Unable to pay rent increase

[GoAgainstNicki]

I wonder if anyone is able to give some advice on what the next steps will be?

I had an email from the estate agents a couple of weeks ago to say that the Landlord is requesting a rent increase from 1180 to 1500 a month. He wanted this done effective immediately but as my tenancy doesn’t say anything about allowing rent increases, he’ll have to wait until my tenancy is finished this summer.

If I’m unable to pay the rent increase which I totally can’t, what happens next? I already bid for council properties and I know the council won’t help me at all unless I’ve been served with a section 21 notice. Do I just ask the Landlord to start the eviction process and still pay 1180 every month?

The Landlord isn’t open to negotiation at all which is quite silly because it’s probably not worth going to court over just to get an eviction notice but hey, ho! Thanks for any advice given:)

@dollymixtured you’re commenting on a situation that you quite literally know nothing about, my God!

In order for the council to help you, you need to be served with a section 21 notice otherwise they deem you as voluntarily homeless. I was homeless already and the council placed me here. I bid every week on the council housing register in order to get a council flat.

Please pay attention to this part - for me to go back to the council to get further help, I MUST have a section 21 notice. I’m not private renting long term, that isn’t and never has been the plan when dealing with the council. It just so happens that the LL wants to increase the rent to something that I can’t afford so I have a reason for the council to help me again.

I’m not sure what part of this you’re not getting, but as I said in my first post, if you have nothing helpful to say then just don’ comment. So actually, staying here and getting evicted is the only way the council will help me and we’ll get housed in a council property as I’ve already been in temporary accommodation.

I can’t stop you from commenting as this is the internet but I won’t be responding to you again

Now I don't know much about these things, because I've always lived in one of these cheap places 'up north' where everyone likes to send those members of their community who can't afford the local eye watering house prices, but I always wonder, when they all move, who is going to serve the coffees, stack the shelves, provide care services, cleaning services, or any other needed but low paid job when they've all moved away?

Drip drip drip! It sounds like you know exactly the situation you are in and have no intention of doing anything to change it. So you do you.

Ummm, if anyone is taking the piss here, it's the landlord.

I am pretty sure the OP isn’t doing any job given she has a 10 month old and a 22 month old. Hence the suggestion she is in a position to move. Anyway, she knows exactly her options so I am not sure what the point of her thread was

Why would I change my situation when the end goal has always been to get a council property? That’s literally the whole reason that I’m here.

I’ve been placed here by the council for the past two years because it’s better to stay somewhere that’s not temporary accommodation. You seem unhinged!

I literally work 24 hours a week😂 please go away!

Op there are people here trying to help you with other options. Calling someone unhinged is rude. There's really no need to be quite so unpleasant.

Be prepared that the council may pay the difference between top LHA rate and the 1500 as homeless prevention. But if you can't afford it don't sign a new TA just keep paying the rent while staying there during the eviction process. The council might also find you a new private rent as well if there's no council housing available.

The first comment from that poster was telling me that I’m taking the piss. Maybe tell them to not be so unpleasant? That poster also wasn’t trying to help me at all. It’s quite clear that everyone else has been providing very helpful comments

Good for you.

Thank you! This is essentially the sort of advice I was talking about.

I have spoken with the council regarding a discretionary housing allowance to make up the difference but it seems like I won’t qualify to get it a second time. I will fill out the application just in case I get a different written response from them.

I think you’re right that they may place me in another private rental. Due to my son’s disability we have a mobility priority and the last time I placed a bid I came 11th. So I’m hoping by the time summer comes round we’re a bit closer to getting a place so the council can just find somewhere to house us straight away.

Thanks for your help:)

Maybe the landlords mortgage and own expenses gone up hence the increase? Maybe the rent paid currently is below market rate
I'm not a landlord and rent myself but do we know the landlords situation? It's ok slagging them off and many deserve it but why is it going up?
OP you have two very young kids, are you getting everything you deserve from their father? Will that help bridge the gap?

Have you seen the rental market recently?! Jesus wept. I live in a "cheap" northern city. Rents in my shitty area have gone up by 25% in the last 12 months. Funnily enough my wages haven't.....

Most people in my situation (and the OP) can't afford to pay the rent and save a deposit for a house. I'm not even sure what a "cheaper" area would look like for us. Our LHA is about £500 short of the actual rental prices in the area. I'd sell a kidney for a council house, some stability for my children and to escape private landlords and their insane increases. Housing in this country is absolutely broken.

It’s not reasonable to try and increase the rent by £320 effective immediately. It’s only because there’s no mention of a rent increase within my tenancy that he has to wait until my tenancy ends in summer

She does now, but they won't stay that way forever. Anyway it was a general observation on the well worn 'move somewhere cheaper' line. OP may planning to return well paying career when the children are a bit older for all any of us know.

But I just find it ridiculous and quite sad that the solution is always to ship people off elsewhere, rather than to rally for the expectation of local communities being able to look after and out for their own.

Good luck OP. At least you have a bit of time to get a plan together.

If I’m unable to pay the rent increase which I totally can’t, what happens next? I already bid for council properties and I know the council won’t help me at all unless I’ve been served with a section 21 notice. Do I just ask the Landlord to start the eviction process and still pay 1180 every month?

Just in case it’s clear, this is my question and this is why I posted. I’ve received some helpful comments which have more or less explained what I need to do. I’ll also contact Shelter on further advice just so I’m not doing anything wrong and making sure the right procedure gets followed by the Landlord

But it is reasonable if you are paying below market rate, he owes you nothing. He has a business. Why would anybody sell anything for less than it's worth?
You haven't said where you are so can only assume London/ south
I private rent and every fixed term it's gone up usually 50-100, I know if I left I'd be paying more so I suck it up and cost cut elsewhere as I prefer to live in a central location in a major city, should the time come I can't afford it I will have to move to a cheaper suburb, I won't want to but that's life. You rely on support from the council, it's what it's there for, help people get back on their feet, but if you can't afford the area you are in you have to move as sad as it is.

Landlords should never have been allowed to get interest-only buy to let mortgages, cuz now interest is going up, and property prices might go down a bit, they have to fuck tenants over in order to pay the mortgage they should never have been allowed to get. LLs should have had to have had at least 60% deposit so they had a financial cushion.

So many people in OPs situation. CEO of Foxtons on the radio the other day saying renters will just have to move out of London. So fucking flippant about people having to uproot their lives and families. Housing is broken in this country. Best of luck OP, hope you get a council or decent HA place.

@WyldeSwan @Charley50 thank you both for the well wishes!

My son will most likely be in a wheelchair so my fingers are crossed that we can get a mobility adapted flat (whether it be council or HA)🤞

Hopefully you'll get somewhere by then if you keep bidding - the homeless prevention fund money is a different pot to dhp - so you may get it temporarily to allow you to stay while you bid if you are getting close. The council may speak to your LL to see if they can agree with him for you to stay a while.
I'm sure you know make sure you bid on stuff that you're likely to get and not the highest demand places. Also housing associations properties are sometimes easier to get than council when bidding.

In the nicest possible way, the answer to not being able to afford a rent increase, for the massive majority of the population, is to move to somewhere cheaper you can afford. You are obviously looking for a different type of advice about how to avoid paying a rent increase whilst staying put. Strangely enough that is not how everyone would have interpreted your original post. Anyway, you staying put and eventually getting evicted isn’t going to to help your prospects long term but I guess you’re not worried about that at this point.

In OPs situation, she can't just move. Nowhere wants someone on Universal Credit, it's taken me a year of applying for every rental property I can afford and I'm constantly told no or they don't accept universal credit or you need 6 months/12 months rent upfront and with two small children, no deposit and relying on UC, I don't think OP will be accepted anywhere in a hurry.

Depressingly her best option really is to get evicted so that the council will house her because if she hands in her notice, she's making herself intentionally homeless and the council won't help her.

Sorry you're in this shitty situation OP, I know just how dire it is.

Do your local council have a discretionary housing payment scheme? This is usually awarded to pay the shortfall between your LHA and your rent amount, it might help you whilst you try and find somewhere else.

Sorry totally cross posted with you!

Why is the landlord putting the rent up?

I own a property that I rent out for holidays. I don’t make a profit on it. The mortgage has increased by £330 pcm since September.

ive had to slightly increase the weekly cost to cover the higher mortgage. The alternative is for me to pay for other people’s holidays.

Without knowing why your landlord is increasing the rent, it’s hard to know whether they are being unreasonable.