30% Rent Increase, aghhh. Any tips for negotiation?

2 years and 30% seems like a big hike. I tend to only hike rents when tenants change if I can (which costs me but if they're good tenants then I'd rather continuity).

I'd just say ask. Tell the landlord that it takes you out of your ability to pay. Offer a compromise. What you offer is up to you. He can only say "no".

It's just a load of shit is all i can say. I'm really sorry for you. It's happened to lots of people i know at the moment. This country is becoming a total shit to live in.

We rent a a flat out.  We reduced our rent during lockdown and froze it until recently. We recently negotiated a modest below inflation increase with our tenants. The reason we are prepared to do this is because they are respectful of our property, pay their rent promptly, let us know of any issues and are generally trouble free. This hasn't always been the case with previous tenants.

The peace of mind and low stress is worth far, far more to us than a few extra quid in rent.  We became landlords kind of accidentally, if yours owns a 'portfolio' and makes their living from it, they may view things differently, but someone renting a single property probably has a similar outlook to us.

30% is a lot but mortgage rates have increased hugely and will continue to.

A 200K mortgage / 25 years / repayment / 1% above base would have cost £763 when bank rate was 0.1%

It's now 3.5% and the repayment is £1,111

If it goes to 5% the repayment will be £1,170

If you're a good tenant then I'd negotiate as best you can but it's not necessarily greed that's driving it.

Not an ideal situation..

do you get on with/talk to landlord? The only thing you can do is ask for a better rate. Be prepared for them to say no

chap at work had his rent raised from £1000 to £1500 a month. Im aware of many cases where rent has gone  up 30-50%

2 years and 30% seems like a big hike. I tend to only hike rents when tenants change if I can (which costs me but if they’re good tenants then I’d rather continuity).

+1
Good tenants have a value and long term tenants that don't create any issues more so. I'd much rather have a good long term tenant than keep putting rents up and keep losing them and starting again. The fact that they have already pulled this move suggests they don't feel the same and want to squeeze every penny but it's worth asking if they want to keep you as a long term, hassle free tenant.

The rental market is taking a real kicking just now, we have friends who had theirs raised by 10%, first increase in 3 or 4 years and they were about to query it, until they saw that it was still about 20% under the rental prices for similar properties, this next 12 months is pretty much about survival, only advice is to work out what the costs are over 12 months and see if you can sustain the increase for that time, factoring in deposits, moving fees, etc, etc, you may be able to query the rise and see if there's room for a reduction for a sign up to 12 months or a set period, losing tenants has an upfront cost, they lose a month or two's rent, have to bring the property back up and so on, maybe discussing an agreeable increase for a set period helps both sides.

Quite possibly driven by the agency rather than the landlord. Letting agents are (IME) money leeching pond scum and after some bad experiences I deal direct with my tenants these days. If you can I'd suggest bypassing the agents and demonstrate to the landlord that you're taking care of the place and that they're better off with you sticking around rather than some high payers who will turn the house into a cannabis factory or knocking shop.

Make them an offer that works for both of you - they will have costs when it comes to reletting (especially if the agency leeches are charging them for their "services"), a possible void period with no income etc so keeping you would be worthwhile if a more modest rent increase offsets that risk. (Fwiw I'm another accidental landlord who values good tenants so I don't often change the rent)

We could have an existential conversation about if buy to let landlords, "amateur" or otherwise, should be allowed have their debits serviced by their tenants. But that's how it is. Been both sides in the past. When I buy a coffee I know that coffee is paying the mortgage - just like your rent.

With the change in the mortgage rates in the last few months, the losses many made over covid, the massive hike in prices for building maintenance and the change to mortgage interest payments being no longer offset against profits a few years ago - I'd not want to be a landlord right now.

30% is horrible. It's what a lot of home owners with a mortgage are dealing with too - only they don't get to walk away so easily if they needed to. So whilst horrible, maybe no worse than many others.

I think the best you could do is tell them the truth - that you simply can't afford it. That the cost of changing tenant - if offset against your new monthly fee could make it affordable and you are a known reliable tenant.

BTW - do this directly if possible. Agents like changing tenants - lots of lovely fees. They also like maximising the monthly rental fee as that means maximising their percentage cut. Its in their interest to see you leave and be replaced. They are also heartless ****s. Your landlord may actually be a human just trying to make where you live make financial sense - but open to sensible chat, and sympathetic to your situation.

Start writing your months notice to leave, if you have viable cheaper options to move into immediately after Xmas.

30% is horrible. It’s what a lot of home owners with a mortgage are dealing with too – only they don’t get to walk away so easily if they needed to. So whilst horrible, maybe no worse than many others.

mortgage here and as luck would have it we had to renew a couple of months ago. Not great at all. Need to cut back massively in other areas to afford what was previously an easily manageable amount. Perhaps your landlord is in a similar boat?

We rent a a flat out.  We reduced our rent during lockdown and froze it until recently. We recently negotiated a modest below inflation increase with our tenants.

I did the same - before lockdown had even been announced I wrote to our tenant giving them a month rent free just because nobody knew what was round the corner and its just better to have a buffer. With the kind of hikes happening just now we've let them know the rent wont change any time in the foreseeable future and raising rent isnt part of our plan, we'd give them tons of notice if that ever had to change for some reason.

30% is a lot but mortgage rates have increased hugely and will continue to.

The price a property is rented out at should reflect the market rate for the house, it terms of is size, quality and location. Its not what the cost of borrowing is because the tenants aren't buying a house they're buying a service. It doesnt matter whether the landlord is independently wealthy or mortgaged to the hilt - thats not the concern of the tenant. What the current situation is revealing is there are a lot of landlords about who can't really afford to be. Side hustles. They don't have a property that they rent out - they're using rent to buy a property. They shouldn't just be passing their costs on to the tenant. If changing borrowing costs have impacted on their ability to run their business they should sell up, cash out,  and let someone who can afford to do so do the job.

It's worth looking at Rightmove to see what similar properties have been going for. I've been keeping an eye running up to our contract renewal and have seen a lot of places advertised £300 higher than ours sit unrented for months. This would give you ammunition to negotiate down, 30% is insane. Edit - for reference ours went up by 5% last Jan after a very reasonable negotiation around their mortgage renewal. It sounds like we'll have no increase this year.

This:

It’s just a load of shit is all i can say. I’m really sorry for you. It’s happened to lots of people i know at the moment. This country is becoming a total shit to live in.

I think it's quite possible that house price and rent (hyper) inflation have effectively broken the country despite many many people having been warning about it for years now. I don't quite know how we're going to get out of it as prices dropping back to affordability would ruin many such are the assumptions they've made about prices remaining at unaffordable levels in perpetuity (!), but it looks horribly like it's swallowed up so much of our money that we've basically run out...

That aside, OP, as a tenant myself you have my sympathy and my moral support. Having been in a similar situation myself recently, here's some practical thoughts as its important to remember you do have rights, you do have support, you do have agency and you do have choices...

1. Consider this: you're effectively in an abusive relationship and you need to exit it ASAP - anyone who behaves like that under current circumstances is not someone you want in your life in any way, shape, or form
2. Call their bluff. Tell them you can't afford it and that's that, and you'll move out if they make any attempt to increase your costs. I did this when the agent tried to increase rent by 10% and they backed right down - clearly demand is not outstripping supply to the extent they say it is...
3. Remind them you're an excellent tenant and valuable to them as such. Remember, the landlord has a debt to pay, and it's their name on the mortgage, not yours and the risk of a void could be very problematic for them, and this is neither morally nor legally your responsibility
4. Consider your options: can you find a shared house, is moving elsewhere with cheaper rents possible with WFH, can you move back with your parents, could you become a lodger, any friends who could help you out for a few months whilst you find somewhere with a less toxic agent/landlord?
5. The Council I believe do have rent review boards who will help you challenge excessive increases - which this is
6. Shelter have a good webchat service - they're understandably very busy right now, but they're helpful and knowledgeable. There's also Citizens Advice
7. Worth trying your MP and asking for support - even if they're a Tory, you never know...

Good luck.

What the current situation is revealing is there are a lot of landlords about who can’t really afford to be. Side hustles. They don’t have a property that they rent out – they’re using rent to buy a property. They shouldn’t just be passing their costs on to the tenant. If changing borrowing costs have impacted on their ability to run their business they should sell up, cash out, and let someone who can afford to do so do the job.

Whilst I have some sympathy for what you type....back in the real world....would you expand that dictum to all business sectors? Should the plumber who has seen the parts they use double in price still charge the same for their 'product' - afterall changing a tap is still just changing a tap. Should a magazine (this one maybe) charge the same despite printing costs going up massively? Paper and words are still just paper and words.

@macruisekeen

I agree, but the fact is many now are buy to let landlords owning a couple of properties, and seeing it as a capital investment and pricing income on the basis of their outlays, how it's come to be like that is probably irrelevant now as there's no easy way to reverse. Selling up and passing on to the truly wealthy that don't have a mortgage to cover - I can't see that as good for the country as a whole tbh, for all the private rental stock to be owned by massive landlords with portfolios of hundreds or thousands of places?

I don't like the implications of that. And while it'd be fab to imagine a mass buy back into LC ownership or whatever, that's pie in the sky stuff.

So while you are 100% correct in where it's broken, the fact is that them's the rules just now. So refusing to pay an increase without justification and without negotiating on the cost of changing for the landlord in terms of lost rent, new commissions for agents and so on, just doesn't seem tenable either.

Personally, I blame Dion Dublin.

30% increase is a lot.... But from what?
If it was artificially low before then maybe it's just brought it in line with everything else?

ouch, irrelevant but law here in BC is max increase of 2% every 12months
circumnavigable by evicting tenants for sale/renovations/family members to move in then later relisting for much more.

OP, nothing to add to the above other than sympathy and solidarity. No justification for this.

Your landlord is nothing but a leech and a parasite.

Have you looked around to check what's available and at what price? That's your 1st avenue. Is your rent currently much lower than what's available? This effects your negotiation the most. 30 percent in one go sounds a lot.

If you’re a good tenant then I’d negotiate as best you can but it’s not necessarily greed that’s driving it

Landlord should sell up if they can't afford to rent at market rents. When mortgage rates plummeted in 2008 no one got a 60% drop in rent.

Op.. always open to negotiation, but your starting point should be how long other similar property is available to rent and at what price. Remember it's really difficult for the landlord to evict you especially if your paying rent so no rush to get out even if your current contract expires

I already responded to macruiskeen who said similar, and that is a fair point but isn't that the way of pricing - it's market based until it goes below cost or cost+ a bit of margin, and always in the favour of the landlord. Conversely if it is market based then presumably where rents are being increased then you can refuse or use your freedom in the market.

And while in principle the sell on to someone who can afford it is fair, in reality, who is that and is the market being squeezed down to only being 'professional landlords' with large portfolios, or the truly rich who can buy up places mortgage free - I don't think that's a great situation either.

The reality is what it is and the question is how to respond.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2022/sep/29/buy-to-let-landlords-mini-budget-mortgage-market-meltdown

Current strategy is to have a drink, eat some mince pies and ignore it for a few days to enjoy xmas. Im guessing it's actually the agency rather than the landlord playing silly games.

Has a chat to my neighbours who own and just came off a fixed mortgage for the same increase. I think a lot of younger folk that don’t own outright and older renters are going to have a challenging couple of years if things continue like this.

Have a nice Xmas, focus on the good things. But yes, for most of us, this winter is about staying afloat while living costs rise around us, you are far from alone.

I am a landlord, and I am appalled.
There is a rent increase tribunal, landlords cannot just do this.
My contracts include the industry norm of annual RPI, which by the way I have never enacted.
a) Check your contract for rental increase terms.
b) Go to the tribunal
c) has he done it legally - ie given you a section 13 notice? If not, then just ignore and wait for him to sue you, then he will be told to foxtrot oscar by the judges.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/housing/renting-privately/during-your-tenancy/challenging-a-rent-increase/

I was going challenge the 30% increase in mortgage payments until I checked, a 200k mortgage a couple years in going from 1.5% to 4.5% is around a 30% increase in monthly payments. Thank god I've only got 2 years to go and my payments have gone up around £15 a month.

I think the problem is a lot of amateur landlords expect to cover all their costs and the mortgage payments and still make a profit. That makes renting ridiculously expensive especially for people on pre lower income.

The market will to some extent keep a lid on this as people will default on rent payments. It's going to be pretty horrible for both renters and people with mortgages over the next few years but there were plenty of warnings it was coming at some point.

Yep, that's what I was trying to convey by the comment about it might not be greed driving it. The amateur landlord on BTL will be seeing the increase as well as the same col increases elsewhere and needs their books to balance too.

Also if you accept that (and in return I get those who say they shouldn't be in the game if they can't afford it) they can also see the further rate rises to come, so by your second point are probably trying to prepare for that too.

I put numbers above based on a 200k mortgage and it'll be more than a 30% increase on mortgage repayments, more like 50 if rates go to 5%

My 2p worth as B2L owners in Musselburgh.

We have great tenants, same people for over 10 years and I try to look after them. References to stay, post Brexit, fix and upgrade stuff if possible, and as far as possible, don't intrude par two yearly checks summer and winter.

Fortunate that the rent vs mortgage balance is such that it will absorb the rises, just. Whilst the rent is now probably below the current market rate, the tenants are great, no stress, keep the place in good condition and basically get on with their lives. This probably makes me a soft touch as I could wring more out of the property but, well, thats me and this is where we are. I value having the same people in for longer

All you can do is open negotiations and wait. Current market conditions mean you're in a pretty weak position though as there's a nationwide shortage of rentals so prices are high with lots of people fighting over anything remotely decent, landlords can essentially choose the best tenant rather than waiting for a good one to appear. Your ace cards though are being a good payer, presumably looking after the place and that they won't incur costs associated with changing the tenant. I'd be strongly using those to get a reduction in the increase.

I think the problem is a lot of amateur landlords expect to cover all their costs and the mortgage payments and still make a profit. That makes renting ridiculously expensive especially for people on pre lower income.

This is so true. Landlords used to be happy with covering their costs, having a small pot build up to cover renovations between tenants and realise their profits when they sell the property but now it's all about maximising yield to the point where there's landlords who expect to have a few hundred pounds in pure profit every month! I'm amazingly lucky that my current landlord has never put my rent up in the 9 years I've been in my current place, flats in my block are renting out at £7-800 whereas I'm still at £500! They are an accidental landlord though, the flat is his partner's place she bought before they met and is mortgage-free. I was trying to move earlier this year to be closer to my new job and my landlord said they would sell when I move out but the price increases have pushed a lot of places well out of my budget, going to resume the search in February but currently I'm at the mercy of my landlord keeping my rent low. If he puts the rent up or does indeed sell then I'll be looking at moving back home with my parents and having to give up my job, I'm not alone in that scenario either.

Yep, that’s what I was trying to convey by the comment about it might not be greed driving it. The amateur landlord on BTL will be seeing the increase as well as the same col increases elsewhere and needs their books to balance too.

I get what you're saying that it may be necessity and not greed - but this still defines 'necessity' as 'the BTL landlord shouldn't have to put any money of their own money into acquiring their second home'.

And comments about a 200k mortgage, while accurate, always consider that the property was bought very recently. Which of course isn't always the case. (The previous owner of my house was a landlord who had bought it for about £4.37 in the 90s, but was charging 2015 rents). Or indeed with many 'accidental landlords' might even have been inherited outright...

but now it’s all about maximising yield to the point where there’s landlords who expect to have a few hundred pounds in pure profit every month!

I'm not saying this doesn't happen, but in my experience is not representative. If that was the case the mortgage pressure would be less of an issue - landlords would just be going from a monthly profit situation to break even. My hunch is it's those that were already only breaking even that are asking tenants to contribute to the rising costs most. Remember, the change to not being able to offset mortgage interest payments in 2018 or whenever it was had a big impact on the B2L model - even more so with increased interest rates.

Leverage

New tennants need a current EPC certificate, ok so its not huge but it will be a direct cost, plus agro of arranging, being there to let them in

All properties should now be EPC 3 iirc, so at tennants change over the new certificate should be 3 or better.

Eicr. Electric safety, if its not done it should be, amendment 18 regs are higher so there may be a new CU required, hundreds in costs.

Gas certificate, plus 10yr fire alarm, on every floor, plus CO Alarm, 10yr in every room with a heating appliance.

Inventory, when you leave.

Inventory when new tenants take up rental.

Landlord deposit schemes to be reimbursement to you, then taken off new tenants and deposited in scheme umbrella.

Re decorating if required, could be thousands if kitchen and bathroom need a make over.

Empty periods. The gap between you leaving and the potential new tenants moving in. All lost rent.

So you need to negotiate, but if you are already hundreds below market rent andvits going up by less and is still cheap then your bucked, basically.

Try a different approach. Want to stay, can't afford 30 %. Can you do 12% every year for 3 years?

Where in UK are you. I passed on less than 30% of my cost increases and my tenant still complained. It's a market, if I m struggling as landlord I ll probably sell it.

I did work out tho with a 25% deposit it's still far cheaper to rent it than buy it.

Landlords just want an easy life, offer to decorate, do odd jobs and deal direct with landlord. Agents fees are c 15%.

" clearly demand is not outstripping supply to the extent they say it is…”

That depends where you are. we are selling my partners flat and buying a 2 bed for us and renting my one bed out in the new year. talking to agents they said that there were only 6 1 bed flats for rent in the whole area between a dozen or so estate agents and you will have an open day on a Saturday and then several offers over the asking rent on Sunday.

I’m not after the max money and will check people out on social media as well as the usual checks the agents do and pick a suitable tenant(s) that will hopefully treat the place well and not annoy the neighbours.

My mortgage is locked in and i’m not sailing close to the wind (70% equity) so if it does go up in a year or 2 it will be by a single digit percentage

I’m a landlord. I haven’t put any of my tenants rents up for a while.

Say you can’t afford the new rent, that house will have a vacant period when you leave until they get a new tenant - say a month. The landlord will have to pay an agent fee for the new tenant, say £500 minimum.

If you do leave it’s therefore going to cost the landlord a fair few £ which will take him quite a while to recoup from a new tenant at a higher rent.

I’d say this to the agent and make sure they let the landlord know and this will hopefully make them realise that it’s actually better for you to stay with a small increase instead of forcing you to leave.

All good advice, cheers. Got a few good points I can go with. To be clear I want win win and appreciate the flexibility that comes with renting. I need to be able to move about freely for work if required and am no fan of service fees, building maintenance and management co’s on most UK city builds.

A rise in line with inflation seems reasonable. 30% is madness. There has to be a control here surely, what's to stop them doubling it?

chap at work had his rent raised from £1000 to £1500 a month.

That's over double my mortgage repayments.

I’m a landlord of a 2 bed semi. When I 1st rented it 12 years ago I was charging £395 PCM cos that was the going rate.
I put it up to £425 PCM after a tenant trashed it 6 years ago. It’s still £425 & I Have no reason or intention of increasing it. Mind you, the mortgage is only a bit over £200 a month.
30% seems like a massive hike.

A rise in line with inflation seems reasonable.

I don’t think it is, to be honest. Very few people have had pay rises that match inflation, so why should the landlord expect one?

As others have said, we didn’t see stupidly low rents when mortgages were cheap.

Therein lies the problem.
Potentially landlord bought recently with a, say 1.9% interest only mtg. 20% deposit and was using the rental to cover the interest, and costs, and put something away to cover the lump repayment and keep some for bunces as hes now 'in property'

Except we are now seeing mtg rates shooting up to levels which millennials cannot comprehend.

So his costs have doubled or more but his income is static and he might not have the gearing. Yes it was spectacularly cheap money, and still is but if youve borrowed alot then your screwed.

My cover is 6x as i fixed for 5 years and the rent is on a 4% pa increase as it was approx £150pcm less than market rate. But the tennant is ok, reliable enough and pays.

I was going challenge the 30% increase in mortgage payments until I checked, a 200k mortgage a couple years in going from 1.5% to 4.5% is around a 30% increase in monthly payments.

Whilst this is true, I struggle how this is the Tennants problem. Borrowing at the extremely low rates we had was a bonus for the landlord. A bonus which would always end.

If I rent someone a car, bike or TV, how I finance those items should have no effect on the price. It should be market value.

A rise in line with inflation seems reasonable. 30% is madness. There has to be a control here surely, what’s to stop them doubling it?

Nothing, they just evict the current tenant and get a new one at the new market rate.

That depends where you are. we are selling my partners flat and buying a 2 bed for us and renting my one bed out in the new year. talking to agents they said that there were only 6 1 bed flats for rent in the whole area between a dozen or so estate agents and you will have an open day on a Saturday and then several offers over the asking rent on Sunday.

My search in Bristol has been a tale of 10+ viewings per property (decent flats get 50+ applications for viewing slots overnight) I actually get to see and then a bidding war ensuing. One went from the advertised £900 up to £1100 before one couple who were desperate for a place (baby due in 6 weeks, only 3 weeks left in current flat) didn't even go inside, they just told the agent they would pay £1300 pcm and pay 6 months rent upfront!

they just told the agent they would pay £1300 pcm and pay 6 months rent upfront!

If they've got eight grand lying around, why are they having to rent?

The entire system is perverse.

What does 8 grand get you as a deposit in Bristol.

Not alot I'd imagine.....well not in some where you believe your front door will help protect your belongings..

£8000 will be on a credit card.
That's not alot for a couple to have available as a maximum amount on one card, for 1 of them.

Dont worry about the interest or trying to repay it if ypu need somewhere to live.

I had cards with credit limit that exceeded my annual income, multiple cards

we have friends who had theirs raised by 10%, first increase in 3 or 4 years

Depending on if this is 3 or 4 years that's ~2.5-3% p.a average which is not crazy. 30% though is!

Very few people have had pay rises that match inflation, so why should the landlord expect one?

Inflation is defined by mixed basket of goods and services. If there is inflation then some of these good and services have increased in price. The reason for the increase in these items price may be varied but these items have increased in price. Other goods and services outside of this basket (in this case rent) will be influenced by this rate of inflation in one way or another. It's not necessarily expecting it's a result of and influenced by inflation.

The whole housing / rental market in the UK is screwed and tenants get no real protection - its a bit better in Scotland and there is a rent freeze right now here but the housing market works to transfer money from the state and the poor to the rich.  Buying property on an ordinary wage is impossible for many and tenants get no protection

A rise in line with inflation seems reasonable. 30% is madness. There has to be a control here surely, what’s to stop them doubling it?

When we the last increase?

A few years I started at a company that'd never put the service prices up, 5 years of lost increases that they never got back plus compounded so their income was in reality 15% lower. Lazy & daft.

Landlords should really increase rentals on a tenants anniversary by CPI/RPI etc - no one would've complained in the decade before this year.

I tend to only hike rents when tenants change

+1

We only change rent when changing tenant. A 30% hike mid tenancy is just outrageous and suggests the landlord doesn't give a frack about you or anyone.

What does 8 grand get you as a deposit in Bristol.

Move? 😁

I guess that's kinda my point. It'll likely get you bugger all, but it should. Up until fairly recently I believed that renting was the 'cheap' option for people who couldn't afford a mortgage, but if anything it's more expensive. We moved to a 5-bedroom house and the difference between the mortgage and the rent my partner was paying for a 2.5 bed semi with one living room came out at £6/month. Granted, I had a sizeable deposit, but still. I find that absolutely astounding, she was literally giving a complete stranger a free house simply due to the lack of a deposit (and the moany arse still wouldn't get the boiler fixed).

Handy point if he works in bristol

1) It may be the owners of the property are afraid of being declared bankrupt, it may not just be greed. A lot of issues are hitting them hard and the 'insulation of rental properties' issue is also a huge expense looming on the horizon, in addition to the possible expense of heat exchangers if the house heating fails.

2) There is no genuine social housing left to act as a form of rent control (housing associations seem set up to pay large saleries not help tenants)

3) A friend owns a chain of rental properties. They chose to stop any rent increase at all during Covid and also are continuing to freeze due to awareness people cannot pay. They wish to keep any responsible, polite and friendly tennents they have. They are good landlords and maintain buildings/sort problems as they see it in everyones interest to be decent. As they were landlords starting decades ago, they have paid off all thier properties or bought them for cash in the first place (they have other substantial incomes). They have told me if they were not paid off, they would be getting out of landlordship as the way things are going, it would not be financially viable to continue.

4) Another friend has a 30 something son who has been trying to find a flat or similar in either Bristol or Cardiff. He had been looking for months and found many estate agents treated the situation almost as a joke ( as in we joke with despair, rather than spiteful) as there are so many desperate people who would take anything at almost any price if they could manage to fund it. He finally got something, as I think he happened to be the person in the Estate agents when the property came in for rent.

5) I have seen many accounts of bidding wars for property in the last few months in national newspapers. It seems the asking price for rent is now rather like the 'guide price' of auctions - ie no one ever pays that price, its always higher.

6) Try to find some value for your landlord that you can offer. A stable, helpful and decent tenent who is planning to stay for years saves them money and inconvienence. If possible try to get to the owner of the property if you can do it without being annoying.

7) My landlord friends stopped thier agent from throwing out a long standing tennent. The agency wanted to not renew the womans contract as on thier judegement she could not theoretically make the payments each month. However she had never defaulted on a payment in the many years she lived in the house, so my friend refused to agree to her eviction. The Agency was pissed and said the property owner (my friends) would have to take all the responsibility of her if she defualted in payments but my friends refused to throw on to the street an innocent person who had never been a problem.
Often the Agency is the bottleneck.

) My landlord friends stopped thier agent from throwing out a long standing tennent. The agency wanted to not renew the womans contract as on thier judegement she could not theoretically make the payments each month. However she had never defaulted on a payment in the many years she lived in the house, so my friend refused to agree to her eviction.

I think this would not be aloud now. Either way that is maximum dick move from the agent. I have always avoided agency where possible and do not understand what value they bring (from either a landlord or tenant pov) tbh unless you are living abroad.

2) There is no genuine social housing left to act as a form of rent control (housing associations seem set up to pay large salaries not help tenants)

I pointed this out to an acquaintance who worked in Social Housing back in the mid-2000's, after she'd described how her bosses worked & who they were 'accountable' to - pretty much no one.

Yet another example of the classic Tory strategy of transferring public cash into the private sector.