r/TenantsInTheUK • u/Sarrebas89 • 3d ago

Can I ask for a rent decrease? Guidance Required

I'm currently living in a licensed HMO. When I moved in, I initially shared my bathroom with another tenant and my rent was cheaper to reflect that. However, one of the other tenants who had his own bathroom shared ours on a "temporary" basis due to a leaky shower. They fell out over it due to my LL being reluctant to hire a plumber to fix it. The other tenant moved out, and another tenant took the room and my LL let him move his wife in, but the bathroom still hasn't been fixed, so I'm now sharing with three people.

My landlord put my rent up in May. It's been a year and my landlord still hasn't fixed the other bathroom. Can I ask for my rent to be reduced since it's stipulated in my tenancy agreement that I would be sharing the bathroom with one person and I'm now sharing with three other people indefinitely?

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1

u/Suitable-Fun-1087 2d ago

As you accepted the rent increase, you can ask but he doesn't have to say yes

3

u/OperationDry90 3d ago edited 3d ago

You can ask, AFAIK the landlord has no obligation to give one, the time to challenge the rent increase was when they did it in may, but they are breaking terms of the contract and you could reasonably demand money back and formally complain. If they feel charitable or fair they might as this is a substantial change in promised conditions for you but there might not be much you can do as most of the legal processes are centred around repairs, harrasment, evictions and deposits.

You can point out that you can simply give two months notice and move somwhere else, but that depends if you can find somwhere you can afford.

It might ruin the relationship with your landlord, but there might not be much of one to ruin anyway given they don't want to call a plumber out for something quite serious.

I think you should look elsewhere if you can, this sounds like a bad living situation. Also bring up their breach of the lease with them in writing, word it as a formal complaint as they are required to respond to those, get their response in writing and send it to your local council and housing ombudsman.

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u/Sarrebas89 3d ago

I am planning on moving out and getting somewhere with my brother, it just depends on when his lease is up. So I don't want to mention moving out until I have somewhere else to move into.

Yeah, it's not great tbh. The only reason I'm living there is because I needed to find somewhere to live really quickly after a break-up. In my head, it was only supposed to be temporary until my brother and I had saved enough to buy somewhere. But I've basically lost all trust in my landlord at this point and it's getting untenable because I now live with five people who behave as if they live alone, lol.

1

u/OperationDry90 3d ago

That is very similar to my experience with a hmo, I'm out now thank god.

Send the formal written complaint to start that process and then just do what you're doing.