At the committee hearing listening to evidence about the impact of the Renters’ Rights Bill, the representative for Shelter raised concerns about the rent increases imposed by landlords and said that the Bill must stop ‘economic evictions’.  He added there should be a limit on the power of landlords to increase rents unreasonably for ‘dishonestly evicting tenants’.  He complained: “The tribunal is only able to assess the eventual rent, rather than the proportions of rent increase.”  “This can lead to disproportionate increases that tenants simply cannot afford.”

This highlights that landlords should try to keep their rent levels as close to the market level as possible to avoid a situation where they feel compelled to increase the rent by what eventually becomes a large percentage or cash amount.  Some landlords don’t increase their rents for several years but if Shelter gets its way, the landlord would not be able to increase the rent to anything close to the market level.

Kindness does not pay in this respect!!!

If a tenant challenges the rent increase and applies to the Tribunal, then as things stand, the Tribunal will compare the proposed rent with that in the market, which is quite fair and proper to 99.99999% of the population – but not to Shelter.