Rent increase advice.

Guest101

Miss_Samantha wrote: »

Hi MrINeedOfHelp,

Note that it is not possible to assign the liability to pay council tax onto someone else by contract.

Your comment is totally misleading.

It is perfectly possible to have a contract for someone to pay your council tax.

The council will still chase the owner/tenant etc. But that person can go to court and recoup their losses, which would include the council tax payment (as well as court fees)

Miss_Samantha

Guest101 wrote: »

Your comment is totally misleading.

It is perfectly possible to have a contract for someone to pay your council tax.

The council will still chase the owner/tenant etc. But that person can go to court and recoup their losses, which would include the council tax payment (as well as court fees)

My comment wasn't misleading. In fact, I wrote it to clarify the misleading comments I have read on this thread.

It is unwise to try to have someone else pay for your council tax. If you are liable then you should, and must, pay.
Then, depending on any contractual agreement, you could seek to be reimbursed.

I won't go into the usual macho down the pub arguments that you are into. Have fun.

G_M

Miss_Samantha wrote: »

......If you are liable then you should, and must, pay.
Then, depending on any contractual agreement, you could seek to be reimbursed.

Or to put it another way

It is perfectly possible to have a contract for someone to pay your council tax.

The council will still chase the owner/tenant etc. But that person can go to court and recoup their losses, which would include the council tax payment (as well as court fees)

Miss_Samantha

Here we go, I knew the bullies would ignore the point, or even what I actually wrote.

G_M wrote: »

Or to put it another way

No, that's not the same. And that is a distraction from my original post.

Good night.

dancingfairy

I believe there are different definitions for HMOs. One for building regs purposes for things like hard wired some alarms, fire doors etc and one for council tax. Your property may of may not be an hmo for either or both. In terms of council tax its based on whether unrelated people on separate tenancies share facilities. The VOA decides whether each place is a separate dwelling for council tax purposes. You need to speak to the council tax department and find out what they think ( I'm unsure what part of the council you have spoken to). From what you are saying you do not rent a self contained unit and do, in fact have shared facilities. You will possibly need to explain to the council tax department that you think it is an hmo because you share facilities. You may need ( or the council may need to) contact the valuation office and ask for your property to be assessed or reassessed. If it is an hmo for council tax purposes then the landlord is liable. If you are deemed to be renting a separate unit then you will be liable.
Df

dancingfairy

Irrespective of it being an hmo you can a) continue to pay rent at the current rate until the correct notice has been given b) agree a new fixed term contract at a rate you agree with terms you agree ( so maybe you ask for no signing fee or a 12 month contract), or c) pay rent at the higher proposed rate and accept the increase.
What exactly are you trying to achieve? To stay but at a decent rate? To maintain flexibility? To get back at the landlord and leave a mess for him to sort out regarding the council?
Df

MrINeedOfHelp

dancingfairy wrote: »

Irrespective of it being an hmo you can a) continue to pay rent at the current rate until the correct notice has been given b) agree a new fixed term contract at a rate you agree with terms you agree ( so maybe you ask for no signing fee or a 12 month contract), or c) pay rent at the higher proposed rate and accept the increase.
What exactly are you trying to achieve? To stay but at a decent rate? To maintain flexibility? To get back at the landlord and leave a mess for him to sort out regarding the council?
Df

The council tax issue I think was just a brief scare and nothing else, we have received the bills from the landlord showing each month their DD is being paid for the Council tax.

In terms of rent we are just for lack of better word haggling with them, my partner and I have no issue with the LL in all honesty, we appreciate the fact he is obviously looking to make as much money as possible from the property but are also just making him aware that as much as we respect that (I would be the same in his situation I guess) he should expect tenants to negotiate at first and then come to agreement.

Relationship between us and the LL is pretty solid, we really do want to stay as it's in a decent location for commutes to work places and other commutes.

All in all can't thank everyone else enough for the help here yesterday thanks everyone!!

MrINeedOfHelp

Hi again everyone,

This one is going to sound bloody trivial now so apologies in advance.

It seems like my partner and I are in agreement with the Landlord over nearly everything e.g CT, change of rent day and a few other things which is great.

However with each agreement he sends us (via email) none of them have his signature, when we ask to be sent one with the Landlords signature he is refusing until we sign first?

Like I said this seems trivial as hell but what is the lowdown on this? I don't personally feel comfortable signing off on something before the Landlord has?

Pixie5740

What difference does it make who signs the tenancy agreement first? What do you think will happen if you are the first to put pen to paper? Could you meet with your landlord and sign two copies simultaneously then you'll each have your own copy with both parties' signatures.

MrINeedOfHelp

Pixie5740 wrote: »

What difference does it make who signs the tenancy agreement first? What do you think will happen if you are the first to put pen to paper? Could you meet with your landlord and sign two copies simultaneously then you'll each have your own copy with both parties' signatures.

He has stated that if we want him to sign it we are to come to his office and sign it together yes, but won't sign anything beforehand so I just found that a little odd is all so wanted to find out how this normally works.

We have mentioned to him that we have every intention to stay because we like staying there and we like the property a lot, but as soon as we stand our ground go back to stating we won't accept the increase unless we are served with a section 13 he then bombards us with reminders that our section 21 ends in Jan and even sending us emails that he has had between him and his solicitors explaining if we are not out by end of section they will proceed with court proceedings