Can my landlady do this?

Faith1985

I havent been renting long but just wondered if my landlady is allowed to do this.

I moved-in in 2009 with my partner and our daughter, we were claiming housing benefit as we couldn't pay all the rent on our own. We renewed last October for another year but in March me and my partner split up. We stayed living together as the tenancy is in my ex's name and I am the main carer for our daughter. Now my ex is moving our next week and I phoned my landlady to let her know and ask if she was happy for me to take over the tenancy and if so could she put it in writing for me to give the council to help with any changes to my benefits, she said all was fine and she would get on to it asap.

Today I recieve a phone call from the estate agent saying that as they were gonna put the rent up at the end of this tenancy they thought they might as well do the increase now. The increase is an extra £15 a week, can she increase my rent before the tenancy has actually ended? Atm Im not signing a new tenancy just changing the name on it.

BitterAndTwisted

Changing the name on the agreement is creating a new tenancy.

FireWyrm

What B&T meant to say was that it looks as though you are changing a name on a tenancy but in reality, a whole new contract is being formed between you solely and your landlord. If it's a new tenancy agreement, then they have the right to increase the rent unfortunately although taking this opportunity to do so while you are apparently in financial distress is really quite low. However, renting is a business and unfortunately, there's no room for sentiment in business so I'm afraid you're stuck with it. Your two choices are to accept the new agreement with the increased rent, or move to somewhere cheaper.

Faith1985

thank you, I just thought as Im not actually renewing for another year until October it would stay the same, think I will be looking for somewhere new to live.