Advise on Rent Increase - Manchester Area

Landlord Discussion
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Hi everyone, I was just after some advice on a rental increase. I have good tenants, at the start of the tenancy 4 years ago it was quite a low priced rent at that time, and I have resisted putting the rent up for 4 years, about 2 years ago I was thinking about increasing it and then covid hit with all its complications.

With covid lockdown and everything else going on I had taken my eye off rental values for that period ( 2 years) and now it is way to cheap for the location, it is rented at £575 a month for a modern 3 bed semi and on the open market it would now be at least £775 (low) to £950 (high) which is a big difference.

As the actual value of money has fallen the rental figure now seems a lot less with its reduced buying power, and mortgage cost increases, I am also suffering financially after losing my job (not a rich landlord)
so cannot afford an under performing asset.

I would feel bad increasing the rent but even if I increased it by £100 a month every year for the next few years it is still way below anything you could get in the area for the same price.

I am wondering what the maximum increase is you can make as I have read that 8% is the max, in this case even if I increase every year by this amount for 4 years it would still be under the average rent in the area.

Is this correct that the 8% is a yearly maximum on a periodic tenancy?

With regards to the tenants I do not know their financial situation., although both are working in good jobs.

Not sure what to do, is a £100 monthly increase allowed in the first place and is it too much all at once, should I go for £50 a month increase each year, but it is going to take me a long time to get a fair market rental at that rate.

What would you do or would you do something else?

Thanks for any advice in advance.

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This is a difficult situation, which we also faced this year. We resolved it by discussion with the tenants to explain the situation to them. They swallowed a £100 p.m. increase on the basis of what they had saved for the past 3 years of no increases. It was an awkward discussion, but handled with care, it was resolved. However, it was clearly written into their leases that annual increases of 2%-5% were to be expected. I don’t know what the law says about an 8% increase, as the maximum in our ASTs was 5%.

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Thanks Anne, yes never easy for sure, I did email the tenant about the increase to try and resolve it this way but they are ignoring my commuications, so I think I only have the S13 route now :frowning:

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There isn’t an 8% limit so you are able to increase upto market rates. It is normally a good idea to keep rents below market rates for good long term tenants but agree difference is far too big so £100 pm sounds reasonable assuming the figures quoted are accurate.

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Hi Richard, thanks for the reply, yes the amounts are accurate and there are very few properties to let in the area, I think I am going to try for 100pcm as the rent is way too cheap, a one bed flat is about the same price.

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Here in Scotland there is a rent freeze, so I really regret not increasing rents just before it started! As a general rule, for students, I don’t increase rent during their course, only at change of tenancy. However, for working tenants staying longer, I learned the hard way that you need to increase the rent every year by inflation or CPI or whatever, to avoid lagging behind. My advice for you current situation is to aim to increase the rent to bring you level-ish. so, add up the rises you’ve faced yourself for things you pay like insurance, accountants fees, cleaning, everything you pay. Add that all up, that brings you level, and the tenant would, I think, find it hard to dispute. Then add on a modest actual rent increase. And from now on make an increase every year!

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I would consider a property check for wear and tear and how well the tenants look after your house. The Covid situation certainly saw much more wear in the property. Do you carry out formal regular checks? So easy to let this slide.

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Thanks for the advice Christine, so they just froze rents in Scotland, wow didn’t know that.

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Thanks Mina, yes have checked it didnt look too bad, thanks for the advice.

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yes, also eviction restrictions. Read more here;I expect something similar will soon come to the rest of the UK: rent cap, Scotland

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8% is maybe someone’s rule of thumb. You can charge a fair rate for the area just have some info on what similar props are going for.
Don’t worry about how reasonable you appear it’s actually irrelevant. Adjust to your lower end figure but explain why first and in future raise your rents a bit annually so you don’t wind up here again

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