Landlady Wants To Increase Rent By 84 A Month

[the_duke_of_hazzard]

A £1400pcm high LTV repayment mortgage will not get you much in London and comes with an enormous downside capital risk. House prices in places like Hackney and Lambeth are around 4.5 to 5 times what they cost in 1995. The 2.5 to 3 times bubble in the rest of the country doesn't even compare. I know an investment banker who paid £440k for a leasehold flat directly above a greasy spoon in Brixton, cooking smells and all. It's a 15 minute walk from the tube station (considered far in London) and they regularly find human faeces on the steps leading up to the flat, courtesy of locals who are too off their faces to find a toilet. Buying in London right now is a decision you will always regret.

I live near there, and know the market and can categorically say 440K for that is mental. They were done up like a kipper.

[Lennon]

A £1400pcm high LTV repayment mortgage will not get you much in London and comes with an enormous downside capital risk. House prices in places like Hackney and Lambeth are around 4.5 to 5 times what they cost in 1995. The 2.5 to 3 times bubble in the rest of the country doesn't even compare. I know an investment banker who paid £440k for a leasehold flat directly above a greasy spoon in Brixton, cooking smells and all. It's a 15 minute walk from the tube station (considered far in London) and they regularly find human faeces on the steps leading up to the flat, courtesy of locals who are too off their faces to find a toilet. Buying in London right now is a decision you will always regret.

I agree London is mental expensive - but unless by 'Brixton' you mean 'Clapham' that is totally mental and not what the market is or has been.

[@contradevian]

A £1400pcm high LTV repayment mortgage will not get you much in London and comes with an enormous downside capital risk. House prices in places like Hackney and Lambeth are around 4.5 to 5 times what they cost in 1995. The 2.5 to 3 times bubble in the rest of the country doesn't even compare. I know an investment banker who paid £440k for a leasehold flat directly above a greasy spoon in Brixton, cooking smells and all. It's a 15 minute walk from the tube station (considered far in London) and they regularly find human faeces on the steps leading up to the flat, courtesy of locals who are too off their faces to find a toilet. Buying in London right now is a decision you will always regret.

You can buy out in the suburbs though, places like Romford, where under £300k will stretch to a semi.

I was paying £1200 a month in Gidea Park, till I discovered my landlord was only paying less than £300 a month, to the Chelsea on an I/O mortgage of around £270k. God knows how he wangled that deal, though due to an inheritance I know he had substantial equity to put down (which I hope he's lost, but suspect he hasn't). Indeed since I left he's had all new windows put in.

[Dorkins]

I agree London is mental expensive - but unless by 'Brixton' you mean 'Clapham' that is totally mental and not what the market is or has been.

It's definitely Brixton and the price is in the Land Registry.

Edited November 15, 2011 by Dorkins

[homeforliving]

Best to talk to her by phone. Prepare a list of things to say e.g good tenants, empty property losing money. State them calmly and ask the landlady rationale for the increase. Is this the first time she has asked for an increase? Compare with similar properties in your area and tell her what you can find. Check on zoopla.com to see what the market rent for your property is. In the end if you don't want to move, consider what rent rise will be acceptable to you e.g. £20 as compared to moving and try to negotiate. I had two rounds of negotiations last time with my landlord last time.

[guitarman001]

£1400 are you MAD!? Up here you can still get them from the COUNCIL for ~£250 A MONTH!

[guitarman001]

With rents like those, I cannot see why anyone wants to live in London! You could take a massive pay cut, move out, pay less rent and still be better off.

+1000. Some might want to do it to get an increase in salary, then move back to where they came from on that increased salary. But not worth it for long periods of time IMO.

[Giordano Bruno]

Register on rightmove for rental property. They will email you every so often about properties for rent in the area and of the type you specify.

Being in London should make it easier even if you have to commute a bit from another area.

I wouldn't stay longer than I have to.

[pie-eater]

£1400 are you MAD!? Up here you can still get them from the COUNCIL for ~£250 A MONTH!

It's expensive around SW15.

This place is tiny, but they still want big money for it: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-34446059.html

This is the cheapest 2 bed house I found on RM: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-31920136.html

Edited November 15, 2011 by pie-eater

[the stig]

Unbelievable. £1400p/m!!!! I know the phrase "renting is dead money" is a favourite around here for being shot down in flames (mostly for good reason), but come on, that's a massive amount of money!

[okaycuckoo]

How can you be in rent arrears if you live in a HA/council house? The rent tends to be negligible and if you can't pay it, housing benefit will. You have to be seriously bad with money to be in arrears.

In county courts LA/HA rent arrears cases are about neck-n-neck with mortgage arrears cases. Housing benefit is paid direct to tenants. Faaaagz n booze. Or maybe they're spending it on gold. Also plenty of foreign hols, so foreign bank accounts may be the beneficiaries.

You guys are naive. The fraud is rampant.

[ebear]

How would you reply this? We pay on time every month! So far 33,600. Have argued that our cost of living has soared but we remain committed

to paying rent and 'a bird in the hand' Any other arguments welcome. HB reduced, student numbers going down. Her costs have not increased at all.

Is it possible your landlady is illegally subletting and is a council tenant herself? How does one even find this info out?

[Imminent_plunge]

Is it possible your landlady is illegally subletting and is a council tenant herself? How does one even find this info out?

Far more likely that she bought through RTB 20 or so years ago. She's now cashing in and having it large at our expense. As if £1400 isn't enough.

[@contradevian]

Far more likely that she bought through RTB 20 or so years ago. She's now cashing in and having it large at our expense. As if £1400 isn't enough.

Nevertheless I'd check up.

[jammo]

£84 is very precise when we're talking about thousands of pounds. Why not just round to £1500? Oh yeah, because the price is preposterous, and was so to start with. As an ex-council house, it probably cost less than a year's worth of modern day rent to actually build. Society is sick, and needs to take it's HPC medicine quicksmart.

[mkz]

£84 is very precise

It's a 6% increase.

[jammo]

It's a 6% increase.

I suppose it's fairly low when you consider energy companies are going for a neat 20% increase. Still, the starting price was off - but London is a different country almost with regards to cost of living. I was on £350 a month at the start of the year. It went up, but then I moved

[okaycuckoo]

I suppose it's fairly low when you consider energy companies are going for a neat 20% increase. Still, the starting price was off - but London is a different country almost with regards to cost of living. I was on £350 a month at the start of the year. It went up, but then I moved

Add the 6% of x to the 20% of y.

Monopolists are in it together.

[council dweller]

Is it possible your landlady is illegally subletting and is a council tenant herself? How does one even find this info out?

If the house is council you will naturally get letters from them eg how much rent you have paid (twice a year) when the gas will be inspected and by how much your rent is going up. People who are subleting are sure to know.(unless totally thick)

[StainlessSteelCat]

Do an inventory of everything wrong with the place. Say you will then not pay the increase until they are fixed. Wait for them to be fixed and then move out asap before paying the increase.

Serious lot of dough but that's London for you I guess. The rents are astronomical. I was lucky for about 3 years but stiffed for the other 5 I lived there. One thing though - no landlord ever increased the rent on us. A friend of mine paid the same rent for 15 years (eventually he suggested a rise to the landlord as he'd calculated the landlord must only be making £30 profit a month from him). Only the amateurs and greedy put up the rents because a tenant who pays in full and on time, doesn't trash the place and doesn't complain is like gold dust in the real world (and doubly so in the current economy).

[worried1]

It's expensive around SW15.

This place is tiny, but they still want big money for it: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-34446059.html

This is the cheapest 2 bed house I found on RM: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-31920136.html

The second place is only that cheap because it is on Kingston Vale, right on the 6-lane A3. It is SW15, but you couldn't walk to Putney from there. You'd also be stuffed for trains if you needed to get into central London to work to pay the rent.

It is a real postcode snobbery thing in SW London. People are prepared to pay as much as this to live in the bad end of SW15 rather than have a KT postcode. It is the same a few miles further down the A3 where people would rather live in a 3 bed semi on the motorway to live in 'Kingston' rather than getting a nice location in Epsom or Ewell.

[the stig]

The second place is only that cheap because it is on Kingston Vale, right on the 6-lane A3. It is SW15, but you couldn't walk to Putney from there. You'd also be stuffed for trains if you needed to get into central London to work to pay the rent.

It is a real postcode snobbery thing in SW London. People are prepared to pay as much as this to live in the bad end of SW15 rather than have a KT postcode. It is the same a few miles further down the A3 where people would rather live in a 3 bed semi on the motorway to live in 'Kingston' rather than getting a nice location in Epsom or Ewell.

Or move out of london entirely so you can actually have a life? Seriously. For the £350k+ that many seem to be contemplating spending on a 3 bed semi, you could move north - somewhere nice-ish like northamptonshire/leicestershire/nottinghamshire - and buy a similar semi for £120k-£180k. I really don't understand the thinking behind some people's decision to continue living somewhere that's so harmful to their lives.

[GloomMonger]

£84 is very precise when we're talking about thousands of pounds. Why not just round to £1500? Oh yeah, because the price is preposterous, and was so to start with. As an ex-council house, it probably cost less than a year's worth of modern day rent to actually build. Society is sick, and needs to take it's HPC medicine quicksmart.

I imagine she wanted an extra £1000 per year and simply divided it by 12 and rounded it up to £84.

[I want a house!]

Blimey. £33,600 paid out and nothing to show for it. If you had bought an overpriced piece of tat two years ago instead of renting an overpriced piece of tat at least you would have made a dent on the mortgage. I am afraid with rising rents and prices staying stubbornly high the case for buying vs renting seems to be swinging in favour of buying (and I say this as a once uber bear).

I fully agree with you and I am bearish too.

[cells]

Ladies & gentlemen you are all ******ing stupid sheep

We need to build more houses especially in London & the SE to get rents down to reasonable levels.

This needs to be the prevailing view not that rents should go up it down by a percentage point or few or what the best way is to plead to your landlord

We have the labor we have the technology and we have the ******ing land yet we allow the leeches to suck away our blood. Get the lighter out

What you should do is

Write a well written letter to your MP and explain your views & why we need more houses & how stupid bitch landlords screw up the economy.

Also write to other MPs especially if your MP is one of the landlord scum

As a second step. This will be difficult but if you can try to share your house. If you found a like minded person you could half your rent/council tax. Over a 5yr period this would be a substantial amount & more than saving money ur paying less into the scam system.

If you have excess rooms please let them out. You get more money & the scam gets less.

The best course of action is to screw the system that is screwing you. If you have children your marginal tax rate is likely more than 90%.

Please go onto the governments benifit checker webpage and put your details in. Then please go and put your details in but with one partner working and earning only 17-18k. If you have kids you will likely see that going from 40k job to 17k job only makes a quid or two difference. So take a pay cut or an easier job.

If enough people do this the government would have no choice but to reduce the cost of living

Or.....try to figure out the best begging letter you can and take it up the ****