My tenant is single mother with 2 children aged 8 and 2.
She has been my tenant for the last 3 years. Her rent has always been below market.
This year I suggested that when her annual tenancy expires on 20 April 2025 she pays the market rate (£1250 pcm) if she wants to extend another year. Her response to this was that she did not want to pay £1250 for 2 reasons: i) She could not afford the £175 pcm rent increase and 2) the flat has damp. (She only brought the damp to my attention when I proposed the rent increase.)
Last week she suggested just continuing paying her current rent of £1075 pcm on a rolling basis from 20 April 2025 “until such time as she finds alternative accommodation”.
I visited the flat. The flat does have mould in the 2 bedrooms. This is because there is far too much furniture and clutter in the 2 bedrooms - eg : 3 wardrobes in one bedroom. This prevents circulation and leads to damp. After discussng this the tenant now recognises the damp in the 2 bedrooms can be sorted if she reduces the amount of furniture and clutter in the flat and opens the bedroom windows in the mornings.
Today she has sent me an email asking me to give her a Notice to Leave the flat at the end of the tenancy so that she can get " low cost Council housing which is affordable for a single mum of 2 kids as soon as possible".
. I would welcome advice / the opinion of any landlords who have come across this situation.
My questions / concerns are:
If I do send her this Notice to Leave, given her circumstances described above, how quickly is she likely to get “affordable low rent Council housing” from the local Council - eg: 1 month, 2 months, 3 months or a lot longer than 3 months from receipt of the Notice to Leave?
If she reduces the amount of clutter in the bedrooms the damp problem can be resolved. This reduces 1 of her 2 concerns. The second concern is the £175 pm rent increase. She is already receiving benefits. If the damp issue disappears would the council be likely to increase her benefit by £175 pcm so that she can stay in the property?
If I issue her with a Notice to Leave is it likely that I get dragged into a section 21 eviction and my tenant can then continue to pay her current low rent for many months after her tenancy ends on 21 April?
The tenant is not likely to get a council house if she leaves your flat voluntarily which is why she’s asked you to evict her. However, the council will advise her that she must wait for you to pursue an eviction via section 21, and then court and bailiffs to remove her (all of which costs you money).
The tenant is obviously assuming there is suitable council properties available, but chances are she will end up in temporary accommodation and/or housed several miles away.
Thank you Gazfocus.
This is very helpful. You have confirmed what I suspected - the council may drag their feet and wait until the end of the tenancy. It will then be suggested I start the Section 21 process which will be a long drawn out and expensive process. Meanwhile the tenant’s rent stays below market at £1075 per month.
I would be interested to hear if any other landlords have views on this.
Out of interest, and not because I think you’re in the wrong (as I don’t) but is there a particular reason you wish to raise the rent? Is it just to match market rent or is it because your costs have increased? I’m just wondering if it’s worth you meeting in the middle with the tenant.
If that’s not an option, I would go back to the tenant and say you are not in a position to give her the notice to quit she has requested. I would then issue her with a section 13 notice advising of the rent increase and advise her that if she doesn’t agree with the increase, she is welcome to challenge it at a rent tribunal.
It may be that she starts looking for somewhere else to live but if she then sees the rents are similar to what you’re asking, she might decide it’s not worth the hassle of moving.
We are on the same page!
The property is in very good condition. I refurbished it before she moved in. She knows and agrees that her rent is below market - she just does not want to pay market. She just wants to continue paying £1075 pcm.
I also know that she likes the property and she realizes that it is too cluttered.
The question I have is why does she not go to the council, say the rent is £175 pcm below market, and ask the council to top up her benefit payments by £175 so that she can continue to live there and the council does not have to find alternative accommodation.
Any thoughts on this?
Thank you for this Colin.
So does this mean that whenever a landlord tries to put the rent up on a property because it is below market the council will never increase the tenant’s benefit and the landlord therefore has to start the section 21 process? I ask this because I assume this results in the tenant eventually being evicted and going into temporary accommodation funded by the council.
On housing benefit there is a max they will pay. The L/A are always kicking the can down the road. They have not got the sense to realise that eventually it will cost them more
Hi Dear.
If you would like to receive a larger amount, you would need to rent it out with some basic furniture, such as a bed, a small wardrobe, and a dining table, and rent it to working people.
Councils use something called a Local Housing Allowance (LHA). This will specify what the maximum rent is that they would pay regardless of what the rent actually costs and it’s not necessarily down to the property itself. A tenant will be entitled to a certain rate depending on the number of bedrooms they require etc. If you Google your area plus ‘LHA’ you should be able to find what rates your council will pay.
Absolute tosh. It’s actually more difficult to find a tenant for a furnished place in my experience because most tenants already have their own possessions and don’t want to be dealing with furniture choices made by a landlord (usually cheap flat pack furniture).
You can Google LHA rates to see what is paid by all the different local authorities across the country for different property types 1 bed, 2 bed etc.
The figures are set by the government each year. They arrive at the figure by collecting all the rental data and setting LHA rates at the 30th percentile of the average rental for each area. In other words towards the lower end of the typical asking rents for the area.
The prospective tenant in receipt of LHA is able to apply for properties above what they receive in LHA although they will have to make up the shortfall from what they receive from other “Universal Credit”.
The LHA rates were frozen from 2020 to 2024.
They were increased in April 2024/25 and will be frozen again for 2025/26. As a result LHA rates don’t keep pace with asking rents.
Gazfocus and Christopher,
Thank you very much for your comments. I now know what I need to do.
Enjoy the Spring sunshine and the remainder of the weekend
I have made this same mistake of not increasing rents slightly each year. Had a DSS tenant didnt increase his rent once for 5 years. Recently evicted him and sold - property was in poor condition. Eviction will take 6-8 months if you are lucky on S21 and will cost about 1000 and yes she could end up in one room with her children. But if the property is in good condition still, at least you can try to get market rent then do the annual increases. If its in poor condition the cost of voids and refurb have to be considered. Both ways you are losing on your investment.
When did you last inspect the property? If there is doubt that you haven’t inspected within reasonable terms you could be liable for property neglect. Section 21 will give her priority to find alternative accommodation if you serve correctly…and allow you speed to repair and find a new tenant. I’m not sure on price freeze regulations though, ultimately the tenant is claiming lack of affordability…that isn’t a landlord breach if you’re increasing within legitimate % and in the tenancy terms of how often & when you can increase