rent increase - what to do now?!

[jembelina]

This sucks! we got a notice yesterday informing us that our rent is going up by $124 a month. Now this may not seem much to some, but for us it is huge!
Now we don't know what to.

We can stay and strugle to pay the extra or
if we move we will be paying what we were paying before the increase or a tiny bit less, but will have to downsize and move furtherf rom df's work. He currently rides or runs to work, so our fuel bill will aslo increase. Although we may have access to a car he can use for work that runs on gas so not too bad. or we could get around it with public transport.
We are nearing the end of our lease and if we found the right place would be happy to do the move, so the timing is good.
Arrgg....I don't know. It is certainly not a renters market ATM!!!

[Benji]

I don't think $124 a month is not much! That's going to throw your budget out quite a bit.

Have you checked online for any rentals in your area?

What if you stay there and see if you can pay weekly instead of monthly?

[jembelina]

Yeah, we got onto realestate.com last night and it is not a pretty picture!!
In our direct area there is nothing at all even vaguely in our price range. which we kind of knew, we had heard prices in our area had gone up. We looked a little further out and there is more available, but still not much and we would definately have to loose a bedroom, some living are and half our backyard!!

I'm just not sure I want to loose this place, especially as I am pregnant with number#3. It is old and a bit run down, but is plenty big enough for us, has a huge backyard for the kids and is in a great location.
And I really don't know wether we will end up in front or behind with the addition of some sort of travel expense for df.
And at the same time I am really ready to move! I get fidgety after I have been somewhere a while and I have had the moving bug for a while now.
Paying weekly instead wouldn't really help us, it'd probably make it harder, LOL!

[Benji]

The market is really bad right now. I was incredibly lucky that I got this place.

My rent is about to go up $80 a month (but I pay weekly so $20 a week) and until that happens I'm just trying to get rid of as many bills as possible - I'm paying off my credit card as fast as I can, I've gone back to cheaper internet (less downloads), turning everything off at the switch when I'm not using it to save on electricity.

I hope you can sort this out soon :(

[miloand4]

I was in a simalar situation recently when I recieved my new lease agreement from my real estate wanting to put my rent up by 100 a month. I sent a letter to the real estate\owners asking that they consider A 40 $ a month increase as I am a good tenant who pays the rent on time and cares for the property. I explained to them that I did not want to move but the rent increase of 100 a month would force me to and I hoped they would consider my offer and keep me here as a long term tenant. They accepte4d my offer so all happy It is worth a try :D good luck

[becca022]

OMG an extra $124 a month is HUGE. I'd definitely move somewhere else. Here I was thinking an extra $40 a month was a big jump (thats what ours went up by).

[jembelina]

Miloand4 - good idea, I will give that a go. Didn't even think of it to be honest. As you say, definately worth a try.

Problem is Becca022, there isn't much else going any cheaper!

[jembelina]

Oh, and I'm glad we are not the only ones who think it is alot!!!

[DivinelySophistimicated]

Hi Jembelina,

I would write a letter to your real estate asking if they would consider a SMALLER rent rise. You could even offer to due some painting touch ups for him or odd jobs that need to be done in your residence. You have nothing to lose.

As a landlord we would be glad to hear from our tenants if they honestly thought they would have major troubles with the rent rise. The longer the tenant stays there, the better! However, with mortgage rate rises, $124 a month is most likely less than what his repayments have gone up on his mortgage hence why he needs to raise the rents.

[Ana Gram]

Hi Jembelina,

I would write a letter to your real estate asking if they would consider a SMALLER rent rise. You could even offer to due some painting touch ups for him or odd jobs that need to be done in your residence. You have nothing to lose.

As a landlord we would be glad to hear from our tenants if they honestly thought they would have major troubles with the rent rise. The longer the tenant stays there, the better! However, with mortgage rate rises, $124 a month is most likely less than what his repayments have gone up on his mortgage hence why he needs to raise the rents.

:iagree: $124 is a lot!! I'd be asking for things to be done for that rent increase.

[Baldie's Mum]

are you in a lease???? Call the department of fair traiding........cause i know in NSW if you are in a lease they cantincrease your rent.....(i think!)

:hugs: That is a massive jump....




:no: :no: :no:

[DivinelySophistimicated]

are you in a lease???? Call the department of fair traiding........cause i know in NSW if you are in a lease they cantincrease your rent.....(i think!)



:hugs: That is a massive jump....





:no: :no: :no:




Rent can be raised at any time after the first 6 months of tenancy.

[HunterzMummy]

Also call centrelink and ask them how much your payments will go up.. I to was stressing with rent rise and moving but after i called centrelink i for once breathed a sigh of relief... Worth a call i think :)

AINS- Unfortunately you have to read the fine print some leases it is actually written into :( i made sure ours was not lol

[majano]

You really need to weigh up the rent increase with the cost of moving. Consider not only DH's travel costs to work, but:

* Furniture removalist - or fuel costs to move yourself.
* Utility reconnection fees - phone, electricity etc.
* Incidentals that come with moving house, such as extra takeaway food.

It's often more cost-effective to stay put!
Good luck with the decision. :thumbsup:

[chicky2lala]

That is disgusting! How on earth can they put it up by so much!!!!!!:shame:

[YMo7]

yup - i agree - try to negotiate - they tried to up our rent to $370 a week, we were paying $340 a week, and we haggled them down to $350 a week, stating that when we moved in, we offered them $340 a week instead of $320 to secure us the house, so they have already gained from us. it worked. we now only pay $350 a week ($10 increase) YAY...

[Mum2Bug]

My lease is up this week and the new lease is rising by $20 a week. Everyone would probably say thats not much but it now means I will be paying $290 a week on a pension :( and its in my new lease that it will go up another $10 in January to $300 after the first 6 months.

[JosieJo]

Definitely try to negotiate. Work out what you think you can afford and go to the Agent/landlord. Consider showing them your income/expenditure to show them how tight you will be pressed.
I believe most people are reasonable, landlords are people too, and they are also the ones paying full mortgage on an empty house if you decide to move out (there is often a gap between tenants no matter how busy the market). Also they will have to pay a weeks rent to an Agent to readvertise the house (if it is through an Agent). So they quite possibly are just "fishing", if they realise the bucket is empty they might rethink...

[mumx3littlies]

At the end of the day with interest rates going up so much in the last few months you cant expect rent not to rise hugely when people paying mortgages have had their expenses increase hugely IYKWIM? It is being predicted that over the next 5 years the average rent will rise by around 40% so there are tough times to come for all I think:(

[jembelina]

Thanks for all your replies and thoughts!

The frustrating thing for me is taht I would be very suprise if this particular owner even had a mortgage to be honest. And he openly told me last time he increased the rent that he was doing so because we are getting a good deal for this area. IMO we are, but not a real bargain either iykwim.
I called Consumer Affairs yesterday jsut to see what the go was with rent increases and they told me they can increase it as much as they want as long as it is in line with th ecurrent market in the area. Which IMO is incredibly unfair on the tenant.

If we decide to stay we will be asking him to do/fix a few things thet we have let slide in the past. He or his son do the property repairs themselves and are efficient, but there have been a couple of things he has refused/avoided because he can't fix it himself.

It can't hurt to keep our eyes out for something, so we will keep looking and in the meantime try negotiating.

[subaruforestermum]

So its rising by so $124 a month equals $28 a week, So an extra $1488 a year extra....

It all adds up...

But then as others have said, you have to work out how much fuel would cost extra per year, etc..

And if you get FTB and are renting, earning under a certain amount, your rent assistance will increase too...

He has an obligation to fix things within a reasonable timeframe, if he doesnt, you can issue him with a notice to remedy breach to get him to fix it... Paying more in rent, I expected the landlords of where we were renting to fix everything that wasnt safe, or suitable, they didnt like it, cos it cost them money, but I wasnt going to pay more rent and live in a sh!t hole....

Definately as you said keep an eye out....

[jembelina]

We are already receiving the maximum rent assistance, so no luck there!

[KaM]

Can you ask them if you can sign a longer lease in return for a lower rent . . that way they have guaranteed income from you for a few years. .

[Pregnor]

I wonder if you have lived there a long time?

Since we bought our house in Nov (2x1 in outer suburbs of perth) which was basically the CHEAPEST property we could find, our payments have gone up 200 a month. We had a fairly big deposit too. Chances are the owners of your property have seen an increase that is far bigger than ours over the same
period.

When we lived in out last rental property they put up rent $20 a wk half way through our lease, from 280 to 300, then 6 months later we moved out, and they got new tenants straight away for 350 a wk thats approx 300 a month increase over 1 year!

The cost of living is unfortunately rising greatly for everyone! If you move, you might also find that after being there for 6 months, that the owners of the new place you move will also put prices up! Definately try to negotiate if you can't pay, after all if you are good tenants, and are loyal to your property owners, they will try and do the best they can for you (as it is expensive for owners to have tenants move out too)!

[jembelina]

I am thinking that felicity.......that wether we move or not, our rent is bound to increase anyway.
But at least we will have 6-12 months ggrace before it does, by which time we will be getting a slightly higher income too.

What a pain in the bum!!!!

[Pregnor]

But, over those 6-12 months, would you save the money from the costs of moving as previously mentioned (removal, reconnecting utilities, increase transport cost etc)? and all to have less space!

I am pretty biased though, I hate moving! And I also hate living in a little house!

[Yummy_Mummy]

i would def be checking all the options first before you move..but you have to weigh up if it would be worth downsizing & if you DH has to drive to work then what the extra money would be on petrol, if the bills would go up as it might not be as energy efficient etc!

I would write a letter & see what happens..good luck

[mum1983]

plus if you move you have to pay bonds money first.

[FluffyBunny]

Can you ask them if you can sign a longer lease in return for a lower rent . . that way they have guaranteed income from you for a few years. .

Sometimes you'll find that the Real Estate is a bit reluctant to sign a longer lease as they wont be able to put the rent up until the end of the lease hence why a lot of Real Estates are doing 6 month leases.

Weigh up all of your options before making any decisons.
I'd definitely be looking at the costs of hubby to go to and from work if you moved etc.
It may be cheaper to stay put for now and pay the extra.

[Bron]

I like miloand4's idea. Most landlords would prefer to keep a tenant than have a house empty for a few weeks at higher rent while another tenant is found.

If that doesn't work, a good plan is to contact all the real estate agents in your area and explain what you're looking for. They may well be happy to call you when a suitable place becomes available to rent before advertising it more widely.