Hi, this is my first post here and would be very grateful for any assistance. I have been renting a self contained flat since mid-2019.
The rent was always £500 / month, until the landlord put it up to £570 in Nov 2023. I signed an agreement online but it didn’t specify an expiry date (like 6 months, etc).
Recently, my landlord decided to increase the rent from £570 to £620. I did not want to pay the increased rent, so I have just continued paying the rent I have been paying £570.
Now my landlord has served me with a Section 21 Notice and he wants me out in just over 2 months.
Q1 :: What powers do I have to prevent the eviction and stay in the flat?
Q2 :: Do his actions constitute a “No fault eviction”, or am I at fault for not paying the new higher rent, even though I didn’t sign anything to to say i agree with the increase?
I would be extremely grateful if you could help me better understand my options. I really don’t want to have to move.
take the LL to a rent tribunal. This will involve a fair bit of effort and you are only likely to succeed if £620 is signficantly more than the market rent for the area.
If you haven’t been following what the govt is planning to do to private LLs in the new Renters’ Reform Bill then you might not understand why your LL might need to increase the rent to cover his expected overheads. If this is the case, it’s highly likely that all other LLs in your area will be doing the same and you might find you have no alternative but to move to another area if you want to continue to pay the current rent you are paying. I don’t know because I don’t know the market in your area.
You have a contract
Is it a contractual periodic or statutory periodic
If it is contractual with a valid rent review clause ? If it does you will be obliged to pay the increase without the input of a tribunal
Thank you.
Q: How is the definition of “significantly more” calculated in this context?
Q: Will taking the LL to a rent tribunal put his potential court action of his Section 21 on hold?
Thank you.
My 6 months short hold agreement will have long expired. According to my contract / tenancy agreement, I am now in a “contractual periodic tenancy”.
And, i have just read my contract again, and i cannot see anything like a “rent review clause”
As a rule of thumb, use the going rent for a property similar to your home in your local area. If it’s somewhere around £600 pcm, then that’s a fair rent increase. If it’s somewhere around £500 then it’s not. There’s no precise rule. That’s why a tribunal is necessary.
Here are the terms under which you can apply. Do you qualify? I’m unsure because I don’t know if you’ve been served a S13 or not nor the timescales:
In an assured, assured shorthold or periodic tenancy, a landlord must serve notice on their tenant that they will increase the rent from a date stated in the notice (section 13 of the Housing Act 1998). The tenant can apply to the tribunal for assessment. The tribunal must receive the application for assessment before the date the rent is due to increase.
In an assured shorthold tenancy, if the tenant is dissatisfied with the rent they are paying, they can apply to the tribunal. They must do this within the first 6 months of the tenancy agreement (section 22 of the Housing Act 1988). If the tribunal agrees the rent is too high, it will set a new market-based rent for that tenancy.
I’ll let others comment on your second question. My hunch is that it won’t because the two are, for legal purposes, unrelated. I don’t know for sure though.
I forgot negotiation, and you haven’t told us the motive for his S21 (have you asked?). If it is because of your refusal to pay rent, then it’s in neither of your interests to drag this out and make a mess of it (and you can make it very messy for him indeed - as well as for yourself).
LLs like long term stable tenants who maintain the property and pay the rent. They’re willing to rent below market value to tenants who are hassle free, but they may be constrained by market forces to raise the rent to market value. You would do well to sit down and have a face to face conversation about this, explain your side and listen to theirs to see if you can reach some compromise that will work for you both.
With the RRB around the corner, this LL is likely to want to keep you long term (if that’s your plan) than take a punt on the next tenant who may be very hard to remove under the new legislation.
@tatemono@Karl11 Thank you both.
Much appreciated to all who have posted here
With regard to “negotiate”, my LL presents these new increases as a ‘suggestion’ and says that he ‘is very happy to discuss this’… but when I have discussed this with him during the previous rent increase, Nov 2023, it resulted in the LL not budging an inch.
Their mention of ‘discuss’ was just a way to make him sound / come across more subtle and reasonable. He is an experienced LL, who is squeakly clean with all the gas safety checks (etc) always up to date… not a meat head who overacts.
The problem is MEES and RRB and the Chancellor and her idiotic reforms means the LL has to think now about navigating future costs
If you like your home take the bullet . Everyone is putting up rents. If you have a good landlord why swap it for the unknown which may not be better?
This s21 was not triggered by my refusal to pay any rent, because I still paid at the previous agreed rate £570. It was triggered by me not paying the higher rent that he suggested £620.
When the LL realised i had not paid the new higher rate, they sent me a mssg pointing out that I had not paid the rate of the “proposed increase”, subtle language.
I replied saying I was going to struggle with this. Then he posted the s21 straight away, which seems like a very fast escalation.
I hope that if i reply to the LL and agree to pay the £620, that he won’t just try to evict me anyway.
Q :: If the tenant agrees to pay the new higher rent after being sent a s21, and pays it, does this make it impossible for the LL to subject the tenant to the s21?
Before you do anything find out what is behind the s21
If it’s not accepting the rent increase get your terms in writing that by paying the new price will void the s21
No, although if the RRB becomes law, S21s will no longer be available. There will be other grounds for eviction though. No exact date when that will arrive but probably later this year.
I would urge you to get on Shelter’s website and read their very helpful guides for tenants so that you understand more about your rights (and your LL’s rights too).
Reading what you have said the landlord messaged you
"not paid the rate of the “proposed increase”
One could argue that it states “proposed” rent increase and not The rent increase if it is inly proposed then why would you pay it until it is necessary too? I would keep the correspondence that states that incase it goes to tribunal
