sg800

Hi all,

Has anyone succesfully renogotiated their rent at all? I have heard of people doing so just wondering what angle you took with your landlord?

I singed up for 12 months in Jan, paid one cheque, and probably paid 50k - 80k + more than the same property is available for now.

Having furnished the place I am definitely keen to stay on beyond Jan 10 i.e. for a second year, but I am wondering if I can get the landlord to knock down the price for the first 12 months as well as come up with a better price for the next 12....

Has anyone had any experience of this that they can share, or any tip/advice?

Cheers

admon

Why would the landlord knock the rent down for this year, when the contract is signed and cheques handed over (and at least one already cashed)?

It's a bit like going back to the person you bought a house from a year ago and saying 'excuse me, it's gone down in value quite a bit since I bought it, I'd like a refund'..

As for 2010, 3 months before the end of your current contract, tell your landlord what you are prepared to pay. If they don't accept it, tell them you are moving out at the end of the contract. That way they have the opportunity to come back and say 'ok we will accept that'. If they don't then you move, simple.

Smoochy Girl

I agree; I don't think he's going to give you any money back. However, you can start negotiating for your next contract 3 months prior to expiry. That's what we did and took the house down from 250K to 180K with no post dated cheques AT ALL - we pay monthly now

Blue Cat

your friends give you great advice

mrskpd

We have recently successfully done this. We signed a 12 month contract in December, payable with 2 cheques and we only handed over the first cheque. We had a clause in our contract stating that we could leave early as long as we gave 2 months notice. About a month ago we rang our landlord and said we wanted to renegotiate the 2nd 6 months due to changed financial circumstances. He said he wasn't interested in renegotiating. So the next day we sent an email giving our 2 months required notice that we were vacating. Surprise surprise, an hour later we got a response offering to renegotiate and asking what our budget was. We managed to get the monthly rental down from 13,750 a month to 10,000 a month. He wanted us to sign on for another 12 months but we only agreed to another six months as per the original contract, with the rent paid in 3 post dated cheques. We pushed for cheques to be handed over monthly but couldn't get him to agree on this and in the end we were happy with the deal so took it. It is still slightly higher than market rent but we like the place and wanted to stay at the end of the day. Just to have our bases covered we looked around in our area and found plenty of other suitable apartments for rent so if we couldn't strike a deal we would have walked away

sg800

A client of mine looks after the property for their staff and told me they have done this with some individual landlords.

I know its different as they are a big client,can offer long term business, and I am a mere Dubai expat individual, however I thought I would look into it.

For the landlord, perhaps maintaining a long term relationship is more important than making a quick buck, if they are worried about what rates are doing longer term and whether they would even find a succesor to take over the property come the expiry of my lease, perhaps they would look to be flexible to ensure their longer term stability? Its not really like your anallergy at all

Thanks for other advice though, and to everyone else, I am sure thats the best and only way forward. Will have to sit tight knowing my neighbours are paying 80k less for the same as what I am getting

sg800

Good work

Will look into the contract in more depth....

Cheers

admon

as you say, you had a special clause.
No clause, no deal within contract.

But worth a thought to people signing new contracts..

mrskpd

It will depend on your landlords situation - he probably has a mortgage to pay and if you've paid in one cheque chances are he has spent the money. The only way you would be able to renegotiate this year, IMO, is if you have a break lease clause in your contract whereby he refunds you the balance of the rent. Without this, you can try, but you will be at the landlord's mercy

admon

Come on SG, when over the last 5 years have the majority of LL's here had any interest in 'long term relationships'. The vast majority want cash, now, nothing more.
Unfortunately it is consistent with the 'only today matters' ethic of the UAE. Forward thinking doesn't even come into their mindset.

anallergy?

sg800

Totally, I understand that he may well have spent the money etc.

I am going to give it a try and see what happens, nothing to lose. Essentially, if he is keen to maintain a long term relationship with his tenants and look at the bigger picture from a business perspective, rather than a short term money in the bank perspective, perhaps he will see the value in taking a hit now but being guaranteed a tenant for the next 21 months...

Or he may just tell me to p*ss off.

sg800

Mate, I totally understand what you are saying.

But its a renters market with less renters, more available properties. The guy has 2 kids in school and a mortgage to pay. All I am saying is he can maybe take a bit of a hit now but be guaranteed a tenant for the next 21 months, meaning kids have school fees paid, mortgage gets paid, wife kept happy. OR he can say no way your having a laugh, see us move out in Jan and potentially struggle to find another tenant/rent the place out for a massive loss compared to what he could have got if he was a bit flexible now - meaning he would have cut his nose off to spite his face.

Maybe I am being too naive or unrealistic but I'll give it a go - like I said nothing to lose.

I will prepare myself for the I told you so's should I fail miserably

sg800

And this ^ - wrong word

mrskpd

If you don't have any luck, console yourself knowing that you are probably paying 80k less than what your neighbours on the other side who signed up in August last year are paying

sg800

lol, thank you