I have a 1 bed BTL flat in Scotland. I'm self-employed and this flat is essentially my pension. I've had the same lovely tenant for about 5 years, and haven't increased the rent during that period. It's £650pm in an area that easily gets £800pm (probably more). The flat is well maintained and I'm always quick to sort out any repairs. I take a lot of pride in looking after it!
With terrible timing, I wanted to increase the rent to £750 and agreed this with the tenant, just before the Scottish govt announced the ban on rent increases. She was definitely okay with this, and appreciated us keeping it below market rates due to her being a great tenant, however just a couple of days later the SG made their announcement.
The catalyst for increasing is that my BTL mortgage rate increased by £200pm. I also moved house in January (desperately needed more space, as I've been sleeping on a sofa bed for the last 2.5 years!) and my bills and residential mortgage have increased significantly.
My understanding is that although the ban has been lifted, I can now only increase by 3%, or 6% if I appeal due to my costs having risen (which they have).
I'm so cheesed off about this. I've even thought about just selling up (although that would presumably have a capital gains cost). In an ideal world I'd just have a convo with our tenant and explain it situation and see if she's okay to increase to the amount we'd agreed before. But maybe that's illegal?!
Any other ingenious ideas?