Rent increase- am I right?

birduk

Hi, Thank you in advance for reading this- I just want to check that I am not being utterly stupid.

We moved into our property in September 2011. A 1 year AST was set, after which it went onto a rolling contract (nothing written down, I am sure that this is the law). Our rent was £675 per month and there is NOTHING in the contract for provision for rent increase. Also received no information at the time about the DPS. This was, of course, after paying extortionate agency fees....


18 months after we moved in, we are communicating directly with the landlord and the agency pretty much does nothing. Except for when they write to us offering another tenancy at the princely sum of £150 for a new contract, or £65 to go onto a rolling contract. Er, nope says I. OH panics and pays the £65 as he said we signed something in the original contract with the letting agency (I am sure this is a big unlawful rip off).


Fast forward to September 2014 and the landlord suddenly decides they can't cope anymore and 'everything must go through the agency'. Cue the list of repairs that we had been ignoring as we didn't want to cost them money! New back door sorted... thanks. We are pretty good tenants and look after his vacant building next door to us (not officially of course, but we are here in the middle of nowhere).

Now to the current situation. The agency have just sent us a letter telling us that they will up the rent by £50 per month. I have checked Shelter and the CAB and they both say that this is only possible if we agree to it, or there is provision in the contract. There isn't and I don't. Can I just check that I am correct in this? I have included all the detail above so you can know the legal situation.

I understand that if the LL was going to be really arsey they could serve us a Section 21 (is that right?) and evict us. How long would this take? We have been thinking of moving on if we can, but that would be through a purchase.

THANK YOU for reading all this!

thesaint

The landlord can serve a "Sec 13" notice to put up the rent.
Have they done so?

birduk

No. A letter has arrived that says they want to increase the rent, no section 13. I will look into that now.

Oh and the DPS information arrived with the same letter

nidO

Ball's in your court then really.

What you have is an offer for you to accept the new rental amount which you can accept and start paying or refuse and continue paying your current amount.
If you do the latter they'll either just increase it anyway by formally issuing you a section 13 notice, or instead issue you a section 21 notice to start the process of kicking you out of the property.

Without knowing all the ins and outs of your "well the agent sucks, I want to be terrible back at them" story that pretty much every tenant ever has, i'd say a £50 rent increase on a price agreed 4 years ago is probably pretty reasonable.

birduk

nidO wrote: »

Without knowing all the ins and outs of your "well the agent sucks, I want to be terrible back at them" story that pretty much every tenant ever has, i'd say a £50 rent increase on a price agreed 4 years ago is probably pretty reasonable.

That's pretty much on the nose really! They do suck and I just hate letting agents as they never do things properly. I'm just bitter!


If they do, and they issue a section 13 TBH I'd probably just pay it!


I can't wait until we get some regulation in the LA market...

G_M

There are three issues.

1) the deposit.
Since this was not protected in a scheme within 30 days AND the 'Prescribed Information' given to you within 30 days, you can sue the LL for a penalty of between 1 & 3 times the deposit.
There is no defence, though the providing of it to you recently will mitigate (so court will probably award yo 1 or 2 times the deposit not the full 3 times penalty.

2) Rent increase
The rent can be increased at any time during a periodic tenancy by serving a S13 Notice.

Or by mutual agreement of course.

3) there was no need to pay a renewal fee for a periodic tenancy.

Se also:

* Rent increases: when & how can rent be increased?

* Deposits: payment, protection and return

* Ending/renewing an AST: what happens when a fixed term ends? How can a LL or tenant end a tenancy? What is a periodic tenancy?

HappyMJ

birduk wrote: »

I understand that if the LL was going to be really arsey they could serve us a Section 21 (is that right?) and evict us. How long would this take? We have been thinking of moving on if we can, but that would be through a purchase.

THANK YOU for reading all this!

It takes many months to properly evict a tenant. A section 21 notice give you a minimum of 2 months notice before the landlord can take action to seek possession. You've got at least another two to three months after the notice period has expired before you get to court depending if the landlord uses the accelerated procedure or not which if not used will give you much more time. Once the case has been decided you'll be given 14 days notice by the court to leave. If at the expiry of that you are still in the property then the landlord can send the case to the high court and get a high court enforcement officers to evict you which can take any period of time for them to attend but you've got to leave the day they arrive whether you've found somewhere or not. From beginning to end maybe 4 months and anywhere up to a year.

dimbo61

Now if you had a new home to go to then tell the agents UP YOU and wait for the S13/S21 which is invalid if the LL/LA did not protect the deposit within 30 days.
They are asking for an extra £50 after 4 years so 8% increase !
How much is a new iphone6 each month ? or your broadband bill/Sky/Phone ?
As for looking after the vacant house ( please keep it quiet) or someone might move in! and park 20 cars up the drive, have 10 kids, caravans etc
When you are ready to move then you can tell them about the Deposit issues and you want the full deposit back now ( help with moving costs)