Tenancy rent renewal - how to avoid rent increase?

tbs624

chewmylegoff wrote: »

or a section 21 instead.

Apparently already served - see post 3

tbs624

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Further you are disappointed that, as a responsible and reliable tenant, you have been served with notice to quit and threatened with eviction.

My bolding.

An s21 Notice is a Notice of Intent to Seek Repossession of the property after x date, and a subsequent court order must be sought and obtained if the T remains in situ. It is not an NTQ.

NTQ is applicable to common law tenancies and/or company lets but *not*applicable to ASTs.

Writing to the LA/LL is good - getting the legal terminology straight is also good.

G_M

gozaimasu wrote: »

Great, thanks for that info.

.... Therefore, if the landlord serves an s13 notice to increase rent and it does not have his ACTUAL address (presumably the invoice shows his address as he is the cardholder who purchased the item), but the address on the AST (which is a family member's address), then is it valid?

And what does one do about the validity of the notice? Simply ignore it and not pay rent?

Your options when your Fixed Term expires are given in post 5 above.

The ways in which the LL can increase the rent are given in post 5 above.

In the event that you go down the SPT route, and the LL then goes down the S13 route, I cannot definitively answer your Q about the validity of the S13 Notice.

I have no direct experience of S13s being contested in court on these grounds, or of court rulings.

However, the links in post 8 will help.

Someone else may have direct experience/knowledge of this in practice.

Telling the LL his S13 is invalid just speeds up the process of him issuing a new, valid one. Keeping quiet, but not paying, delays the increase pending a court settlement (assuming the LL takes it to court) of the validity question.

The S21 / eviction route of course becomes more likely if the S13 is contested as LLs don't tend to like tenants who challange them on legalities (I make no moral judgement!).

Poq

Thanks everyone.

Lots of differing opinions here... I wonder which route to take. I really strongly believe that the agents may not notice the rent increase.

I wouldn't say they are planning one, they just send out that generic letter to people...

So getting a new tenant will cost the landlord, but it will make money for the agents?

G_M wrote: »

Have you spoken to the landlord? What doe he want? Agents have different agendas!

Can't get in touch with the landlord — the agents have never responded to me when I've asked for the landlord's contact details.

^^ I can bring this up when negotiating?

Also, can I use the following as grounds for arguing?

- There are many outstanding maintenance issues that their maintenance team has not fixed — they have been pretty bad at communication (I have the emails to prove).

- I also found out months ago that the landlord/agents were not paying the building's service and other costs (it's an apartment block) and had accumulated penalties/interest — the sums were big.

^^ Could they be asking for a rent increase to cover their losses on those? That doesn't sound very legal as it's because of their negligence. The agents act on behalf of the landlord because the landlord is based abroad.

Fire_Fox

Poq wrote: »

Can't get in touch with the landlord — the agents have never responded to me when I've asked for the landlord's contact details.

^^ I can bring this up when negotiating?

Also, can I use the following as grounds for arguing?

- There are many outstanding maintenance issues that their maintenance team has not fixed — they have been pretty bad at communication (I have the emails to prove).

- I also found out months ago that the landlord/agents were not paying the building's service and other costs (it's an apartment block) and had accumulated penalties/interest — the sums were big.

^^ Could they be asking for a rent increase to cover their losses on those? That doesn't sound very legal as it's because of their negligence. The agents act on behalf of the landlord because the landlord is based abroad.

It's worth running an advanced search, you are going over issues that have been covered numerous times.

As already stated in this very thread, use the address at which to serve notices on your tenancy agreement. If there is not one, your rent is not due. You are legally entitled to an address for your landlord but you must submit the request in writing, did you?
http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/landlord's_address.htm

Your rent is for a roof over your head, you should be paying a fair market rate for that (or less from your POV! ). This has little to do with the landlord's repairing obligations and nothing to do with whether the landlord pays the service charge - none of your business in the same way it's none of his business if you default on your Sky package.

If there are issues with repairs, report these to the landlord in writing. If you do not get a satisfactory response and any issues might affect your health or safety even in a minor way - heating, hot water, electrics, damp, bathroom or kitchen facilies, etc. - contact Environmental Health at the local council.

Poq

Fire_Fox wrote: »

As already stated in this very thread, use the address at which to serve notices on your tenancy agreement. If there is not one, your rent is not due.

The agents are acting on behalf of the landlords. The address is the realtor's office address, but the name of the landlord precedes it. The landlord is foreign and is abroad.

You are legally entitled to an address for your landlord but you must submit the request in writing, did you?

Yes, I emailed them a few times asking for the landlord's contact details. The agents did not respond.

Fire_Fox

Poq wrote: »

The agents are acting on behalf of the landlords. The address is the realtor's office address, but the name of the landlord precedes it. The landlord is foreign and is abroad.

Yes, I emailed them a few times asking for the landlord's contact details. The agents did not respond.

Again please run a search because this same conversation occurs several times a week.

1. I said use the address at which to serve notices on your tenancy agreement, I did not say the landlord's home address
2. I said in writing not by e-mail. I did not say anything about his personal contact details.

Poq

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Again please run a search because this same conversation occurs several times a week.

1. I said use the address at which to serve notices on your tenancy agreement, I did not say the landlord's home address
2. I said in writing not by e-mail. I did not say anything about his personal contact details.

The letting agents act on behalf of the landlord. It doesn't matter who I address the "writing" to — the agents will do as they wish (and may not even pass it on, considering that they already haven't responded when I've asked for the landlords contact address). I'm also mentioning this because someone suggested getting in touch with the landlord — asking for his contact details (e.g. email) would be the best way.

I consider email to be "in writing". In fact, it's easier to prove I sent an email rather than a letter unless I spend money on recorded mail.

If you'd like to refer me to other people's posts — a link would be helpful.

Thank you.

Fire_Fox

Poq wrote: »

The letting agents act on behalf of the landlord. It doesn't matter who I address the "writing" to — the agents will do as they wish (and may not even pass it on, considering that they already haven't responded when I've asked for the landlords contact address). I'm also mentioning this because someone suggested getting in touch with the landlord — asking for his contact details (e.g. email) would be the best way.

I consider email to be "in writing". In fact, it's easier to prove I sent an email rather than a letter unless I spend money on recorded mail.

If you'd like to refer me to other people's posts — a link would be helpful.

Thank you.

You can consider electronic mail to be what you like, I have pointed you to the relevant legislation and it does not agree with your opinion. The fact that you have a postal address at which to serve notices on your tenancy agreement not an e-mail acccount at which to serve notices is a big clue.

Proof of sending is not proof of delivery or receipt. You can get a *free* proof of posting from Post Offices which again you'd know if you had run a search (two copies, different POs). Advanced search function
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/search.php?f=16

Cannot see the point of the thread if you are going to argue the toss about the correct way to proceed - I am not making this up, Shelter and all the regulars here will advise the same course of action - form a paper trail.

Poq

Fire_Fox wrote: »

You can consider electronic mail to be what you like, I have pointed you to the relevant legislation and it does not agree with your opinion.

Opinion? Email is a more reliable and provable form of communication than regular mail, that's a fact.

If a letting agent ignores my letter, I cannot prove I sent it and they received it (without spending money on tracked mail). Email is a bit different, especially if they reply by addressing other parts of my email and ignored the part about requesting contact details. (Which is the case.)

Proof of sending is not proof of delivery or receipt. You can get a *free* proof of posting from Post Offices which again you'd know if you had run a search (two copies, different POs).

Please mind your tone. Just because I'm new to the forum doesn't mean I'm new to life. Recorded mail means proof of delivery.

Advanced search function

Cannot see the point of the thread if you are going to argue the toss about the correct way to proceed - I am not making this up, Shelter and all the regulars here will advise the same course of action - form a paper trail.

I have been nothing but nice, and you're being confrontational.

I am trying to get some advice going and have gotten some good stuff. Nonetheless, I had further questions, and instead of answering them you're sending me somewhere you haven't even linked to...

I can see you're pretty respected here, but seems you're forgetting:

"MSE requests you give new posters a chance! Please be especially nice."

I appreciate all your help, but I feel unwelcome from stuff like this.