LL takes over management from LA, any implications?

tanjatucker

Hi everyone,

I had a search and haven't found an answer to our scenario. Our landlord has recently upped our rent by £125 a month :eek: and at the same time sacked the LA that we had the tenancy agreement with (rolling now since we've been here 4 years). He sent us a letter informing us that he will be managing the let from now on and also supplied us with his bank details to send the rent to him directly. We have not been asked to sign another agreement.

I was just wondering if there were any issues we should be aware of in relation to this change? Should our initial deposit go into a sheme now or is it fine as it is? Should we receive a different tenancy agreement? etc etc...

Basically just checking that everything is legit and whether there is anything we ought to do?!

Thanks for any input, I'm not really worried about it (apart from the massive increase :rolleyes:), just curious!

daisykinn1

This happened to me too. You need to sign a new agreement also he needs to give you new details of the deposit scheme he's registered to.

tanjatucker

thanks daisy, that's really helpful! could i ask how do you find out this sort of info, i.e. do you know of a source i could check out before i ask LL about any of this?
many thanks

50plusabit

There is no reason to sign a new agreement it can stay as a periodic tenancy, none of your rights change. As for the increase in rent this was far too high, taking in mind that the LL does not have to pay any management charges so is also getting a higher rent. The rent should only be increased by a sensible amount. Look at this site it just what you need.
http://www.larcc.org/pamphlets/housing/tr_fair_rent.htm
Good luck

poppysarah

He's upped his rent even though he's not paying his 10% to the LA?

He's skint by the sounds of it.

How are rents locally? Could you save money by moving?

tanjatucker

poppysarah wrote: »

He's upped his rent even though he's not paying his 10% to the LA?

He's skint by the sounds of it.

How are rents locally? Could you save money by moving?

To be fair, we haven't had an increase since we moved in, but the big increase all of a sudden is still hitting quite hard.
The rent he is asking would be reasonably fair for the local market if the house was in good order, but it is practically falling down and the LL is very reluctant to do any serious repairs, only token ones like fixing a light fitting etc, but the house needs new windows, the roof fixed and quite probably structual repairs, too. He has no money as you rightly pointed out!
We're looking to move, but there is a real lack of this kind of property in the local area, so i am having trouble finding anything else we could happily live with (in) at the moment, but i am keeping my eyes open.

tbs624

Was the LLs name on the original Tenancy Agreement?

If it was, there is no need for a new tenancy agreement if both you and the LL are happy for the agreement to continue to be a periodic one.

The whole area around tenancy renewals and whether deposits must be registered is still not clear. Many LLs will cover themselves by registering on renewal but a recent case suggested that where the LL already held the deposit, he had not "received" it after 6 April 2007 which meant that it did not need to be registered.

Did the LL give you proper notice of the rent increase, and have you already agreed to it/started paying the new amount?

tbs624

50plusabit wrote: »

There is no reason to sign a new agreement it can stay as a periodic tenancy, none of your rights change. As for the increase in rent this was far too high, taking in mind that the LL does not have to pay any management charges so is also getting a higher rent. The rent should only be increased by a sensible amount. Look at this site it just what you need.
http://www.larcc.org/pamphlets/housing/tr_fair_rent.htm
Good luck

Erm, 50plusabit - why are you giving links to US fair rent rules, because that won't help any tenant in the UK.

tanjatucker

tbs624 wrote: »

Was the LLs name on the original Tenancy Agreement?

If it was, there is no need for a new tenancy agreement if both you and the LL are happy for the agreement to continue to be a periodic one.

The whole area around tenancy renewals and whether deposits must be registered is still not clear. Many LLs will cover themselves by registering on renewal but a recent case suggested that where the LL already held the deposit, he had not "received" it after 6 April 2007 which meant that it did not need to be registered.

Did the LL give you proper notice of the rent increase, and have you already agreed to it/started paying the new amount?

thanks tbs, this is useful stuff.

in answer to your question, the LA gave us notice of the rent increase before the LL got rid of them, they sent all the paperwork, the LL then followed this up by a letter with banking instructions and info on any inspections he may want to carry out etc.
we started paying this new rent on the last rent due date, we tried to discuss the rise with him, but he just refused to budge at all.

tbs624

If you are currently on a periodic agreement (ie month to month after the expiry of your original fixedterm ) then the LA/LL should have issued a S13 notice giving you a month's notice of the proposed change, and the Notice should also have informed you of your legal rights to challenge it via a rent assessment committee.(& that Notice needed to be correctly dated in respect of rent due dates).

If this didn't happen then you should maybe talk to the Private Sector Rentals Team at the local Council (there should be a Tenancy Relations Officer).

Did you raise any objection to paying the new rent, in writing?

If you decide that you are staying then you should write a letter to the LL listing out what works need doing ,and list them in order of priority. He has specific legal obligations for certain repairs & maintenance under S11 of the LL &T Act 1985.

house184

Good advice from tbs but sadly as the OP stated that they can't find similar properties in their area then they don't want to annoy the LL to much for fear of a sec 21 winging its way to them.