assured/sitting tennant problem

natvesty

Hi all,

Please Please Please can someone out there advise me on my current situation !!!

I've lived in my house since jan 1990 and three years ago my land lady died and still the will has not been sorted. However my land lady's brother has so far had approx 10 valuations on the house !! He asked us if we wanted to buy it and we said yes, at a reduced price.

I have never signed any rent agreement with anyone.

Whilst the landlady was alive the verbal agreement with her was that she would keep the rent low if we maintained the property. We have in the past 20 years done extensive work on the place as it was very run down when I moved in, we even went so far as replacing the kitchen 12 months ago costing £2500 and laying a drive, installing drains to combat the flooding problems we had, and replacing all the guttering and totally painting the exterior as the penetrating damp was awful but still have rising damp which is a problem with 2 small kids, and put in a shower and some double glazing etc etc etc. we have spent thousands of pounds and hundreds of hours maintaning it as it is our home and the jobs would not have been done otherwise.

This week we received a letter from a letting agent saying that the rent was going up by £120 pcm !! I suspect that they are trying to raise the rent to nearer market value to appeal to a company that buys up houses with sitting tennants as he has refused my offer for the house which was 63% of market value which I had assertained was reasonable on a house with sitting tennants.

My questions are..... what sort of tenant am I, can they put the rent up this much seeing as the last improvement the land lady did on this house was central heating 10 years ago. Also since the land lady died there have been no gas inspections done, we have ourselves paid for it to be done. is it legal for anything to happen with this house whilst the will has yet to be decided and would I have the right to buy this house before anyone else and how much of a reduction of the market value could I expect to pay for it ?



In anticipation of anyone's help, Thanks.

Jowo_2

Assured tenants have great security of tenure and protection against unfair rent increases. You will find Shelter an excellent source of free advice and support to understand your rights.

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/renting_and_leasehold/private_tenancies/assured_tenancies?SQ_DESIGN_NAME=print

natvesty

Thanks very much !! I check it out !! Nat.

Fire_Fox

You had a verbal agreement with someone who has died, so you don't have a verbal agreement! I wouldn't be spending any money on the house (increasing or maintaining it's value) until I had appraised myself of my rights.

G_M

From Shelter.



You are likely to be an assured tenant if:

• you pay rent to a private landlord and
• you have control over your home so that your landlord and other people cannot come in whenever they want to and
• your landlord does not live in the same building as you and
• you moved in between 15 January 1989 and 27 February 1997 and your landlord did not give you a notice saying that you have an assured shorthold tenancy.

If you are a periodic (assured) tenant your landlord can increase the rent if:

• you agree to the increase
• there is a procedure for increasing rent written in your tenancy agreement
• your landlord gives you written notice of the proposed rent increase
• your landlord gives you written notice to change the terms of your tenancy.

If your landlord gives you a notice to increase the rent and you don't agree to the rent increase, you may be able to challenge it. It is sometimes possible to get the rent assessment committee to decide the amount of rent you should be charged.

You had a verbal agreement with someone who has died, so you don't have a verbal agreement!

Sorry Firefox - I take the opposite view! A verbal agreement can be a contract (and in this case probobly is). If one party dies, the contract still exists. But instead of any dispute being 'your word against mine', it becomes 'my word against... ah! no one to dispute my word since I am now the only person involved who can say what was agreed!'

get legal advice. You are potentially in a very strong position, but make a mistake in dealing with this and it could be a costly mistake, either in terms of rent, or house purchase price.

franklee

As this is a bit specialised you could try landlord zone

http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=3

and there's also

http://www.landlordlaw.co.uk/page.ihtml?id=156&catparid=3&step=2&page=non

franklee

G_M wrote: »

Sorry Firefox - I take the opposite view! A verbal agreement can be a contract (and in this case probobly is). If one party dies, the contract still exists. But instead of any dispute being 'your word against mine', it becomes 'my word against... ah! no one to dispute my word since I am now the only person involved who can say what was agreed!'

The OP can presumably prove how long he/she has been living at the property, and if the other side can't provide the relevant notice then it would be clear if it's an assured tenancy. Proving the low rent for renovations may be harder but the OP presuambly has proof they did the work. So I agree the OP should collect all evidence and get proper professional advice.

Jowo_2

G_M wrote: »

A verbal agreement can be a contract (and in this case probobly is). If one party dies, the contract still exists. But instead of any dispute being 'your word against mine', it becomes 'my word against... ah! no one to dispute my word since I am now the only person involved who can say what was agreed!'

Agreed. As one wag once said 'a verbal agreement is worth the paper it's written on...'