There’s a lot of information for landlords on how to deal with problematic tenants in case of late payments or bad maintenance, but tenants are often unaware of their rights. As a result, they never seek help from the regulatory bodies in case they have been harassed by the landlord, or if the property owner has come up with a sudden, unfair increase in rent. Many tenants believe, just because the landlord is the owner of the property, it is his/her right to raise the rent at any given time. The truth is that they need to notify you in advance; if you think that the raise is way too much, you can even challenge it with the legal authorities (though it may not be a valid option in some parts of this world).
Rent Increase Notice:
In most cases, Landlord has to inform the tenants by issuing a notice beforehand, normally more than 2 months in advance. If not, tenants are in no way obligated to pay the increased amount. The amount of new rent and the date when it will be applicable should be mentioned. Remember, you can’t go around increasing rent every other month; the normal time frame for a rent increase is at least after a space of 12 years in most states. Many states require landlords to specify a valid reason for the rent increase. If you have got the notion that the landlord is treating you with some sort of discrimination because of your religion, race or gender, you reserve the rights to complain to your local authorities. You are also entitled for some rent relaxations, if you are a senior citizen.
Rent increase predicament for landlords:
Many property owners find themselves in a fix when it comes to increasing rent (unless these owners are old hands at buying and renting properties). Biggest constraints could be the possibility of tenant checking out or the scenario where you have developed friendly relations with tenants through the course of time. Though valid, but these reasons do not justify the financial losses that you may bring upon yourself. Ideal way is to proceed with small increase instead of demanding a big lift out of the blue. For deciding the rate of increase, you may consult the guidelines issued by your local authorities. Many landlords will also keep the tenants behavior in mind when deciding upon the increase, if the tenants have been good so far, they will keep the raise to bare minimum, if not, they will ask for a bigger raise.
William King is the director of
Dubai Marina Property & Marina Real Estate for Sale,
Lahore Real Estate & Lahore Property and
Property & Real Estate Directory. He has 18 years of experience in the marketing and trading industries and has been helping retailers and startups with their product sourcing, promotion, marketing and supply chain requirements.
