Letting agency trying to increase rent

Debserin

Hi, in a bit of a pickle! If anyone could point me in the way of any help or give some advice I'd be eternally grateful.

Myself and my partner have a two bedroom flat, paying £546 including water rates, and we have recently found a flatmate who went into the letting agency to sign a renewed contract...the guy at the lettings agency said that if he were to move in, our rent would go up by £80 a month.

We have looked in the contract that myself and my partner have signed, and there is nothing in it about the monthly price being based on 2 people sharing the flat, or that the rent is subject to change depending on new tenants.

On another note, the landlord has been contacted about maintenance issues that have not been sorted out (we moved in on july 1st and there is still mould on the bathroom ceiling from previous tenants, there is no lock on the bathroom door etc) and we also notified the landlord that we have looked into the rent increase by contacting our local citizens advice bureau, who has said the increase is unfair and should not be enforced.

Cue the guy from the agency calling us up, furious about the apparent 'tone' of the emails. We have looked at the emails sent and there is not a hint of rudeness to them, they are quite polite yet direct. The guy then went onto the real issue, that me and my partner (the two original tenants) have not agreed to the rent increase yet, and if we don't, our friend cannot move in.

We are going in to 'discuss our options' on Monday.
Sorry for the essay guys..if any of you can point me in the right direction or give any pointers, that'd be great.

PasturesNew

Do you have the right to sublet? As I read it, you've randomly decided to bring somebody else in to live with you ... it's not that they were replacing a long-time flatmate that's always been there.

I presume it's just you/bf on the agreement.

Asking for more is a bit annoying, but, from a LL's perspective, his flat is now more "at risk" with three people in it and not two.

If you just moved in on 1 July, he can't increase your rent until the end of your term. But, who is this new person a tenant of? Are they your lodger? His tenant? Did the LL/agent know you were looking for a 3rd?

It's all most "not the usual way of doing things" so far.

I think we need a bit more detail.

moromir

Debserin wrote: »

(we moved in on july 1st and there is still mould on the bathroom ceiling from previous tenants, there is no lock on the bathroom door etc)

Re mould - you can make a weak solution of bleach and water and scrub this back which should solve the problem quickly provided you are ventilating the room adequately or else its just going to come right back.

Re lock - was the installation of a bathroom lock part of your negociations to take the tenancy? Do you have it in writing that the Landlord agreed to provide and install a lock? If not the Landlord has no obligation to supply.

These are entirely seperate issues to that of the proposed rent increase however.

Debserin

Thanks for the reply,

Yeah it's just me and the boyf on the agreement and I wasn't sure about the sub-let thing until our friend had went to the agency to explain that he'd like to move in. We've definitley not went about it the 'not usual' way of doing things but that is because it was kind of a last minute thing, the move.

A friend's mother who has worked with a residential lettings company has said that in 15 years she has never heard of a company or a landlord increasing rent for a situation like ours.

Debserin

moromir wrote: »

Re mould - you can make a weak solution of bleach and water and scrub this back which should solve the problem quickly provided you are ventilating the room adequately or else its just going to come right back.

The landlord assured us that the mould would be removed by maintenance within week 1 of us living there.

RE the lock...we were just asking the landlord if we would be able to fix a lock ourselves or whether the maintenance would carry it out.

These improvements aren't really the issue at the minute, it's just that the representative at the letting agency made out that asking our landlord about home improvements was a mortal sin hehe.

Peter_Upton

Call their bluff and refuse to pay the increase, the tenancy agreement you've got stands for the length of it.

The 3rd person can be unofficial, what can they do realistically about the 3rd person moving in, how will they know?

Its their choice whether to give you the 2months notice to quit 2 months before your tenancy agreement ends.

Refuse to pay and don't use that letting agent again.

They make the rules up as they go along.

roses

moromir wrote: »

Re lock - was the installation of a bathroom lock part of your negociations to take the tenancy? .

It's not typically the type of thing you look at when going to rent somewhere, you don't notice it until you use the bathroom.

Can you not ask if you are allowed (in writing) to fit one yourself? They cost £1.50 at screwfix and take 5 minutes to fit.

I agree about a rent increase being fair though. There is now more risk and more wear and tear for the landlord.

Didn't they mention a rent increase when the guy went to sign the contract? What did the contract he sign state about price?

jockosjungle

I don't think a rent increase is fair, the price was the price. If your partner moved out they wouldn't knock £80 off the rent would they? Flats and houses to rent are priced per property regardless of who lives in them. It cost me the same to rent a 2 bedroom terraced house as a single person as a married couple, the landlord didn't take out a calculator and work out how much extra to charge us.

His flat is actually now less at risk than with two people, as the LL now has three people he can demand the rent from instead of two. The more working adults in a property the better

R