Help pleas access to garden

Stephsmith11

Hi,

My parents have been renting for over 25 years a first floor flat they do not have a contract as been on good terms with landlord...... Her son now owns the house as she is too ill to manage the place...... They have done all work on house sense moving in and had low rent ...... The sons wife has now been putting the rent up for years and now the ground floor flat is vacant and my parents received a letter saying they will now not have access to the garden and have to remove all their stuff from the shed out when my dad built the sheds in place. Can anyone help is she allowed to do this?

Also she is now getting an estate agent to manage the property !

Any advice would be great

HappyMJ

Depends on what the tenancy agreement says. If there is no tenancy agreement then I'd be looking to see if the owner of the flat would get access to the garden if the flats were owned by different people. That should be on the title of the property with land registry.

Does it specify garden access? Or was that just something that was assumed.

If it isn't then consider removing not only the contents of the shed but also the shed itself.

Stephsmith11

There is no tenancy agreement only thing got it class as sitting tenants

G_M

Stephsmith11 wrote: »

Hi,

My parents have been renting for over 25 years a first floor flat they do not have a contract as been on good terms with landlord......

Yes they do. It is just not a written contract.

They pay rent & in return get accomodation. That is a contract.

First issue is what type of tenancy. Use the Shelter 'Tenancy Checker' here, but it sounds like a 'Regulated Tenancy':

No new regulated tenancies have been created since 15 January 1989. Regulated tenancies give you very strong tenancy rights, including strict rules on how and by how much your rent can be increased. You also have far more protection from eviction than most other private tenants.
See the page on regulated tenancies for more information about your rights and contact a local advice centre if you have any problems.

If the tenancy so far has included the garden, the landlord cannot unilaterally remove this right.

It may be diplomatic to come to an agreement, so that relations with the (new?) landlord in the future remain good, but that is a matter of choice.

As a Regulated Tenant (if that's what it is), there is little the LL can do.

edit: as a regulated tenancy, the rent cannot be raised whenever the LL wants.

However, by paying the new proposed rent, the tenants may have agreed to it, making the new rent now part of the contract.

edit: what kind of building is this? The fact that the LL lives in the same building (downstairs) may mean it is not a Regulated Tenancy. There again, the son is not the LL, he is acting for the LL (as I understand it).