Obscene rent increase

[user97213982742]

Landlord has served Form 4a increasing my rent by £205 a month from October. This is a 46% increase.

The accompanying letter states

“After careful consideration, we have made the decision to implement an increase in the rent. This reflects the continued rise in property maintenance and operating costs, aligns the rent more closely with current market values, and will help support planned maintenance and improvement works to ensure the property is kept up as best as possible with future regulatory changes to the private rent sector”.

I understand that maintenance costs and improvements are the landlords responsibility and shouldn’t be a reason for a rent increase. And it is the landlords responsibility to ensure property meets the forthcoming EPC standards coming into force for private rented accommodation.

My wages haven’t increased by 46% a month.

I’ve lived here for 20 years. And the property only has one door. No fire doors, only 1 double glazed window that has blown, and does not meet fire escape route standards If there was a fire downstairs I have no other means of exit?

What can I do please

In the words of Judge Judy…”Move!”
Seriously though, moving is undoubtedly a huge upheaval, but it might be a good idea.

I can’t believe some of the statements on here regarding businesses making profits. Especially those saying landlords should be paying for improvements without increasing rent because they’re tax deductible expenses🙈. Jeez he’s only saving the tax! If he needs to spend say £10k on improvements as an example he can claim £2k as a basic rate taxpayer or £4k as a higher rate tax payer so he’s still £6-£8k out of pocket. Private landlords are not charitable organisations and they could put their money in a lock away bank account and generate a 4.5% return with zero effort or aggravation. It really is no wonder landlords are selling in their droves when so many people saying take him to a tribunal to stall the increase for months!

they are not neighbours. The properties cover a vast area. The company bought the land which included the properties

Where are you in the country. People seem to think everyone lives down south on here.

If the rents are going up and you can get a better property for the same price then maybe you need a plan to get out.

they are not neighbours. The properties cover a vast area. The company bought the land which included the properties

Do you know where any of the properties are? Addresses? You could contact them by mail or phone. Or put a post on social media. Some are bound to be on X, Facebook or Tiktok. They are going to be in the same position as you ad some of them may be up for a fight.

Similar issue here. Had same letter of our landlord. Been here 21yrs. Over the years the rent has risen but it was every time we asked for any work doing. When we moved in there was no working bathroom for over a month. When the kitchen needed doing we had to pay for it. Same with the new windows and doors. Plus we had a wet room fitted due to health and disability’s.
we have yet again now had another letter saying the rents going up.
it’s is now higher than the local housing allowance that’s awarded with uc. Our full uc now only covers the rent and we’re only just surviving on my pip for household bills. We’re stuck in a really bad situation - we can’t afford the rent increases each year, we can’t afford to move, we can’t afford another private rent if we could even find one. We need to stay in the area we are in due to other family needs. Council can’t help. If ours keeps going up like it is. I’ve no idea on what we are going to do. My husbands health is deteriorating yet can’t get any help for him. Mines not as it was either we’re in reciept of everything we can. The landlord doesn’t care about our situation and after all these years still no consideration for us at all.
im terrified that we’re going to end up homeless.

Most tenants are oblivious to the financial costs to landlords currently. Yourself included it seems. Your rent sounds like it was substantially below market value. If landlords do not cover their costs, they will sell up. It's as simple at that. The pool of available rental properties diminishes year by year - no one wants to invest as there is a lot of risk for very little reward. Pay the rent increase and be grateful for your past years bargain rent. If not, try looking to move out - there's many people desperately looking for properties so someone will be more than happy to take your place.

And the property only has one door. No fire doors, only 1 double glazed window that has blown, and does not meet fire escape route standards If there was a fire downstairs I have no other means of exit?

I would be far more concerned about this than any rent increase. Your LL has a legal obligation to make sure your property complies with fire safety regulations. He needs to do a fire audit and I wouldn't be paying a single penny unless this is carried out and you feel safe and it meets all H&S requirements.

I’ll look out for your thread in 12 months OP complaining you can’t find anywhere to rent as there are limited properties on the market and you don’t have a good reference from your previous LL.

And again...all businesses have expenses!

It is only landlords who seem to think none of the money they make in profit should be reinvested in maintaining their assets and instead expect tenants to pay for upgrading a property they don't own.

It really is not that difficult to grasp.

Yes and all businesses put up the prices up to cover the costs, it’s really not that difficult to grasp.

What makes you think I am a landlord?

Just because I could see where this would all end (not hard if you are old enough to have been in rented when we had similar rules in place)
I have watched successive governments make rules and regulations thinking they were penalising the “evil” landlords to “protect” the poor tenants. I have listened to and watched as tenants have rubbed their hands together with glee thinking each and every reform has cost the “evil” landlords money and thought that no one could be this dim.
The only people that all these rules and regulations have penalised is the tenants themselves as the landlord has passed the cost of implementing all these rules onto the tenants

I know it is radical thinking but if none of the rules and regulations had been brought in from the 2015 announcement that a landlord couldn’t claim a legitimate expense that every other business can claim back against tax to the latest rental reforms, I would say that by now any prospective tenant would be able to pick and choose where they would like to live. Rents would be at a fair price the properties offered would be done to a good/high end finish and all the safety checks would be done automatically as something like this was expected by tenants.
By leaving things to come to their natural conclusion it would have driven the slum landlords and landlords who cut corners to make bigger profits from their properties out.
as their business model would have been unviable.

These rules have had the opposite effect. A lot of the good landlords have been driven out of the btl market and this has created a vacuum for the slum landlords and bad landlords who take no notice of any of these rules to thrive.

Reducing the number of rental properties without alternative accommodation in place was short sighted.
Faced with no where to live puts people in a dangerous situation when the choice is a B&B or they have slipped through the net and the choice is the streets or at the mercy of a bad landlord who can charge and do what they like

Yes private landlord have to spend money on maintaining their properties.

Who do you think pays for it?

As several posters have noted, the Renters Reform Bill was proposed by Michael Gove, but there wasn't time for it to go through parliament before Labour got in

You’ll have to move. You may not want to as you’ve lived there fur 20 years, but if you can get a nicer home with more modern fixtures then you should do it.

You’ll have an uphill battle fighting the rent increase and in the long run doing so just means they don’t extend your contract,

Absolute best advice I can give you is to contact the Acorn Union.

You have no idea what expense the landlord has - mortgage has probably gone up. It sounds like you're considering going down the route of threatening your landlord despite living there for 20 years. If you feel you're getting a bad deal, then find somewhere else but I wouldnt risk a bad relationship and reference. If it is market rate, then suck it up. No one is entitled to cheap rent.

It's the landlords property, he's given you sufficient notice..... Either pay it or move to a cheaper accommodation?

Eh? Landlords are very well aware of regular maintenance costs, costs relating to legal compliance, licence fees, insurance of the building and tax all have be paid for, as well as the mortgage and agents fees if using. If it's a flat, there will also be considerable service charges to pay too.
Many landlords maintain their properties very well and re decorate with a change of tenants even if they've only been there a few years.
The amount of actual profit is very modest these days, compared to the risk of non paying tenants, damage to the property, the hassle it can cause.
I'm selling up when tenants leave my properties and will invest elsewhere instead without the potential hassle.

If you have lived there that long chances are you were paying way less than you should have been. I know myself from a property that we rented until selling it last year, the cost of everything under the sun had gone up so sold up.

Without sounding really harsh, you haven't had those things because you're paying a lower than market rent. The landlord wants to address those things so is upping rent and then upping the quality of the accomodation to be in line with that. It's ultimately going to be the equivalent of all those houses that are that price. I know it's brutal but if there are expectations that properties must improve and be safe (which there should be) then it means they cannot be cheap- it's not feasible for a property to be totally up to date, modern and safe and also be 40% below the market rate.
The new laws mean it must have double glazing for the Epc, he will likely want to improve the heating system, maybe solar panels, insulation etc. Those things will then bring it in line with the market.
I think if it has those proposed improvements but you still feel it's higher priced than the market - challenge it. But the landlord has to bring it up to standard by law, and in doing that, he is bringing the quality up to a much higher level than the house was before and charging accordingly.
It's rubbish for you as a tenant, if you're happy with it as-is and cheaper. The landlord has no choice though and it's not fair for him to pay for all the legal improvements, make it an excellent and efficient house and then not charge the full market price for that type of home.

Whatever anyone’s view on private LL’s and what ideal they feel society should aspire to, the fact is, right now - we rely on the availability of private rentals. Governments alienating LL is not helping.

There is simply not enough social housing for those who are struggling in private rentals - so creating the situation we now have where the small LL are choosing to sell up in significant numbers is so incredibly short sighted.

Posters complaining that their LL does not take account of personal circumstances and their wages not increasing do not seems to accept that they are not in social housing - they rent a privately owned property on a commercial basis, at ‘market value’. Fair or not, the current situation has increased market value…

The fact that many small LL historically did not raise the rents of good tenants who were good and reliable may make the current trend seem more painful.

The exodus of LL making rental properties more scarce has increased rent. LL who are staying in the market seem to be bringing all rent up to ‘current market value’ and I expect it will now increase annually.

Like it or not, until there is an alternative to private rentals, the government should be trying to work with LL to provide good quality accommodation with sufficient incentive to stay in the market (or at least not to leave the market).

There is a clear escape route though, the house is 150 years old by the OPs admission. The landlord isn’t obligated to retrofit external doors into the property as long as there is an escape route.

Fire risk assessments also aren’t a legal obligation for single dwellings other than under HHSRS which says there should be a means of escape relative to the size of the property. Fire doors also aren’t a legal obligation in a single dwelling.

It’s good advice to get somebody evicted for non payment of rent though which I imagine the landlord would prefer to avoid the hassle of renovating around an existing tenant who wants to take them to court to delay a rent review.

I know how shocked you must’ve been - my rent went from £1150 pcm to £2025 pcm with 8 weeks notice earlier this year. The stress and worry of it made me suicidal

Can you rent somewhere else cheaper than your new rent? I doubt it, if you haven’t had any rent rises for a long time then they are likely just catching up.

It does sound like their plan is to fix the list of things you have advised are not up to standard though. Don’t does sound like you will feel the benefit.

They haven’t got mortgages!