Tenants Ask For Rent Reductions

More working tenants are attempting to renegotiate with their landlords to try to get their property rents reduced. Many tenants are increasingly struggling to pay their rents on time due to mounting financial pressures, leading to calls from specialists within the lettings industry for more Rent Guarantee insurance products.

41.2% of members surveyed by the Association of Letting Agents (ARLA), reported an increase in the number of tenants struggling to meet their rent payments to their landlords in the six months up to March 2012.

Legal 4 Landlords Spokesman Sim Sekhon, said: “With financial pressures mounting on both tenants and landlords, there has never been a greater need for landlords to thoroughly tenant reference all prospective applicants and attempt to secure their rental income, that’s why we developed our market leading Rent Guarantee Insurance for Buy To Let landlords”.

ARLA operations manager, Ian Potter, said: “With unemployment predicted to rise and average rents also increasing in some parts of the country, it seems more and more tenants are finding it impossible to make ends meet. It is likely that the same is happening for landlords, who may find their mortgage rate is rising. At worst, this double whammy may result in landlords defaulting on mortgages and tenants being forced to move out of a property.”