Martin Lewis gives important advice to tenants facing ‘unfair’ rises

Martin Lewis has given some important advice to people facing rent increases from their landlord. The MoneySavingExpert founder explored the topic on his Martin Lewis podcast where he called on experts to discuss issues he doesn’t normally cover.

Rents in Wales rose by 8% to £730 a month on average in the 12 months to April 2024, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics.

Mr Lewis raised a question from a listener asking whether people whose private landlord had increased their rent could do anything to challenge the measure. To receive the latest financial news straight to your inbox twice a week, sign up to our newsletter here.

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Ben Leonard, a policy adviser at Acorn who appeared on the podcast, said: “You can challenge rent increases through court, so that’s the good news. The bad news is that the system really doesn’t work very well for tenants. two reasons. The first reason is that it takes a long time and landlords can evict you using section 21 before you have completed the process.

“The other problem is that it’s not without risk for the tenant either. The court can effectively say that after looking at other rents available in the market, we believe that the landlord has not increased your rent, and it can actually increase the amount by which the rent is increased.

“As a result, I don’t know anyone who has actually gone down this route, either because they’re getting evicted before they get the chance or because they’re too afraid their rent will go up even more.”

Mr Lewis responded by saying: “So you can argue that your rent increase is unfair, but it doesn’t really matter because if you’re going to lose it and the landlord doesn’t want you, he will expel.”

Julie Ford, founder of Gothard Rowe Landlord Services, admitted the system was “great on paper” but “doesn’t work”, adding that she knew of people who had challenged the increases and seen their rent rise even more than originally.

How much your rent can increase and whether or not you can challenge it in Wales depending on the type of contract you have. Most tenants who rented before December 2022 will have a converted standard contract or a standard contract if they started after this date. During a fixed term of your contract, your rent can only be increased if you accept it, start paying the new amount or sign a new rental contract.

If you are under a periodic or rolling contract, your rent can only be increased if you receive formal notice, if you accept an increase, if you start paying a higher amount (even if you have not accepted it) or if you sign. a new rental contract. Usually, formal notices are not valid if they attempt to increase the rent during the fixed term of your tenancy, if less than a year has passed since the previous notice or if you have not received a notice of at least two months.

For those on converted contracts – those that started before December 2022 – you should first try speaking to your landlord to try to resolve any rent issues. Otherwise, you can take it to court. If your contract started after December 2022, you can’t go through the court system to challenge an increase, but you can still talk to your landlord to try to resolve the issues. In Wales, rent disputes are dealt with by the Residential Property Tribunal Wales, an independent tribunal. You can read more about it here.