Common Law Tenancy ended 6 months ago, Landlord wants to backdate a new agreement

brian_m_3

Hi, I'm looking for some advice...

I share a flat with friends and we had a 12 month Common Law Tenancy agreement with monthly rent payments. That ended 6 months ago. At the time the landlord said he wanted to increase the rent but a new agreement was never made so we continued to pay the same monthly rent until we heard back from him. Now the landlord has been in contact and wants a new agreement made at the increased rate, however he also wants backdate the start date 6 months to when the previous agreement ended, effectively meaning we will owe him backdated rent if we sign it.

Does anyone know where we currently stand? What are our rights considering the landlord has until now been accepting rent payments all this time - do we have an implied contract, and if so what is the legal term for the name of it? And what notice period would the landlord need to give for us to leave?

We would rather move and find somewhere else than have to pay backdated rent but I'd like to research what rights we have before negotiating with him. The only information I have found so far has been related to Assured Shorthold Tenancies.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.

jjlandlord

Are you in England or Wales? How much is the rent?

Annisele

To add to jjlandlord's questions: is the property your only or main home? Does the landlord live there too?

I ask because it's possible you actually do have an AST, regardless of what the contract calls itself.

brian_m_3

Hi jjlandlord/Annisele,
I'm in England, and our rent is £2500 pcm, so effectively £30000 pa. It's my only home and the landlord does not live with us.

Our original agreement commenced in June 2010 when the limit for an AST was £25,000pa, but this increased in October 2010 to £100,000pa, so if we were to get a new agreement now I presume it would be an AST.
However this mean our old one became an AST when it ended in June 2011?

Thanks

princeofpounds

Does anyone know where we currently stand? What are our rights considering the landlord has until now been accepting rent payments all this time - do we have an implied contract, and if so what is the legal term for the name of it? And what notice period would the landlord need to give for us to leave?

Yes you would have an implied contract. I think a judge would be likely to perceive it as an implied extension of your previous contract, but I'm not sure on that point right at the moment.

Don't backdate anything, the landlord has no way to force you to pay more rent, that I am pretty certain of.

However this mean our old one became an AST when it ended in June 2011?

No. Only if you were to make a new one.

Edit: Actually, if a judge were to perceive the extension as a new rather than prolonged contract, it would be an AST. So that's the nub of the issue.

jjlandlord

Indeed the limit was increased.
My understanding is that when it was your tenancy automatically became an AST. So that you have been on as AST since October 2010, and specifically a statutory periodic AST since June 2011.

By law your landlord must serve you with a so-called section 13 notice if he wishes to unilaterally increase the rent.

Currently you don't have to sign a new tenancy, and should certainly refuse any backdating of rent.

If he wants you out, your landlord must serve you with a section 21 notice giving you at least 2 month notice before he can start eviction procedure in court.
No such notice is valid until the tenancy security deposit (if any) is protected in one of the 3 deposit protection schemes and its expiry does not end the tenancy.

princeofpounds wrote: »

No. Only if you were to make a new one.

No, actually the tenancy automatically became an AST in October 2010.
See: http://www.communities.gov.uk/housing/privaterentedhousing/annualrentalthreshold/ and http://www.letlink.co.uk/letting-factsheets/factsheets/factsheet-18a-the-assured-tenancies-amendmentengland-order-2010.html

Edit:
Re. deposit protection, the common position seems to be that it did not need to be protected in October 2010, though as a new tenancy arose in June 2011 it may have had to be at that point.

princeofpounds

Did not realise the retrospective feature, thanks

brian_m_3

Thanks jjlandlord, that's reassuring to know.

jjlandlord wrote: »

If he wants you out, your landlord must serve you with a section 21 notice giving you at least 2 month notice before he can start eviction procedure in court.
No such notice is valid until the tenancy security deposit (if any) is protected in one of the 3 deposit protection schemes.

I don't believe our deposit is currrently in any protection scheme... he hasn't asked for any admin costs related to it from us and we haven't seen or heard anything else about it. If this has to happen before he can serve any notice to us this is reassuring and will give us time to find another place to live.

Thanks to everyone for your replies, it's been very useful to get some background information on this before I speak to him later as he has previously said the "only option" is a backdated contract which is clearly wrong, I wouldn't put it past him to try something else!

AFK_Matrix

If he has put it into a scheme then you should have had some paper work detailing which scheme its in etc. There won't be any admin fees as there are non, it just sits in the scheme until you need to claim it.

Its worth going online to the 3 schemes:

Deposit Protection Service (DPS)
MyDeposits
Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS)

And seeing if you are registered and your LL just hasn't given you any information. If he hasn't registered the deposit then he definitely can't serve you a section 21 notice. You can also claim 3 x the amount from him if you wish.

jjlandlord

brian_m wrote: »

I don't believe our deposit is currrently in any protection scheme... he hasn't asked for any admin costs related to it from us and we haven't seen or heard anything else about it. If this has to happen before he can serve any notice to us this is reassuring and will give us time to find another place to live.

Most landlords do not charge tenants for this as it is their legal obligation.

Please note the 'Edit' to my previous post.
I think that, by law, your deposit should have been protected when the tenancy became periodic in June. But I'm not an expert.

Either way you have several months to look for somewhere else to live should your landlord want to get you out.

brian_m_3

AFK_Matrix wrote: »

Its worth going online to the 3 schemes:

Deposit Protection Service (DPS)
MyDeposits
Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS)

And seeing if you are registered and your LL just hasn't given you any information. If he hasn't registered the deposit then he definitely can't serve you a section 21 notice. You can also claim 3 x the amount from him if you wish.

Thanks AFK_Matrix, I'll definitely check this.

jjlandlord wrote: »

I think that, by law, your deposit should have been protected when the tenancy became periodic in June. But I'm not an expert.

Thanks anyway, it's definitely something I'll look further into now I know we have an AST.