AIBU to put tenants rent up?

[HarpoBoy]

As part of my Buy to Let portfolio, I have a flat in Clapham that I rent out for £1,850 pcm. Fixed term interest only mortgage of approx £600 until the end of 2026.

Long standing and good tenants, but I know the main tenant works for a major accounting firm who has just given their staff a 9% pay rise. He is quite senior, so can afford the rent.

The rent is up for renewal at the year end. I usually put it up £50 or so.

EA reckons the local market has gone bananas and I should put it up at least £250 this year.

AIBU to put it up by £150 to take it to £2k a month? Should I put it up more or less?

Of course their costs will have gone up, don’t you watch the news? 🙄

Well, you’ve done what you wanted and ignored everyone telling you you’re greedy. Your mortgage isn’t increasing, so you really have no excuse for increasing the rent. Your tenant is foolish to go along with it.

The OP has stated that they're on a fixed rate mortgage until 2026 so that cost hasn't gone up

Bills aren't included so that's not going up for the OP.

Please identify which of the OPs costs have gone up.

And the good news is that the paperwork is all signed at £2,050 pcm.

Thanks again to all who offered cool-headed advice.

Thanks also to those who just offered a knee-jerk reaction against all landlords based on petty envy. I found many of the responses quite amusing.

Why is it disgusting?

We've just supplied another fake reference for a mate in Brighton. He's moving on having just been gouged for rent. Not sure what he's going to do with all the screws that fell out the door hinges and the floor boards from under the carpet but we have had a good laugh.

Not sure why someone with a ‘portfolio’ needs to ask advice on Mumsnet but…
good tenants are priceless so I wouldn’t take the piss with them. £75 + maybe?
if you create bad feeling by gouging them it won’t do you good in the long term. You’ll spend a lot more money finding new tenants.

Thanks also to those who just offered a knee-jerk reaction against all landlords based on petty envy. I found many of the responses quite amusing

what about your fellow landlord who also thought you were being awful?

You have good tenants. Be a good landlord.

If my tenants stay I don’t put the rent up each year. Perhaps when they move out.

Pay someone to fix it once the inventory company flags these, and then withhold the money from the deposit, I would hope.

Why? Do you just do what the “market” says? Why?

Being a landlord makes you automatically greedy, unless you become a hero and charge super cheap rent. But most won’t

You can put it up, but be prepared for them to find another landlord who has no mortgage and can undercut your price or doesn`t need to increase because they recently fixed for ten years or whatever, and also be aware that recession flags are going up now (according to some of the financial media) and someone at an accounting firm may be exposed to job cuts in a recession.

TBH if they are on good money an extra £250 might not bother them too much but by potentially annoying them and inspiring them to look elsewhere you just add another thing to the list of things that could see you with a void. Is there nothing YOU can do to reduce your mortgage debt rather than assuming that tenants are going to step in to service the debt?