DAFT:Rents increase for 1st time in 2 years

[bugler]

I agree a collaborative approach works far better for both parties rather than an overly adversarial one. The trouble comes when the landlord or tenant gets ideas of entitlement. You mention covering the mortgage...this is an irrelevance really.

The market does not care if you even have a mortgage, much less if the repayments went up, or if you are forced to make up the shortfall between rent and mortgage each month. A landlord who uses his mortgage repayments as a barometer of the rent he should be asking is using flawed logic. The market does not take his repayments into account. Likewise, a tenant who uses his income as a barometer of what he should pay in rent for a certain property may well find there's a huge disparity between what he can pay and what the property can be let for.

Due to the prices charged for properties in the last few years many landlords are saddled with large mortgages for buy-to-lets that may not be paying their way. While it may be a natural reaction to try and pass this on to the tenant (at least here), it is not possible to do so unless the real market factors favour this also.

 

[Hans]

As far as I can see it goes both ways - If a good tenant cannot afford the rent due to job loss, etc. then a good landlord will come to an agreement with the tenant.

My salary was cut 20% and I also lost a days work at one stage and my landlord recognised he had good tenants who kept the house in excellent condition (v. houseproud), were good neighbours and quiet tenants and he wanted to keep us there. Our rent covers his mortgage plus a little extra, and we can afford it. Everyone wins.

This whole Landlords vs. Tenants debacle is ridiculous. If both are understanding and willing to come to an agreement it can work out well. However I do have to input my 2 cents and mention that I believe rent will have to reduce further this year and not rise - the level of unemployment is still rising in this country and we have very little job prospects. I believe if a Landlords mortgage is being covered by rent payments then they should be thanking their lucky stars they dont have an empty house!!

I think you have hit the nail in the head as a landlord I am looking for a good tenant who respects my property and pays their rent I'm not here to screw them and treat them with contempt as is coming across in some of these posts as you say I can't see rents rising significantly in the near future just hopefully we can get tenants and not have empty houses. It's all very well looking at daft reports but in my experience the asking price is not what you get people are negotiating before they accept a property and 'good luck to them' is what I say.

I have one girl renting from me for 6 years and she is paying less now than when she moved in but she looks after the place so well the upkeep of the property has cost me nothing in that time and in general most of my tenants are like that I believe in this business you have to treat it as more than a business but also realise you are dealing with people.

 

[canicemcavoy]

I think you have hit the nail in the head as a landlord I am looking for a good tenant who respects my property and pays their rent I'm not here to screw them and treat them with contempt as is coming across in some of these posts as you say I can't see rents rising significantly in the near future just hopefully we can get tenants and not have empty houses.

Maybe I'm unlucky, but I've heard that talk from my last 3 landlords. Who then turned around and screwed me.

(My previous landlord, in what I have to admit is low even by such standards, told me he wasn't going to raise my rent, then 3 days before the lease was up - and knowing that I was spending most of my time in the hospice with my dying father - informed me that he'd actually mistakenly though I was paying more than I was and therefore had decided to put my rent up by €100).

 

[Hans]

In todays market why would you put up with that I would call his bluff and tell him you cant afford it and going to move out and find somewhere else - if you are a good tenant he is a fool to lose you.

 

[canicemcavoy]

In todays market why would you put up with that I would call his bluff and tell him you cant afford it and going to move out and find somewhere else - if you are a good tenant he is a fool to lose you.

If that's directed to me; oh, as mentioned, he's very much a former landlord, and I moved out after that lease was up. Needless to say, took me about 3 months to get my deposit back.

 

[Bronte]

That's terrible behaviour by your ex landlord Caincemavoy. But we're not all like that, I've never raised my rents for sitting tenant's and the deposit is paid back the day they leave. I've even paid back a deposit to a tenant who was in arrears, left the house in disrepair and sued me.

 

[Knuttell]

But we're not all like that, I've even paid back a deposit to a tenant who was in arrears, left the house in disrepair and sued me.

Frankly I am astonished at the above statement,between having to call out an electrician to hook up a cable from a DVD player to a TV and returning deposits to obvious scumbags and probably writing them a glowing reference.. I am surprised you managed to acquire any property in the first place.

This is a business for me,its how I make my living,end of the month,pound shilling and pence calculations,the last few years have been tough with reluctant and amateur LLs like your self,but I keep my head above water,maintaining my properties,treating tenants in a friendly if businesslike manner and by treating it purely as a business.

For the record,I find it laughable you looking down your nose at a proper Landlord who has been making this his living for the last 20 years,implying I am giving all LLs a bad name,when you have not sense to seek rightful redress in the form of a deposit retention from someone who has with held rent damaged your property and sued you???? and is on a forum boasting about it???

 

[Bronte]

You don't live in the real world Knuttell. Sometimes it pays to get rid of tenants. I've never written a reference for a tenant good or bad. References are worth zero.


I've been a landlord many years and I thought the boom years were the easiest so maybe I'm doing something right. I don't know what you're attacking me for. I do not in any way look down my nose at you. I was just surprised at your glee in the rents going up by such a tiny amount. I think times are getting tougher now with reduced rents and not having such a choice of tenants and everybody being on social welfare.

My point about the DVD player is not about hooking up a cable, it was a technical issue of a sound system. I hold my hands up on this. I refuse to have anything to do with remotes, TV's and DVD players. I can put furniture together, renovate property, do gardens but I draw the line at technology. And cars.

 

[Howitzer]

It's not comparing like with like, but the latest [broken link removed] show rents resuming their downward trend.

In the month, price increases were recorded for mortgage interest
(+3.0%), materials for maintenance & repair of dwelling (+2.3%)
and solid fuels (+0.1%). Price decreases were recorded for natural
gas (-7.3%), liquid fuels (i.e. home heating oil) (-3.7%), rents
(-0.7%) and bottled gas (-0.1%).

 

[Howitzer]

And the estate agents view:

[broken link removed]

The combination of a tightening of supply and resilient demand has stabilised rents while highly sought properties are now achieving stronger rents than in the closing months of 2009, it said.
This trend of stabilisation is also visible in the latest CSO data on privately owed rents which reveal that while rents have fallen by 10.9pc nationwide in the twelve months to February 2010, the market has remained stable since December 2009 with rental depreciation of a modest -0.7pc in the two month period, it noted.

Amazing how the exact same statistics can be read.