Student rental woes

isaacczs

Hi there,
I am a student in Leeds Uni and am having some questions about rental and whether our agent is "bullying" me.

Currently, we are 5 people staying in a house nearby to the medical school- all 5 of us are medics, and the agent knows this.

Our agent has called us out of the blue to arrange a house viewing for a alleged interested tenant.

We kinda like the house as it is close to the medical school. However it is relatively far from the city centre and thus does not command as high a rent as those not close to the medical school but closer to town, e.g Woodhouse Lane closer to the Morrison's area.

Our agent has decided to raise the rent by 3 quid a week for 2013-2014 AND charge us another 70 quid for contract signing fee or something like that. (We paid the 70 quid last year)

-The rent is about average for the area we are staying

question is should the agent be charging us another 70 quid for re-signing the contract? it sounds quite unscrupulous considering they essentially need to photocopy last year's contract, change the years and that's it.

Also, it is really early and i suspect this "potential tenant" could be a pressure tactic to force us to sign early (like seriously! it ain't even christmas! people dont househunt till the new year). the agent is giving us 7 days from today to decide whether we want to stay here next year (and sign the contract) else they'll put it out on the student rental market

advice people? cheers

Fire_Fox

Welcome! It's worth running an advanced search, these issues come up several times a week. Why do you need a new tenant - you mean for next year? If you are in a joint tenancy you do not have to agree to any viewings, you have the right to quiet enjoyment. If you are renting individual rooms the landlord or his agent has the right to enter the communal areas but not enter your private rooms.

The agent should not be increasing the rent the landlord should, the agent just works on behalf of the landlord. On what grounds is it being increased, have you been served a VALID section 13 notice or is there a clause in your tenancy agreement? Note that when a fixed term expires the tenancy does not end, so you do not have to sign a new contract you could go onto a statutory periodic tenancy. If you are not ready to decide on housing and sign a contract, just ignore the agent.

One option is to write directly to your landlord either about the viewings or about the increased rent/ admin fee for the new contract. You might say you will be happy to allow viewings from whichever month you think is reasonable in terms of your studies and having made a decision whether you want to stay or not.

Bullying is a tad strong for what you describe IMO.

isaacczs

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Welcome! It's worth running an advanced search, these issues come up several times a week. Why do you need a new tenant - you mean for next year? If you are in a joint tenancy you do not have to agree to any viewings, you have the right to quiet enjoyment. If you are renting individual rooms the landlord or his agent has the right to enter the communal areas but not enter your private rooms.

The agent should not be increasing the rent the landlord should, the agent just works on behalf of the landlord. On what grounds is it being increased, have you been served a VALID section 13 notice or is there a clause in your tenancy agreement? Note that when a fixed term expires the tenancy does not end, so you do not have to sign a new contract you could go onto a statutory periodic tenancy. If you are not ready to decide on housing and sign a contract, just ignore the agent.

One option is to write directly to your landlord either about the viewings or about the increased rent/ admin fee for the new contract. You might say you will be happy to allow viewings from whichever month you think is reasonable in terms of your studies and having made a decision whether you want to stay or not.

Bullying is a tad strong for what you describe IMO.

hi there, thanks. indeed bullying is a strong word- just a little annoyed that they're bugging us just 2 months since we've moved in, considering that we were one of the first ones to view the house last year and it was around the mid of january that we did.

ours is a short term assured leasehold agreement- i presume the standard ones for students.

one thing i forgot to mention is that the landlord is giving us a week to decide whether we want the place for next year, otherwise they'll put it out in the open market, which i think is a tad unfair considering it's not giving us much time to look for an alternative place versus staying here since most student agents/landlords have not started advertising yet.

but thanks firefox, we'll make do with what we can.

Fire_Fox

As stated you do not have to permit viewings if you are on a joint tenancy (one contract for all of you) so the landlord can put the house on the market but ....
http://england.shelter.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/23382/Harassment20and20antisocial20behaviour20EW2202D20harassment20and20illegal20eviction.pdf

anselld

There is a tendency in the student let market for things to get earlier each year as agents / LL try to "beat the rush".

It is normal for rent to increase Year on year.
It is normal for agents to charge a fee.

As FF has said you do not have to allow viewings, but this may spoil your chance of staying if you decide you want to later.

You could try speaking directly to LL and explain you like the place, but feel the agent is pressurising you too early.

On the other hand, you know the area and the people you are sharing with so why will you be in any better position to make a decision after Christmas than you are now? Why not just make the decision and havedone with it?