Can my rent be 'rounded up' without my permission?

SAVVYSHOPPER

Hi guys,

I've looked for an answer to this in the existing forums but can't seem to find one.

I am a student and myself and 5 friends have signed holding contracts and got ourselves guarantors and referees to rent a house in London at £2990/pcm or £690/week. All the documentation we have signed so far has stated £2990/pcm as being the rent. We are due to sign the contract itself next Wednesday and now the letting agency is saying that they want to round the rent up to an even £3000/pcm to 'make things simpler for the landlord'. I am aware this only amounts to £120 a year but it makes the weekly rent hard for us girls to split evenly and £120 is still a lot of money.

We have also already paid £1002 towards the deposit and fees between us which we believed secured us the house at the rent of £2990.

Does anyone know if the letting agency/landlord are allowed to do this?

Thankyou for any help,

Savvyshopper's daughter.

littlemissmoney

If you have signed documents saying the rent is £2990 then it's £2900. If the landlord can only cope with whole thousands then I would suggest he drops it to £2000/pcm

theartfullodger

thank the agency for their kind suggestion & counter-suggest to "make things simpler for the tenants" it is changed to £2900/pcm.

Cheers!

Lodger (Landlord since 2000)

PS (Pedantry corner...) £690/wk is, 365day year, £35,978:57pa(690*365/7). Divide by 12 gives £2,998.21 per month. If a 366day year £3,006:43/mo.

How strange, a letting agent who can't do sums...

PPS Is the contract a single one with all tenants "jointly & severally" responsible (in which case being for more than £25,000pa it can't be an AST & thus there will be no mandatory deposit protection scheme... Or are there individual contracts (say per room) with each one purporting to be an AST?? Kinda important legal question as, AFAIK, a contract above £25,000pa can be cancelled quite quick if the Landlord (or tenant) want to...

PPPS Stone me, students can afford more than I were one (err... 1966,,,, b***er I feel old..)

littlemissmoney

The rent does seems very excessive for a room in a student house, even in London. Are you sure you couldn't get somewhere more MSE? How do you all plan to find the money? If the others don't pay you will be liable for £36K if it's a one year contract :eek:

Always

What a cheek! I agree with the others, suggest they round it down! £120 a year is £120 and it's your money not theirs! I'm quite shocked at the cheek to be honest!

bitsandpieces

That is a cheek - an excuse for a rent increase I've never heard before, too. Creative, at least

If the lease isn't signed yet, though, I'm not sure if they are (legally, if not ethically) within their rights to do that? I was under the impression that price could be renegotiated until all had been signed. You can certainly still refuse to agree the increase, though.

Certainly a lot for a student place - but if you have the money and like the place, it's up to you what you spend it on... Hopefully it's a v nice house for that price

DVardysShadow

littlemissmoney wrote: »

If you have signed documents saying the rent is £2990 then it's £2900.

I'm not doing business with you.

Turnbull2000

If you plan to stay there for say three years, tell them you expect the rent to remain at £3000 for the entire duration. Don't want it rising to £3090 next year and causing confusion now do we.

roses

Why don't you try rounding it down like this tenant?

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1696313

foxy-roxy

DVardysShadow wrote: »

I'm not doing business with you.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

SAVVYSHOPPER

It is a lot of money but I get a slightly larger student loan because I'm in London and my room is one of the smaller therefore cheaper ones, there really are very few cheaper rooms in London, honest.

If they don't let this idea go I will suggest that they round the figure down if making the maths easier for the landlord is the real motivation (doubt it).

Thankyou for all your responses,

SS's DD