Landlord wants to double our rent

[Vegetablespringrolls]

It's still within the LHA. Would we still get the rent paid by universal credit?

We live in a house owned by a charity. We pay a very low rent currently as we get a discount on the rent for working part time for the charity. The head of the charity has said that our rent is no longer covering their expenses and they have to increase the rent.

I don’t think they can legally do that! Check out the Shelter website. Good luck

They can’t. It’s illegal.

Maybe their rent isn't covering their expenses. Perhaps the rent has been too low for too long. Ask Citizens Advice or Shelter for help.

Depends if the rent they are suggesting is in line with other houses around the area. For example a average 3 bed around your area goes for £900 pm but they want to increase yours to £1400 pm. They cant do that and can be legally challenged

Of course they can increase the rent.

Contact shelter for advice.

If it’s still within the LHA rate then yes UC will cover the increase before deductions. But I would speak to Shelter to check if the increase is valid. If in England landlord can only increase rent by issuing a section 13. But I don’t know if your situation is different

Under what legislation?
So long as they haven't raised the rent within the last year, landlords can raise the rent by however much they want. Obviously it needs to be in line with local similar property rents.
I don't think it matters that the landlord is a charity so long as it's an assured periodic tenancy (APT).
However, it probably could matter if the accommodation was part of a contract connected to their work, and it would be bet to get advice from Shelter etc.

Thank you. The houses in our area aren't the same size and 3 of them have been passed through the same family for generations so we have no idea how much the house is worth or what the average rent should be. I had a look at our contract and it said the landlord can only increase the rent by 5% each year.

Is it an almshouse?

Well if the contract says an increase of 5% each year as a max then I would go back and point that out to them.

If they're still owned by a charity and the charity is making a loss, I'd assume that at some point the house will no longer be available.

No

This. And rightly so. Who covers the loss?

Depends. When you say you pay a low rent a how low?

eg if you’re getting a 3 bed for £200 a month and they want £400 it still seems more than fair. Appreciate there’s no direct comparison in the area but surely you can get a ballpark figure?

The charity coffers or donations?
Being a landlord does not mean your tenant meet all the costs and provide you a profit.

Of course it does. The tenant isn’t the recipient of the charity 🙄

Are they increasing the base rent, or reducing the discount? Because that's complicated and legally it's not really the same and straightforwardly raising the rent.

I don't donate to charity to cover random peoples' rent because rent aren't up to standard. I would stop donating if I got hold of that story. Charities know that. Xan be very expensive for a charity to spend donated money on.

If you are in tied property connected to your work then rules are different. I’m not up to speed on current legislation, but to those saying it’s legal/not legal probably aren’t familiar with tied property legislation. I think that you need to get expert advice, not just the local CAB and which country will matter too (I’m presuming England but Scottish law will differ usually). I’ve managed a tied property and it had a very specific contract, not an assured shorthold tenancy. The fact that they are a charity doesn’t matter, it will be based on the contract

If the charity is being well run, I expect this is a "we need to put the rent to closer to market rates or we'll be forced to sell situation"

A charity can't retain an investment that's costing them money.

Legally perhaps they can only enforce a 5% increase in line with the agreement, but they can ask for whatever they can negotiate with OP.

You have a valid contract that states they can only raise the rent 5% a year - that is binding for them. Under the new RRA - they can't get you out either so I would push back and insist on the 5%.

It would probably be worth contacting Shelter if you can as they can give you advice.

https://england.shelter.org.uk/get_help

The fact that OP works for the charity and has been receiving a healthy discount on the base text, muddies the waters here.

Like a pp, I'd be interested in whether it's the base rent that's being increased, or the discount being reduced/done away with.

If the rent is still going to be covered by UC it won't be overly high because most people claiming UC housing allowance have to top it up out of the their own funds.