Rent Negotiations

Though landlords aren’t always too keen on negotiating rental prices and tenants are usually happy to accept the advertised price, discussions do happen between tenants and landlords over prices. Sometimes negotiations are speculative and, often, tenants are just trying their luck, but as a landlord you do need to know how to deal with negotiations and when, if ever, to accept a deal.

Know Your Business

If you don’t know how big your margins are or your yields on a particular property, you’re very unlikely to be able to have a fruitful discussion about costs or rent reductions. The trade off you need to exploit is between having tenants in a property and having lower rent. If you’ve got a property which has been tough to shift, a £10 a week rent deduction over a year might be better than another month without tenants.

Non-Rent Payments

An area where life can complicated is when tenants start to negotiate on bill payments or things like broadband contracts or repairs. Be sure not to overcomplicate your contract and consider the additional liability from taking on an energy bills contract. If, for example, you choose to offer inclusive bills to your tenants, it can be wiser just to deduct the rent rather than make yourself responsible for bill payments every month.

Rent Guarantee Insurance

Whatever arrangement you decide upon, you need to ensure it is clear and contracted. Your rent guarantee insurance will be able to help you out with missed rent payments, but you will need to know how much rent you’re actually due. It’s much easier to reclaim a clear £1000 per calendar month than about nine hundred, plus the cost of a few energy bills and a random repair.

Negotiations with tenants can be fruitful and if you think you are likely to lose possible tenants because of a particular issue, it can be worthwhile giving a little and getting a lot. There is always potential to renegotiate contracts in the future, so don’t be too afraid to compromise and get some tenants in.