together with the ex to do the DLA application, we've put that off too long already.

I don't hold out much hope for a lower rent increase. I know I'm lucky it's never gone up. Though the house does reflect that in many ways. My boiler is older than I am, the roof gets repaired every winter as it needs replacing, and the place is just kind of shabby now. I do basic repairs and decorating, but I'm not spending a lot of money on sometime else's house!

It'll be ok, could be worse.

What does he do about wrap around care? Couldn’t you do the same as he does?

Our schedule was originally arranged around his working pattern, which was fine at the time. He doesn't need after school club on his pickup days, and currently we are able to access breakfast club.

It's becoming increasingly clear we'll have to look at the schedule. It's making it too difficult for me to get a job new job.

Not when there's been no increase for 9 years it's not to be fair.

Unfortunately it seems that as it's still market rate, its allowed.

This would make sense.

Yeah well, mumsnetters generally hate landlords and so did the last Tory govt. and labour definitely hate them so a load are exiting, me included. I’ve sold all 8.

So yeah. Hate on them, spit at them, tax them, but don’t then shit the bed because we all bail. Supply and demand.

Suck it up.

No-one on this thread has mentioned hating landlords. Several people have commented that OP is very lucky as her LL didn’t increase her rent for 9 years. Telling her to ‘suck it up’ is uncalled for.

You don’t sound like a horrible landlord but you do sound like a very unpleasant human being.