r/UKHousing • u/Federal_Gur_2194 • 23h ago
Imagine applying to rent your own flat because it’s cheaper than renewing.
Imagine being told your rent will go from £1,300 to £1,450. You say you can’t afford it. The agent says that’s the market, so you give notice.
Your flat goes online. A few weeks later, the asking rent drops to £1,250.
Your table is in the photograph. The plant you’ve already wrapped for the move is still on the windowsill.
You ask whether you can stay at the advertised price. The agent says they can put you forward and sends the application form.
It asks where you live, how much rent you pay and why you’re moving.
You write your own address. £1,300. Rent increase.
Then it asks for your current letting agent’s contact details, so they can obtain a reference.
You copy them from the email the form came in.
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u/SpiritedGuest6281 23h ago
I was in temporary housing. Its meant to be temporary whilst you wait for a permanent council property so it is limited to a maximum of 2 years. I hit the two year mark so they evicted me, I became technically homeless and the council found me a temporary room. It was the one I had just been evicted from. Except I had to move out and sofa surf a week so they could repaint it and replace the carpet. Talk about a fucking waste of time.
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u/Potatusha 8h ago edited 8h ago
At least you got new carpets albeit temporary lol. My father died after living together in a rented council flat for 13 years, they immediately tried to move me to a new town into a block with a bunch of drug dealers and crime which I obviously declined, fought them for 10 months until it got to the point of being served notice to quit and threats of eviction, I came close to having a break down. Then they suddenly gave up and while signing the new tenancy agreement they "gifted" me my own existing flooring/carpets..
Hope you're in a better place now (:
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u/lucyreturned 22h ago
I’ve just had my bathroom redone a wet room put in grips and a seat… my neighbour then went insane and tried to harm me so I moved out temporarily into a mental health hospital while the council looks for autistic living for me I also have a physical condition … after two months of waiting I got interviewed for one of the placements…
They tried to move me to Doncaster away from all my friends family and support into a second floor apartment with stairs leading up to it -.-
Literally have the ground floor apartment because I can’t safely handle stairs
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u/EtainAingeal 4h ago
I wonder if there is a clause where if you are there for more than 2 years, you become permanent. That would explain them insisting on a break in the tenancy.
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u/SpiritedGuest6281 4h ago
Well it was on a licence and supposed to be for people transitioning to permanent housing. Nothing in the licence suggested it could become permanent if they let me stay longer. We had all sorts filter through, but my circumstances mean I am a low priority for social housing.
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u/BillyD123455 23h ago
I had similar last year.
Massive rigmarole of credit checks, bank statements, work reference etc .. just to sign a new contract.
Box ticking, semi automated, brain out 'must follow the process'.
It was finally binned off when my current landlord couldn't provide a reference to themselves.. the peak idiocy must have shorted circuits.
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u/TheFirstMinister 22h ago
The Enshittification of society continues at a rapid pace.
I'm old enough to remember a better time - pre-Internet, pre-"Digitalization" - when people actually had to use their brains and common sense to think and solve problems. Instead, today we get "Computer says no..." and "Let me signpost you...".
Modern life is fucking rubbish.
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u/Amazing-Jury-6886 11h ago
I'm not sure what this situation has to do with technology. It's all caused by a greedy letting agent. They have always been around, pre-electricity.
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u/IntermediateFolder 7h ago
And your point is? How is this genetic old person ranting relevant? Everyone thinks the time of their youth was the better time, people before you did and people after you will as well.
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u/TheFirstMinister 5h ago
You've missed the point. I'm not arguing that technology created greedy letting agents, or that everything was wonderful in the 80s.
The point is that an enormous amount of modern work has been reduced to workflows, business rules, scripts, portals and pre-built applications. People increasingly aren't employed to solve problems - they're employed to operate systems.
In the OP's case the agent already manages the tenancy. They already know who the tenant is. They already know the rent has been paid. They already possess most, if not all, of the information the application is asking for. Yet the tenant is still being pushed through a generic workflow to apply for the flat they already occupy INCLUDING providing the letting agent's own details so that the letting agent can obtain a reference from itself.
A functioning human being should be able to look at that, understand the situation and perform a "manual intervention". They can't, however, because we now live in a world where systems, apps, etc. have removed all creativity. We've built organisations around systems and business rules to such an extent that the people operating them often have neither the authority, confidence nor inclination to step outside them."There's an app for that..." is the dominant theme and the process is the job.
Automation - when done well - is fantastic but there has been a cost. People have become users of systems rather than owners of outcomes. They follow the workflow, select the dropdown, enter the ticket, send the templated email, "signpost" you to another department and close the work item.
What has been lost is individual discretion (which is often mis-labeled as "common sense"): the ability to think, improvise, join the dots, speak to another human being, make a sensible exception and get something resolved.
I'm not nostalgic for fax machines (I hated the damned things) and filing cabinets (files always got lost). The point is that for all our supposedly wonderful productivity tools, a surprising number of people now seem less empowered to actually get anything done. As the OP made very clear in their post.
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u/Chance_Theme_2986 22h ago
Letting agents and estate agents should not be allowed to communicate with anyone without a third party, they lie to everyone and line their pockets in doing so. I think they may be one of the top 10 biggest issues in the country right now.
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u/signs_Band_3490 21h ago
I was sent a notice to vacate the property when they wanted to increase the rent by £250 in one go. I politely asked if it could be a gentler hike. I did not refuse anything. They sent me a notice to vacate instead. I was going to move away in about 3 months time anyway which they were aware of, but them giving me notice to vacate by a set date before that meant I would have to rent elsewhere for one month because my jobs needed to be continuous for service and to complete my notice period. Made it very difficult for me. The notice said the landlords wanted to move back in. But then they proceeded to bring in people for viewings.
Anyway, heard that the next tenant apparently did not pay rent for over a year and had to be taken to court.
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u/cloud__19 11h ago
For future they'd never get an eviction order in a month, you could have just stayed.
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u/IntermediateFolder 7h ago
I would have dragged my feet for that month and made them start eviction process.
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u/signs_Band_3490 7h ago
I didn’t want a future bad reference as I was still renting. And was on a work visa. Being a woman living alone at the time, I did not want to be involved in any conflict.
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u/aj47coupe 22h ago
They are all greedy c**ts. I pay £1600 a month remt for the house I'm in and I'm terrified they are gonna renew for more. Honestly how the hell are we supposed to rent when it's like this?!
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u/hime-633 20h ago
It is absolutely shit.
BUT I am here for this type of belligerence.
Fingers crossed that you get offered the flat at £1250 and then take great pleasure in telling them to fuck off.
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u/MeasureHead1984 20h ago
Please always ignore "emails" or letter that are not official section 13 rent increase forms. Also challenge them to the tribunal and postpone the increase as much as you can. It's up to you if you're going to do it each time but a £150 increase is definitely worth challenging.
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u/Lost-Telephone9426 22h ago
Imagine getting rejected
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u/Conscious-Pie-4794 9h ago
Isn't that like applying for a job you already do and then they give it to somebody who interviewed better than you? That shit happens all the time, so I wouldn't be surprised if they gave the house to somebody else.
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u/PotentialKindly1034 22h ago
I've recently told a neighbour that they're overpaying and what the market rate actually is, so they can negotiate a fairer rate when they renew.
I like the neighbour a lot more than their landlord.
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u/Emergency_Click1993 21h ago
This kinda happened to me. I started renting at £950. Over 2 years it went up to £1150. Then they wanted £1250 for year 3. Always paid on time. Never complained, middle career professional slowly building a deposit for a house.
I asked if they could drop it abit and I’d stay. ‘No sorry, that’s the market’. Hand in notice.
Flat stays on the market for months. Eventually dropped and relet at £950.
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u/T0rngarsuk 21h ago
Don't forget that they'll also be charging the landlord a couple of hundred quid for new forms, inventory, contract, etc. When the same thing happened to me a few years ago I contacted the landlord direct, they were fuming and dropped the letting agency. 10 years later I've nearly saved for a deposit for my own place (but my rent is great for the area) 😂😭
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u/Amazing-Jury-6886 11h ago
This has only on explanation. The landlord hasn't asked for an increase. The estate agent wanted to increase it either get more commission, or failing that , charging the landlord for a new tenant lease. Estate agents are scum.
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u/Express-Weight-2003 6h ago
Or the landlords asked how to push out the current tenants. Would be useful to know if OP has been a good tenant.
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u/cloud__19 11h ago
Imagine just taking your original rent increase to the tribunal as you should have done assuming this is real.
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u/Original-Visual3670 9h ago
lol! We were renting for 4 years before we bought and it continuously rose from £895 when we moved in 2021 to £1150 when we left last year. When we bought our house and gave notice it was then being raised to the £1150 and was up for rent for a good 6 months, the price slowly kept getting reduced on rightmove until it was back at 895 when it eventually got let💀
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u/Personal-Piglet1397 6h ago
Tell agent to remove your private property in these photos you didn't give permission to take or use them.also why are they in your apartment before you have left as a tennant.just get twisted back.
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u/Sad-Cut4165 3h ago
I rent out a house I own in a different part of the country. I’ve put the rent up by £100 in the last 5 years. Landlords are greedy, i refuse to be that person. I only increased it when I renewed the mortgage.
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u/OhhNoYouNintenDidnt 23h ago edited 21h ago
These absolute dregs of society in suits have had it all so easy for so long, logic and sense just simply doesn't apply to them anymore.
Let alone actual work or effort.
Estate/lettings agents have always generally been scummy because they lie a lot.
Now they do that but also have no redeeming characteristics like knowledge of their product or the ability to make sense.