UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hello,

Some advice is needed by my Neice who rents a property.
She has always paid rent to a private landlord.
Her contract has come to an end and the landlord wants to increase the rent and has asked her to sign a new contract highlighting the increase.
She does not want to sign and agree to the increase but is willing to carry on with the current rent.
She is trying to move but can't find the right property for her and her three children.

What are her rights?

Thank you for advice here.

She has the right to two months notice.

Thats it.

For a small amount no landlord is going to insist of this.

Get her to stick her ground.

A Landlord cannot (should not / would find it more difficult to?) increase the rent during the fixed term.

This Landlord has done the right thing and waited until the end of the fixed term. They are perfectly within their right to raise the rent at this time. If your niece doesn't want to pay this increase then she should find somewhere else to live that she is able to afford or is willing to pay for.

There is the concept of inflation and people expect the things that they pay for in their daily lives to increase over time. Why should rent on a property remain static?

Before you correct me, I am making an assumption that the rent increase is something reasonable. By "reasonable" I mean something you can inflate to inflation? Not something like 10% or 20%?

Your post is a little short on this kind of detail, so we are really unable to say who is being unreasonable? Is the Landlord being unreasonable by demanding a massive increase in the rent or is your niece being unreasonable by expecting the rent she pays to remain static for as long as she occupies the property?

I increase rent on an annual basis as a matter of course. I tell my Tenants to expect it and they do. An example would be a £550 per month rent last year which will be going up to £570 this year. It is a modest increase. It doesn't offend anyone. It is easily justified with the way inflation is (plus a little rounding). It is much better than no rent increase for years then a stupendous increase one year that shocks the Tenants.

This is good housekeeping.

As a Landlord you should understand this too.

To be clear - your niece has no legal rights other than voting with her feet. She could try to persuade the Landlord that they should not ask for a rent increase, and they might agree, but there are no rights.

As an aside...

I have always bought my Cravendale Blue 2 litre bottles of milk from the supermarket. Sometimes (and without any formal notice whatsoever!) I go to the supermarket only to find the price has gone up. I do not want to pay the extra amount for what is - effectively - the same product. I would be willing to carry on paying what I paid before for Cravendale Blue 2 litre bottles of milk. I would buy my Cravendale Blue 2 litre bottles of milk from another cheaper place, if I could find one, but I can't find a place. I have found that I have no rights in this case... if I want the milk I have to pay the price.

I'd buy that for a Dollar!

Quote from: boboff on July 17, 2014, 06:37:47 PMFor a small amount no landlord is going to insist of this.

On this I would. Only if I knew for a fact that the Tenant would not be in the property for much longer, would I not do my normal routine of raising the rent each year. For a short time it could be too much hassle. But if the rent is not raised by the correct amount each year then it is the beginning of a slippery slope where you find you cannot raise the rent while the current Tenant is in place for fear of causing a heart attack. Therefore you have to reset fully when you change Tenants.

As with a few things Hippo we disagree on this.

I NEVER put up the rent, even when people have been in there fore years.

My average tenancy over the last 10 years is about 5 years. I am happy with that, a void costs at least £1000, if not £2000.

Yes, but I can say that I have never had a void due to me regularly putting up rent by something that is closely related to inflation. Tenants are only going to consider moving if the Landlord surprises them with a large rent increase that comes out of nowhere and cannot be justified... a more likely situation that would arise when a Landlord hasn't been keeping the rent rising in-line with inflation.

Putting up the rent to match inflation is not Landlord greed, after all... it is simply avoiding losing money in real terms.

No Tenant can reasonably argue with an annual rent increase like my example - £550 rising to £570 = 3.6%. They need not - because looking elsewhere would mean they're likely to pay higher anyway, due to other Landlords trying to keep pace with market levels. It's a no risk situation (for me).

When Landlords don't have rent keep pace with inflation and suddenly decide to increase the rent to reset their property to notional market levels (and expect to keep the same Tenant) that is where the problems are most likely to arise.

I'd actually worry a little bit about a Landlord that is getting less and less (in real terms) for their property over the long-term... doesn't it affect the ability to adequately maintain at some level? Each year the things that you need to pay out for to maintain the property - Plumbers, tools, consumables (Polyfilla) - are going up in price (that's inflation, right?) but your income is effectively going down - as it's not truly remaining static. That can only continue for a certain amount of time in my mind. Even if you increase your rent by an amount tied to inflation you are simply maintaining (or trying to) the status quo.

Ah here we are and here we are and here we go
All aboard and we're hitting the road
Here we go, rockin' all over the world

Ah giddy-up and giddy-up and get away
We're going crazy and we're going today
Here we go, rockin' all over the world

And I like it, I like it, I like it, I like it
I li-li-like it, li-li-like
Here we go, rockin' all over the world

Thank all for replying there good answers and it help  to look on both sides of the fence.

Personally I think it does work.

If a tenant is effectively getting a discount on their rent of say 15% after 5 years, say £1000 a year, they are more likely to stay and keep the place in good order. Meaning your costs of repairs are far far less, than them being able to up sticks.

6 months ago I could get any trade to work for the same money I was paying 15 years ago. As it stands today, it's almost impossible to get anyone!

Carpet and paint are still the same price they were 15 years ago if you look around. What other inflation do I have to consider?

When they do move on, I research and pitch it again at market rates.

I suppose it helps that the properties that I rent out I have had for nearly 20 years. They have already paid for themselves three or four times over. My four new ones that I am doing this year, maybe who knows, I might be more pro-active with rent increases! But I doubt it, anything for an easy life!

Quote from: boboff on July 18, 2014, 11:42:08 AM...anything for an easy life!

I suppose there is this... but what if you end up with Tenants who want to really stay long-term... not 5 years, but 15.

You'd not buy a house in, say, 2015 and expect to sell it in 2030 for the same price, so why would you expect to rent it for the same price over those 15 years?

Anyway, I think we both simply have differing viewpoints... no wrong, no right...

The easy-life aspect for me, I suppose, is that I don't have to research revised market rates as much when the Tenant decides to move on, because my modest annual rises have actually kept it at a market rate (of some kind).

True point on research.

Rents do go down as well.

Not often. But over 15 years they will.

Just like house prices.

House prices have not increased around me for the last 8 years, Rents have gone up 20 - 25%. Who knows what the next 8 years will bring.