Help! Advice Needed. Landlord wants to increase my rent

[lovechildcare1]

:panic: The landlord who we currently rent from wants to increase our already costly rent bill to cover his own expenses. He says that his insurance provider has a problem with my proposals to run a business from the property. Why? I have no idea. Perhaps someone here can tell me why this could be.

My rent at the moment is £400PCM and I see that this is already costly. I am worried that I will not be able to afford any increase as its not garunteed that I will get Ofsted Approval and that I will have any children to mind at all :panic: :(

Is the landlord well within his rights to increase my rent? If so how can I ensure that he is not ripping me off and that the increase is genuinely due to costs of his landlords insurance? I was considering paying a further £100 on top of the deposit paid at the start of the tenancy? Is this reasonable?:(

[EmmaReed84]

It is hard to say when you are renting. You should read your agreement and check the notice periods on changing rent.

I have to say I wish I had £400 a month rent, I currently pay £750, used to be £825 but our landlord is a friend of the family and we struggled in May 2011 and he said he would knock it down for 3 months and has not put it back up so I am pleased.

[rosebud]

Whether the amount is reasonable depends on where you live, I would check the 'going' rates for your area. Your contract will tell you how much notice he needs to give you before increasing the rent, he can charge what he wants but if it is unacceptable to you then you could give notice and look for somewhere else. There are some threads on here somewhere about childminding from rented houses, you might find them helpful.

[PixiePetal]

I would check the similar properties nearby which are for rent and see how you compare. I am always looking in the paper to check prices

Where I live we paid that 18 years ago so! - we now rent out our house (living on family farm now) and charge £900 - an expensive part of the country and agent said we could ask for £950 :eek:

[gigglinggoblin]

Its is possible his insurance is more expensive, our choice of insurer is much more limited now because some places refuse to give us accidental damage insurance, others wont insure us at all. I dont think you have any way of checking he isnt over charging but its his property so can probably charge what he likes. In this area you couldnt rent anything for that amount so I would suggest the same as the others, look at the market in your area. I dont think its unreasonable for your landlord to pass on the cost if it has increased. You could always ask him to put in writing why your rent has increased and ask hmrc if you can put it through your accounts. I dont think its reasonable to give him extra deposit because that gets refunded to you at the end of your tenancy so wouldnt cover his costs at all. If you are not sure if you will get registered why not ask your landlord to give you provisional approvement but not change anything until you know.

[lovechildcare1]

:) Panic over! He has now granted permission for me to run a childminding business from the property :clapping: with no increase in rent as insurance is not too much for him :)

With regards to the rent I think that given the local area rates he wont be aboe to charge too much more than he already is.

[miffy]

:) Panic over! He has now granted permission for me to run a childminding business from the property :clapping: with no increase in rent as insurance is not too much for him :)

With regards to the rent I think that given the local area rates he wont be aboe to charge too much more than he already is.

That's great news! :thumbsup:

Miffy xx

[PixiePetal]

great news :clapping: :clapping:

[gigglinggoblin]

Glad to hear its all sorted :)