For various reasons, landlords must at times increase a tenant’s rent. Perhaps the cost of living or the value of the property has gone up, or maybe the cost of satisfactorily maintaining the property has increased. Whatever the cause, you have a few guidelines to consider when increasing a tenant’s rent.
Usually, a system is in place that controls the baseline rent requirements. The specific procedure for increasing the rent for a tenant changes depending on the agreement made when the tenant started renting the space. If the tenant signed a lease, the landlord cannot raise the cost of rent until the lease expires. A rental agreement, on the other hand, is a monthly or weekly arrangement during which a landlord can give a tenant a written notice of rent increase. Depending on your location, you may have different requirements for this advance notice depending on how large of an increase in rent is being imposed. Other considerations should also be made if the property in question is subject to rent control regulations.
Rent control is generally defined as “a government program that places a limit on the amount that a landlord can demand for leasing a home or for renewing a lease.” Landlords in charge of properties in Los Angeles, California, for example, can only increase rent by 5% each year under rent control regulations. In any event, it would certainly pay for a landlord to do some research to make sure their property is not mismanaged.
A few laws are in place that can make increasing the rent difficult. The previously mentioned rent notice requirements involve one such example. In other cases, an increase in rent could be considered an illegal form of retaliation against a tenant. If a dispute occurred recently between the landlord and the tenant, care should be taken when increasing the rent because some laws are designed to automatically assume that actions like eviction or rent increase are in retaliation against the tenant if a dispute has occurred recently.
Don’t Miss-
Your Essential Rental Moving Out Checklist: 7 Things to Remember
The Do’s and Don’ts of Renting Villas that You Need to Know about
Additionally, in some circumstances, a tenant could feasibly pay less rent money. If a tenant notifies a landlord of a repair that a property requires that is covered under the landlord’s obligation to keep that property habitable, the tenant might be able to withhold rent as an incentive for the landlord to repair the property. If the situation escalates, it could be the basis for a court case, although it is unusual for a tenant to be allowed to live on a property without paying anything at all. The tenant will likely still be required to pay the “fair rental value” (the value of the rental property minus penalties for violation of property maintenance regulations) of the rental space.
Though the large amount of paperwork associated with weekly, monthly, or annual agreements can really pile up, the landlord should make sure to protect themselves by keeping their rental paperwork organized and available in dedicated file boxes or Turbotenant software. If the landlord has a sufficient amount of paperwork to prove a history of reasonable repairs and rent agreements, a better case could be made in the landlord’s defense should they be accused of unfairly treating their tenants. Laws in various parts of the world may differ, however, so legal council should always be sought on a case-by-case basis.
Laws regarding the rights and responsibilities a tenant has exist to protect both the tenant and the landlord’s property, and are generally agreed upon when the tenant becomes the landlord’s client. Indeed, these laws might even be predisposed toward protecting the tenant against the landlord, for good or bad.
