Landlords in the capital are 'bullying' tenants into taking rent increased above the current price cap, according to union Living Rent.
Private tenants have claimed they have been pushed into accepting increases of up to £400, far higher than the 3 per cent cap set out by the Scottish Parliament. Despite the current freeze a loophole allows landlords to do it if their tenant agrees, according to the Daily Record.
Jude, 23, and Laurence, 22, have been threatened with eviction if they don't agree to increase the rent on their Edinburgh home. The duo have paid twelve months of rent in a nine month period, for the last three years.
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They've paid extra from September to June, with their landlord hoping to ensure she would receive income over summer. With plans to move out in June, they handed in their last rent payment but their landlord told them she had increased their rent in September and they owed her more money - or they could leave.
The pair say they have never received a three month rent increase notice. Jude said: "The treatment tenants receive from landlords is unfair and disgusting.
"They have real power over your life. And they are trying to find loopholes to take even more money from you when so much of it already goes to them."
Carol and Jamie, who also live in a two bedroom flat in the capital, say their landlord tried to pressure them into accepting a rent increase of £400 from £1200 to £1600 and threatened to sell the flat or move into the property if they didn’t accept.
They said: "Our landlord said he was going to increase our rent or else he was going to sell the flat and we would have to leave. He gave us an elaborate story that he's living in his friend's house and he needed to sell this flat then he said he was going to have to come and live with us.
"At one point he told us that he was going to move in that night so we changed the locks in case he tried to get in. He then tried to hike up our rent, ignoring the rent cap and notice period.
"It has made living here massively stressful and anxiety inducing."
Aditi Jehangir, Secretary for Living Rent says: "Tenants are being bullied into accepting rent hikes right under the government’s nose. As landlords complain about the rent cap supporting tenants too much, these examples of landlords blackmailing tenants with threats of increased rents or homelessness show who really has the power.
"We need rent controls to make homes affordable, to ensure tenants are not living in fear of rent increases or eviction. We need rent controls to give tenants more power over their homes. And we need rent controls to penalise landlords who break the law.”
Rent in Scotland has increased an average of 11.9% over the last year leading to the average two bed home to cost £924 per month.
A six month rent freeze was renewed by the Scottish Government until September 2023 with the rent cap increased from 0% to 3%. An eviction ban was extended until September 2023.
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