mr. man told me to ask you girlies something...

[MummyMummy]

he just phoned up to talk about the house we may rent...the one that the e/agent p'd in and said they will only do a 6month tenancy, i'm 31weeks preg so really the plan was to find somewhere adequate for us, thatwould last next 2-3years size/location wise for both babys. this particular house is a recent build (we were actually going to buy the one opposite it about a year ago ) and the rent was around £525-£550 mark, but has beenreduced to £425 to get a tenant asap. my worry is that after 6 months they will put rent up to what they originally wanted, we could afford up to a max of £500, but that's really really pushing it just to rent. kwim? i don't think i'd rent that particular house for £500 though tbh. so mr.man said to ask you girlies have you ever known a landlord to do that? to put rent way up after inital contract up?

xXx

 

[Sarah88]

It depends, if you are a good tenant then chances are they won't put the rent up much, if at all just so they keep you there.

 

[MummyMummy]

It depends, if you are a good tenant then chances are they won't put the rent up much, if at all just so they keep you there.

thats what my mr.mansaid im just worried they will and we willhave to move yet again, witha 3year old and 4month old too this time and pay more admin/application fees to rent somewhere else.

xXx

 

[Sarah88]

Indeed, well try to be a good tenant and they will do almost anything to keep you, and it's good bargaining power.

 

[cybermum]

Its a renters market right now.
Nobody in their right mind is buying a house so rentals are becoming competitive.
You are in the drivers seat right now.
If he were to try and up the rent in 6 months etc then say we wouldn't be willing to that and may have to look for somewhere else.
Call his bluff.
Chances are he would rather have stable tenants especially in this climate.

Good luck x

 

[Leila Fae]

In my previous flat we had an annual lease and the landlord increased the rent by £5 a week after the first year. After the second year he wanted to put it up by £10 a week but we went back and said we'd only pay an extra £5 a week and that we felt that was reasonable considering the previous year's increase.

I don't know where in the UK you are looking at renting but I'd love to pay £500 a month in rent... by the time we left our 2 bed flat (second bedroom was only a study though) we were paying £950 a month. That was in north London though

 

[MummyMummy]

wow! what alot of money
we live way way up the map from you, £500-£550 around here seems to be the average for 3bed,decent area with parking.

we have never missed rent or anything like that, don't cause damage etc etc. so from what you girlies have said sounds like we may be were we are for a bit, if we choose! thanks for the advice!
xXx

 

[Jkelmum]

They are not allowed to put it up by more then 5% per yr x ....we are strugglering to find somthing bigger we can afford we live in asmall 3 bedroom house and pay 550 which is cheap for the area to move to a bigger house we are looking at 650~750 which we cant afford until i go back to fulltime work

 

[MummyMummy]

They are not allowed to put it up by more then 5% per yr x ....we are strugglering to find somthing bigger we can afford we live in asmall 3 bedroom house and pay 550 which is cheap for the area to move to a bigger house we are looking at 650~750 which we cant afford until i go back to fulltime work

it's amazing that you can pay a mortgage off each month for that amount isn't it?
xXx

 

[cybermum]

Yes it is
Though house prices have a long way to fall yet and some interest rate hikes on the way no doubt in the next 18 months.

Will be cheaper to buy overall in approx 2 years time

 

[lozzy21]

The cant put it up after 6m, only a year but like the others have said in this climate if they try you could say were not willing to pay is so if it dosent stay the same or compramise on the price your moving out.

 

[mama2b]

Have you asked to do a 12 month contract or have they just stated its 6 only ?

We are in same situation, currently in a 1 bed house but moving to 3 bed and we didn't want to be told at the end of 6 months we have to move for whatever reason, eg landlord selling the house.

Our new house was on for £795 per month and I asked if they would accept £750 if we signed a 12 month contract, they literally bit our hand off !!

I thought all landlords would be overjoyed at the prospect of a tenant wanting to sign for 12 months as it means they haven't got the worry of the property being empty after the initial 6 months and all the messing about with new contracts etc.

I would try and do a bit more negotiating, I guess it depends on how many people are interested in the house and the agent dealing with the property.

 

[MummyMummy]

well that's what we were thinking that longer would be better for both parties butthey don't seem that way at all.eveybody is initially 6months. such uncertainty though! just hope like everybody said that when timecomes there wont be a problem renewing for same price.
xXx

 

[mama2b]

Could be the agents that have the problem then.

Our current agents are horrible, every 6 months you HAVE to re-sign for another 6 months or give notice they won't let you go on to a rolling monthly contract like most agents do, also they have an admin fee for signing the new 6 month contract which is £150 so thats £300 every year just to renew a contract !!!

After our first few months in the house we thought we would probably move at the end of the 6 months as wanted to buy a house but letting agents wrote to us 2 1/2 months before contract up asking if we wanted to renew ?!

I told them we weren't sure yet but would give them the months notice that tenants legally have to give oooooooooooooooooh no they weren't having that, they said they needed a minimum of 2 months notice ?! The law says you only need to give a month.

Their little trick is that if you don't tell them 2 months in advance you are renewing therefore commiting yourself to another 8 months they serve notice on YOU. A landlord has to give you 2 months notice to leave so as we refused to commit until a month before they told us we had to leave !!! In the end we did sign up for another 6 months as didn't end up buying the house but we are due to move in the next few weeks and I will take great pleasure going into the office to have a rant at them !!!

I would go back to your letting agents and ask them if they have asked the landlord about the 12 month contract as I find half the time the letting agents don't even make contact with the owner about any requests the tenant may have.

 

[MummyMummy]

Could be the agents that have the problem then.

Our current agents are horrible, every 6 months you HAVE to re-sign for another 6 months or give notice they won't let you go on to a rolling monthly contract like most agents do, also they have an admin fee for signing the new 6 month contract which is £150 so thats £300 every year just to renew a contract !!!

After our first few months in the house we thought we would probably move at the end of the 6 months as wanted to buy a house but letting agents wrote to us 2 1/2 months before contract up asking if we wanted to renew ?!

I told them we weren't sure yet but would give them the months notice that tenants legally have to give oooooooooooooooooh no they weren't having that, they said they needed a minimum of 2 months notice ?! The law says you only need to give a month.

Their little trick is that if you don't tell them 2 months in advance you are renewing therefore commiting yourself to another 8 months they serve notice on YOU. A landlord has to give you 2 months notice to leave so as we refused to commit until a month before they told us we had to leave !!! In the end we did sign up for another 6 months as didn't end up buying the house but we are due to move in the next few weeks and I will take great pleasure going into the office to have a rant at them !!!

I would go back to your letting agents and ask them if they have asked the landlord about the 12 month contract as I find half the time the letting agents don't even make contact with the owner about any requests the tenant may have.

wow! you have to pay to renew?! really!? i didn't know that, that's something iwill have to check ou. that iswhat bothers me about havingto move too.. the cost. i know we aren't bad people, we've never missed payments on anything etc. yet we have to pay to prove it whenever we move. ugh. of course i know why but it's annoying. and expensive!!

we had a letter from the current landlord where we are asking do we want to sign up for another 6months, no mention of rolling contract... we're kinda just ignoring it until we decide what we wanna do haha they are still getting rent so hopfully it wont be a problem!
xXx

 

[Erised]

The place we're looking at renting right now is £475 for the first 6 months, after that it's going up to £575 (2 bedroom apartment). We were warned of this before signing anything though. So it's definitely possible that they will put the price up, if so your estate agent might know about it. I'd check before signing anything

 

[Leila Fae]

Regarding renewing contracts, the agents charged an administration fee which was £30. £150 sounds outrageous! They really try it on don't they?!

 

[mama2b]

Could be the agents that have the problem then.

Our current agents are horrible, every 6 months you HAVE to re-sign for another 6 months or give notice they won't let you go on to a rolling monthly contract like most agents do, also they have an admin fee for signing the new 6 month contract which is £150 so thats £300 every year just to renew a contract !!!

After our first few months in the house we thought we would probably move at the end of the 6 months as wanted to buy a house but letting agents wrote to us 2 1/2 months before contract up asking if we wanted to renew ?!

I told them we weren't sure yet but would give them the months notice that tenants legally have to give oooooooooooooooooh no they weren't having that, they said they needed a minimum of 2 months notice ?! The law says you only need to give a month.

Their little trick is that if you don't tell them 2 months in advance you are renewing therefore commiting yourself to another 8 months they serve notice on YOU. A landlord has to give you 2 months notice to leave so as we refused to commit until a month before they told us we had to leave !!! In the end we did sign up for another 6 months as didn't end up buying the house but we are due to move in the next few weeks and I will take great pleasure going into the office to have a rant at them !!!

I would go back to your letting agents and ask them if they have asked the landlord about the 12 month contract as I find half the time the letting agents don't even make contact with the owner about any requests the tenant may have.

wow! you have to pay to renew?! really!? i didn't know that, that's something iwill have to check ou. that iswhat bothers me about havingto move too.. the cost. i know we aren't bad people, we've never missed payments on anything etc. yet we have to pay to prove it whenever we move. ugh. of course i know why but it's annoying. and expensive!!

we had a letter from the current landlord where we are asking do we want to sign up for another 6months, no mention of rolling contract... we're kinda just ignoring it until we decide what we wanna do haha they are still getting rent so hopfully it wont be a problem!
xXx

Yep, they merged with another company just after we moved in last May and there original admin fee (£50) got increased by another £100, I went mental and they did let us pay just the £50 in the end as they never informed us when we signed up they'd be charging that every 6 months but if we weren't leaving this time we'd have to cough up.

Our new letting agents are an absolute dream though, after the initial 6 months (12 in our case) it just goes onto a rolling contract so if we want to move we just give a months notice, they don't charge an admin fee or anything.

When I looked at properties this time round I asked all the letting agents for a list of their charges that we would be likely to incur whilst being tenants.

Don't blame you for ignoring the letter, just let them chase you up with a phone call then take it from there.