Rental repairs

[oompahoooo]

Name changed for this.

We've been in our current rental several years, without issue. We live in an area where I'd say the rental prices are average. The type of property we are in rents for between 1300-1400 pcm. The LL charges us 775pcm. We know we are very lucky.

Over the years, we've done the odd repairs here and there on the basis we pay well below the market average. We know we did not have to do such repairs. Things such as replacing a handle, or the blind. We've also bought a new tap.
We've also painted the walls and bought new doors.

My partner recently had to change jobs and her salary has dropped massively. As such, money is now very tight. The issue now is a few repair jobs have cropped up, which are the LL's responsibility, we believe. We cannot afford to make these repairs and to be honest, don't think we should. We are concerned if we approach the LL with these repair jobs, he may decide to increase the rent, which we could not afford.

What would you do?

What are the repairs? Are you entitled to any benefits if you've had a big drop in income?

No help with income given earnings level.
The repairs aren't huge.
New carpet-this one is worn.
Flooring in two bedrooms has been down before we moved in and now has chips/warped.
One of the fascia's needs replacing.

That's all cosmetic so none of it an emergency, your rent is only 50% of the current market rate no way in hell I'd be rocking that boat!

I would keep quiet about all of those things. They are cosmetic and so the landlord doesn’t have to do them (and nor do you). If the boiler broke or the roof started leaking then absolutely ask the landlord to sort but you’re onto a good thing and say you can’t afford the increase so just put up with a worn carpet.

How long is several years? Damage to wood flooring sounds unusual wear and tear in a relatively shorter timeframe unless you have dropped things or chipped it.

We've been in nearly four years. The flooring predates us.

Understand this however surely the LL should be maintaining the property. We are paying 775. He bought the property a long time ago when prices were fair. I doubt he has a large mortgage.

Ask the landlord to do the repairs then. But don’t be surprised if your rent is increased to market level.
The landlords mortgage is irrelevant to the rent they can charge.

We will need to look at the tenancy agreement to see whether he can do this, and if so by how much. I would have thought rent increases are capped and cannot be suddenly increased by hundreds (market value)

You might be best speaking to Shelter first. Afaik there are no caps on private rent increases but it may depends where you live. If you can afford to offer to pay towards the cost it might be cheaper in the long run than a monthly increase. If you are on an AST the rent gets reviewed at the end of the period, with the usual notice ie. two months, if periodic a new AST is required.

There is no legal limit for increasing - some details here

blog.openrent.co.uk/how-much-can-a-landlord-increase-rent/#:~:text=While%20there's%20no%20legal%20cap,going%20ahead%20with%20the%20uptick.

Considering how much lower that market rate you are paying, you would be crazy to bring up cosmetic improvements

Your landlord keeping your rent at this rate is actually costing them £6k+ per year

Technically they should replace some things due to wear and tear, but you are paying suck a low rate that I would not risk rocking that boat

As long as everything is safe and legal that is.

They may do repairs if you ask, but will probably raise your rent

Also their mortgage amount is nothing to do with you and there are a lot of other costs involved in letting!