Landlord wants to increase rent by 20%

[wilderthan]

I moved into a flat about 8 months ago.
I have a one year contract.
I've always paid rent on time.
My landlord has just informed me that he'll like to increase the rent by approximately 20%.
I definitely can't afford it. The new rent will be about 80% of my salary. I'm literally living from pay check to pay check at the moment with my rent taking most of my income

I'm not a regular poster, so not sure this is the right AIBU kind of post.
Please I need advice. What are my rights and how should I respond to them?
I've had a nervous breakdown since the landlord told me this.

Yes less availability, higher rents.

The number of ex rentals on the market nr me is very high, apparently many being bought up by cash LL's, so sale prices still high, FTB's cannot compete, a double whammy.

Labour have said they will build more social housing but as you say, years away.

Also if you're on a 12 month tenancy, he has to give you 6 month's notice if the increase.

Personally I'd look for somewhere else. You don't want a greedy landlord like that. He'll just keep doing it

Although getting our kids on the housing ladder is the same valid point really, no social housing and silly rents so parents if they can, have to help solve the housing crisis!
Mad isn’t it

Also if you're on a 12 month tenancy, he has to give you 6 month's notice if the increase

Is this correct?

Not in many cases. If they can't meet their mortgage payments, everyone is fucked.

I am so sorry to hear your very worrying news Wilderthan.

My very good friend also lived in London from 1995 and always rented, paid on time etc. 18 months ago her LL decided he needed to sell and gave her an extension from 8 - 12 weeks to find somewhere else after nearly 12 years.🙁

It was an absolute nightmare and my friend had quite a healthy budget of 2.2K per month for a 2 bed. She said every viewing she went to there were around 6/7 other people waiting to view. She wasn’t successful with any!

She was finally left with only 2 weeks to find somewhere and finally found a nice 2 bedroom/2 bathroom apartment with small garden in Walton on Thames where she only pays £1350 per month. It is within 10/15 minutes walk of the town and the station. She is reasonably settled now but still misses London.
She moved to Walton at the start of this year.

I don’t know the Greater London area at all but would a similar set up be suitable for you? I know my friend can get into London very easily and she is only around 8 miles from where she previously lived.

Rentals seems to be a living hell at present and especially London.😥

A stupid comment that adds nothing to the discussion.

This is EXCELLENT news!

Check with all the deposit schemes.

By LAW, the LL has to protect the deposit and give you evidence of this within 30 days.

If the LL does not do this, firstly they CANNOT evict you until they return the deposit in full, and secondly you can sue them for up to 3X the deposit.

https://www.gov.uk/tenancy-deposit-protection

https://www.gov.uk/tenancy-deposit-protection/information-landlords-must-give-tenants

If you cannot find your deposit protected, then you hold the cards here. I'd not mention it for now, but negotiate with your LL about keeping your rent the same.

If he refuses, and wants the higher rent, then put in writing that the rent increase is unreasonable, ask for your deposit returned in full as he didn't protect it, then start looking for somewhere else.

Is it worth considering moving out of London?

It’s a business model that invests in an asset for eventual sale, just like stocks and shares, or business investments, or whisky barrels. I invested in a property after Equitable Life stole my pension pot. The capital growth has been similar to a pension fund, probably steadier, although with a lot fewer tax perks than a pension.

This. Absolutely.

All the fees the estate agent used to charge the tenant are now being charged to the landlord instead. In turn I imagine this is also helping to push rents up as a sort of stealth fee.

It costs DH about £150 each time an existing tenant renews their lease or their lease goes on to the rolling contract.

His last tenants moved out and it's cost him £983 in fees for the old tenant moving out and the new tenant moving in. This is on a £1,000 a month rent. On his first month's statement from the letting agent he received £10!

You don’t know the circumstances of my (1 year) early retirement, so you are just an opinionated idiot with nothing helpful to say other than insults. Pathetic.

No it's not correct a LL can increase rent at the end of the 12 months but must give 1 month's notice so at the beginning of month 11. Some LL do give longer notice but it's not mandatory.

Yes, this is correct and gas engineers fees to do the gas certificates have increased too but some just love to bash a LL.

The LL cannot put the rent up mid tenancy.

Do contact shelter and get guidance so you know when exactly to give notice.

Separately this flat sounds almost unaffordable at the current rate.

I would suggest 2 things.
1. Look on sparerroom.com and look into lodging /.being a lodger.

A lot of people with 2 beds look to rent a room to help with the mortgage - a lot of people aren't keen to lodge as it's someone else's home as sometimes the owners can be weird.
As a result the cost is less than market rate AND includes all your bills so managing finances is a lot easier (there are no surprises)

I was a lodger for 5 years before buying a 2 bed and letting a room. I then had 2 lodgers in that time both stayed for years (2 and 4 respectively)

It can work really well.

2. Increase your income

It's worth looking at how you can increase your earnings.
Either through a side hustle e.g. a PT job in a pub, tutoring, selling of Etsy if your are crafty? Uber driver...
Or by applying for new better paid jobs.

Hope things get better and don't get too stressed about this as they cannot force payment

No unlike those investments you list, you are fucking over someone's life when you evict them.

You make x amount what you paid for the house, the tenant has paid you x '000s in rent and they get 2 months notice to leave.

In my friends case, she has paid 165k in rent and the LL will sell the house for 200k, she paid 39k for it 23 years ago.

I really don't know how people can live with themselves.

Very true. DH had to replace the boiler and washing machine last year too. His tax return shows he made a "profit" of £5k on his rental income, but after mortgage payments and tax it's actually £400 in real cash terms.

Yes there are some horrible landlords that profiteer as much as is humanly possible and don't maintain their properties well, but being a landlord doesn't automatically mean you're raking it in.

No, not unless there's an individually negotiated clause in the contract saying that. There is also no maximum amount they can increase the rent unless, again, in was written into the contract. A landlord also cannot raise the rent during the fixed term of the contract (usually 12 months) unless both parties agreed to do so - I recently had this with one of my landlords - desperate landlord and very nice tenant who did so to help landlord out. Once the fixed term ends and no renewal/rent increase has been agreed, the tenancy will roll over & become a periodic tenancy at the same rent and terms. However, the landlord can still raise the rent by issuing a Section 13 notice.

You can blame Thatcher for the lack of social housing by letting people buy their council houses in the 80s.

My mum grew up on a large council estate. I clearly remember my grandparents house. A nice 3 bed house with a garden, perfect for their family of 5. Then they were given the chance to buy it at a bargain price which they of course jumped at, as did most of the neighbours. They would never have been able to buy their own home otherwise so, when they died, the house would've gone back to the council and passed to another family like them. Instead, my mum and her siblings sold it for a handsome profit. The estate is no longer a council estate and houses just like theirs regularly sell for eye-watering prices, well out of the grasp of people like my grandparents. Today's equivalent are no doubt struggling to pay private rent on a substandard house, if they are "lucky" enough to secure one in the first place. Sad state of affairs.

This is why BTL mortgages need to have a much lower LTV than 75%. The fluctuations in the economic climate easily overtakes the rental yield value and makes the mortgage payments unsustainable. The stress testing on these products were unrealistic.

Building a pension portfolio on a basic human need like housing is corrosive to future generations. There is no altruism involved when people say they are providing housing that wouldn't exist otherwise. Its a practice that has created an artificial housing market that has stopped thousands from buying a home by driving up prices. It has made a generation of people live in poorly managed, substandard, over priced housing with the ever present threat of being evicted due to the LLs change in circumstances.No one should have to live like that. We need better regulation, better rent control, less availability of BTL mortgage products and an increase in 100% mortgages for tenants who want to buy.

Me neither. Absolutely disgusting how BTL has been allowed to flourish and encouraged at the expense of everyone else. But actually they don't care about anyone but themselves and their greed. I hope the next government take building social housing on a large scale seriously and these people have no-one left to rent their houses and line their pockets.

I don't understand where you want people to live?? I always rented and wouldn't have been eligible for a mortgage or social housing- neither did I want either. We know that Liz Truss sent mortgages sky high- now those mortgages have to be paid.

This is a bit off topic but there are many landlords for commercial property. One lady I used to know owned the building for a factory somewhere in the midlands. I think it was a fair amount of work to keep it in good enough shape but the rental income (after costs) was about half her overall income. Not all landlords are Dickensian beasts who prey on the poor and vulnerable (in fact, very few are).

Landlords don’t do it for fun and games, they do it for an income.

Additional income. No-one leaves school and starts out as a landlord (except Donald Trump!). It starts as a side income.

The state has made it so that most landlords do not make a profit so they are selling up. That may well mean more properties for first time buyers to buy but it is certainly a very difficult position for landlords (and of course tenants too)