hmm quick AST contract question (renting)

CB1979_2

my mate, has been renting his place for £900 for the last 13 months (was initially a 6 month AST but now is on a periodic tenancy)

his landlord has now said he wants to raise the rent to £950, my mate is happy to stay there and it's still at market value.

however the landlord just wants to add an addendum to the original contract and he says that the deposit doesn't have to be put in a TDS (wasn't orginally as was pre-TDS date)

so my question is, does the landlord have to do a complete new contract ie 6 months and put the original deposit in a TDS or is the addendum legal?

cheers

Chris

thesaint

If the landlord is simply raising the rent, then the deposit doesn't need to be put into the scheme.

If your friend wants it in the scheme, ask for a new tenancy agreement.
A week later casually say "I have heard that my deposit now needs to be transferred to the TDS scheme".

CB1979_2

cheers so an addendum is legally ok to raise the rental amount from £900-950?

he doesn't want to p*ss the landlord off, especially if what the landlord is suggesting is in fact legal! lol

thesaint

There is no requirement to add anything to the original AST at all, if your friend agrees, then that's that.

What is the worry that your friend has?

CB1979_2

well he just wants it all legal and above board.

I suppose if anything it should be the landlord making sure that the addendum is needed or not, but surely if the contract states £900 then he can't charge more, but then that's down to the LL to ensure his end is all tied up.

Also I think he's worried that if he's paying £950 say from Jan 08, yet his contract says £900 then he won't..... in fact no idea what he's worried about! lol

Debt_Free_Chick

The amendment to the AST for the new rent should state the effective date.

e.g. Where the current agreement states the rent add ... and with effect from 1 January 2008, the rent will be £950 per calendar month.

This way, there is no doubt that the new rate is not backdated to cover the original term of the AST.

CB1979_2

pretty sure that's what the LL wanted to do, but my friend wasn't so sure.

assuming it'll obviously need both signatures on it too.

in fact I may just tell my mate to sign up to here and take me out of the equation! lol

SquatNow

I have to ask - what objection does the landlord have to puttting your deposit into one of the TDS scemes?

The very fact that the landlord has an issue with it would make me assume that your not getting your deposit back.

thesaint

SquatNow wrote: »

I have to ask - what objection does the landlord have to puttting your deposit into one of the TDS scemes?

The very fact that the landlord has an issue with it would make me assume that your not getting your deposit back.

Maybe the landlord doesn't want the extra paperwork that is of no benefit to himself.

sooz

As far as I understand, one of the problems of registering a deposit for an existing tenancy is what happens at the end? The inventory will not have been drawn up or signed at the same time as the deposit was protected.

For raising the rent within an exisiting contract, the LL needs to serve a section 13 notice. This can only be served once per year. The T has the option to reject this (and thereby risk being given a section 21 notice to leave in 2 months time)

However, when the T agrees to the new rent, he has 6 months to go to the rent assessment committee, to assess whether the rent is fair. The RAC may decide that the rental increase is unfair, and drop the rent, or they may decide that the increase is too little and raise it further.

thesaint

sooz, you are opening up a can of worms that aren't as simplistic as you say.