09 Mar 2026 10 min read

“It's not your home, is it?” - Why every renter in Stroud needs to read their contract.

When my rent increase notice arrived, I thought it was just another case of rising costs in a difficult market. I had no idea I was about to uncover systematic tenant exploitation hiding in plain sight - right here in Stroud.

by Antenna | Amplify Stroud
February 2025

THE EMAIL seemed reasonable enough. My letting agent proposed increasing my rent by 8%, describing it as "fair and manageable." Like most tenants, my first instinct was to grumble and accept it. After all, doesn't everyone’s rent go up?

In fact, they’re all going up. Average UK rents rose significantly in recent years, and Stroud - with its desirable Cotswold-edge location, strong creative community, and excellent transport links to London - has seen particularly acute pressure. Good rental properties disappear within hours. Decent two-bedroom flats in town are increasingly rare. For many renters here, any increase feels inevitable because the alternative - finding somewhere else - feels impossible.

But something nagged at me. I had signed a detailed tenancy agreement, and I wondered if there was anything about rent increases buried in the small print. It was actually a friend of mine, a landlord, who advised me to check my contract. “There’ll be a clause in there,” they said. They were right. And what I found changed everything.

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The clause that changes everything

Hidden away in a section of my contract was a specific provision about rent increases. It wasn't a vague "landlord discretion" clause. Instead, it was precise:

“rent increases must be calculated using the CPI (Consumer Price Index) as published by the Office for National Statistics, quoted for the month two months prior to the increase.”

This wasn't a guideline - it was a binding formula.

The relevant CPI rate was 3.5%, so my rent should not be increased to the level they were demanding. Basically, they were trying to overcharge me by £51 per month - £612 per year.

The ‘Gaslighting’ Begins

WHEN I POLITELY POINTED THIS OUT, something remarkable happened. Instead of acknowledging the error, my letting agent doubled down with a series of increasingly desperate justifications.

First, they claimed the increase was "fair and reasonable."
I explained that a specific contractual formula was applied, so they pivoted to a fake legislative proposal.

They confidently declared that recent changes to government legislation allowed rents to rise reasonably and fairly, provided they remained below 10%

This was a complete fiction - but with a grain of truth that made it particularly insidious. The lettings agent was referencing the Renters' Rights Act, a landmark piece of legislation that has been working its way through Parliament.

The irony? This legislation has been specifically designed to protect tenants like me. And the lettings agent was trying to use it against me before it was even law.

The legislation the lettings agent got wrong - twice

The Renters' Rights Act received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025, with full implementation expected on 1 May 2026. It represents the most significant overhaul of rental law since 1988.

The Act will abolish Section 21 "no fault" evictions, moving to a simpler tenancy structure where all assured tenancies are periodic, providing more security for tenants and empowering them to challenge poor practice and unfair rent increases without fear of eviction.

The Act will also provide stronger protections against backdoor eviction by ensuring tenants can appeal excessive above-market rents that are purely designed to force them out.

But here's the crucial detail my letting agent conveniently ignored: rent increases by any other means - such as rent review clauses - will not be permitted under the new system.

In other words, the very CPI clause they were trying to override would actually be replaced by an even more standardised system, but only once the legislation has come into force.

When the letting agent cited it, it wasn't law. And even when it does come into force, it won't give landlords the free-for-all that they were implying.

Moving the Goalposts

WHEN I DEMOLISHED THEIR FAKE legislation argument, they tried another tactic, namely claiming that the contract itself gave the landlord discretion to implement fair increases.

I read that contract line by line. No such clause existed. They were simply making it up.

Each time I demolished one argument, they invented another, notably, market rates, with vague references to fairness that existed nowhere in our signed agreement.

The worrying thing, among many, is that this whole process highlights a broader issue, that of the information gap between letting agents and tenants. Agents present themselves as authorities on tenancy law, yet many are not.

While there are some truly honourable letting agents out there, there still remain some who are poorly trained, while others are deliberately misleading.

“It's not your home, is it?”

Some time after all of this, I had a property inspection - one of several during my tenancy, despite maintaining the flat to a high standard. The inspector photographed my belongings, my personal items, and every corner of my living space.

When I questioned why so many inspections were necessary, saying that photographing my possessions felt like an invasion of privacy, the response stopped me cold.

“Well, it's not your home, is it?” the inspector said. “It's the landlord's investment. We have to protect it.”

I am a professional adult. I have a creative career, I pay my bills, and I look after the property I live in. And yet in that moment I was made to feel like a second-class citizen in my own home - a temporary inconvenience in someone else's asset. A number, not a person. I was going through a hard period in my life at the time, and those words, when I felt low, hit hard.

This attitude of the house inspector is at the heart of everything wrong with the rental market. For millions of people, renting isn't a temporary stepping stone - it's their life. Their home, a haven where they work, rest, create, recover and belong. Treating tenants as risks to be managed rather than people to be respected is not just unpleasant, it's a fundamental failure of the system.

The Breakthrough

THE BREAKTHROUGH IN my rent dispute came when I mentioned legal advice.

Suddenly, the confident assertions evaporated. The letting agent’s tone shifted to one that said, “I'm discussing this with the landlord and addressing the issue as best I can.”

But here’s the kicker.

When on a call, I asked the letting agent why they were not following the contractual rent rise clause, they said that the letting agents, “Rely on tenants not reading their contract.”

Yep. After a small, shocked silence, I said, “Well, that’s unethical at best, and bordering on illegal at worst.” The letting agent then politely asked for a moment to consult their supervisor. It was only then, when they returned to the call, that I received an apology for their conduct.

A further revelation then came from my neighbours. When I mentioned my experience, they revealed that the same agent had tried the same tactics on them, the same invented justifications, the same invented legislation. Same pressure to simply accept it.

This wasn't incompetence. It was a system. And the system is broken.

Stroud's Rental Reality

STROUD IS A TOWN PEOPLE LOVE to live in - and that love is being exploited. The combination of stunning surroundings, independent culture, and mainline rail to London has made it one of the most desirable small towns in the southwest.

Average rents have risen sharply, with decent two-bedroom properties in the town now regularly marketed above £1,100 per month.

For many residents - artists, writers, teachers, care workers, young families - this market is increasingly brutal. When you find somewhere good, you hold on. And agents know it.

That vulnerability - the fear of losing your home in a tight market - is precisely what makes tenants susceptible to being overcharged. The calculation is simple: most people won't fight back, because the alternative feels worse.

What the new law means for you

ON THE IMPLEMENTATION DATE of 1 May 2026, the new tenancy system will apply to all private tenancies.

Existing tenancies will convert to the new system, and any new tenancies signed on or after this date will also be governed by the new rules. Existing fixed terms will be converted to periodic tenancies.

All rent increases in the private rented sector will be made using the section 13 process. Landlords will be able to increase rents once per year to the market rate, and tenants will be able to challenge increases at the First-tier Tribunal if they believe the proposed increase exceeds the market rate.

A new Private Rented Sector Landlord Ombudsman will provide quick, fair, impartial and binding resolution for tenants' complaints, with powers to compel landlords to issue apologies, take remedial action, and pay compensation.

These are genuine and significant protections. But the transition period is critical, and some agents are already using the incoming legislation to confuse and pressure tenants before it even takes effect.

What this means for you right now

Before May 2026, your existing contract remains fully in force.

Here's what to do:

Read your tenancy agreement properly, especially any rent increase clauses. Many contracts - particularly those signed in the last few years - contain specific CPI-based formulas that are far more protective than market-rate increases.
Don't assume agents know the law better than you. Request specific clause references for any claims they make. If they can't provide them, they may be making it up.
Know that "fair," "reasonable," and "market rate" are meaningless phrases when you have a specific contractual formula. The contract is the contract.
Document everything in writing. A phone call leaves no trail; an email does.

And if something feels wrong - trust that instinct. In my case, it was.

The Resolution

MY STORY HAS A RESOLUTION. Faced with documented evidence, legal advice, and the realisation that I knew my contract better than they did, the agent eventually agreed to the correct contractual figure.

My neighbours got similar outcomes.

“For me, it was an awful, stressful process to go through, one I didn’t create, and one that could have been avoided had the letting agency done its job correctly. I was made to feel like I was the problem for simply sticking to a contract we had all signed, as if I were causing an issue by wanting to stand up for my rights.

“I was lied to, and it was not a good feeling. And, at the same time, there are many wonderful, considerate, compassionate landlords and letting agents out there, some of whom are friends of mine.”

So what’s the answer? Can the good souls within the system help to improve it? I’d like to think so. I’d like to believe there is good, more than bad, and at the same time, there is work to be done.

How many other tenants in Stroud, in Gloucestershire, across England, quietly paid the inflated figures without questioning them?

How many are still overpaying right now, in flats they treat as home, in a market that treats them as temporary inconveniences?

The Renters' Rights Act promises something better. A fairer system, stronger protections, and - crucially - a culture shift in how tenants are treated.

Yet, the buck, ultimately, must stop with the government. Those in leadership have a responsibility to ensure that housing is a right, not a privilege, and that people are seen as human beings, not commodities.

Yes, people must make money to live. I am not naive about that, yet humanity and capitalism must go hand in hand if we’re going to create a society that not only cares but also survives.

The upcoming legislation is a start, and next I would like to see a systematic review of the UK rental market through a human lens, a check of best practices, tighter regulation of the market.

In the meantime, until May 2026, the best protection you have is knowledge. Read your contract. Know your rights. And remember: whatever an inspector might tell you, it is your home.