Martin Lewis explains what to do if your landlord tries to put up your rent

The cost of living crisis has impacted us all, but Martin Lewis is once again here to help when it comes to increased rent bills.

The finance guru was on ITV last night (23 January) for the latest showing of The Martin Lewis Money Show Live, where he gave fresh advice on what to do if your landlord tries to put up your rent.

After a segment on mortgages, Martin turned his attention to the renting market.

It comes just days after he gave a fresh warning to young people about the importance of paying into your pension.

One reader had contacted Martin over their son's rent. They said their son's private landlord is set to increase his rent by a whopping 71 percent to £2,400 per month.

The lad's deposit was also being increased by the landlord, with the parent asking Martin, 'are they are rules about how much landlords can increase rent and are landlords allowed to increase your deposit mid-tenancy?'.

Responding to the letter, Martin said: "That sounds outrageous to me."

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Martin was also joined by Nadeem Khan, operations manager at UK housing and homelessness charity Shelter.

Nadeem offered some expert advice on what to do if a landlord tries to up your rent or deposit part way through a tenancy agreement.

He said: "It is outrageous. Starting off with the deposit the landlord can't increase it mid-tenancy.

"You don't need to increase your tenancy deposit, unless you want to of course.

"When it comes to increasing your rent however, if you're in the fixed term of your contract it can only be increased if you have a rent review clause in your contract.

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"After the fixed term has ended the only way the rent can be increased is by service of a legal notice but you do have the right to appeal that notice to a tribunal."

Martin asked: "How do you do that though?"

Nadeem continued to say: "If your landlord serves you with a notice to increase your rent you've got the option to a tribunal and what the tribunal will do is set a rent based on what the market rates are for your area.

"So it's always worth researching what the local rates are for your area before going down that route."

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So basically, you can challenge your increased rent but if it happens to still be below the average rate for your local area, you could see yourself paying even more by taking it to a tribunal.

So act carefully.

You can go to the Shelter website for further information on this issue, as well as your local council's private renting team that deal with private renting matters.

Nadeem and Martin also warned that landlords can evict you without a legal reason, but that this cannot happen during a fixed term of a contract.