Can I increase rent without undermining Section 21?

[Ben45]

Hi All,

I’m in the process of selling to my tenant. We are in a rolling AST and I served an S21 notice in Jan. When we accepted their purchase offer, we agreed to leave the S21 in place while the sale progresses so I can seek quick repossession should the sale fall through. Its taking longer to exchange contracts than we’d hoped and my fixed term mortgage ends in June - the default variable rate thereafter is huge as you’d imagine!

Can I issue an S13 rent increase to the tenant without undermining the issued S21? I need to leave the S21 in place so I can move quickly to repossess should the sale fall through, but will struggle to make up the difference between rent and mortgage if the sale drags on any longer.

Does the tenant need to agree to the increase in writing if the rent increase is under the current rolling contract? I’m not sure they will as they’ve been getting a good rate and I need to increase by c.25% to cover new mortgage costs (i don’t think there’s a limit to how much I can increase - as long as its market rate - but happy to be told otherwise)

Advice very much appreciated.

[David122]

The last stages of selling properties often takes a long time and gets very frustrating. You should think carefully about doing anyghing that might make the buyer withdraw. However, to answer your question, yes, you can issue a s13 notice in parallel with a s21. You should also be aware that s21 notices automatically expire after 6 months.

[Ben45]

Thanks David, much appreciated

[Tricia]

As David122 says, you can, but you probably shouldn’t! You don’t want them to pull out & as long as the sale goes through it is a small amount of ££ in the grand scheme of things.