I have a tenant who I have not renewed the tenancy agreement for as I want to sell my house. The agreement ended in Oct 21 and she has a move out date of Feb 22, but I know she does not want to move out as I have been having some issues with her over the past few months. I have been renting below the market value to her for the past 2 years.
What I want to know is, can I increase the rent without her agreeing to it as she no longer has a tenancy agreement in place?
Karen
She has a tenancy agreement with you on the same terms as your initial agreement, but on a monthly basis, so she is protected by law, called a periodic tenancy.
You can suggest a rent increase, but she does not have to accept it, or pay it.
As there is so little time left until you need the house to be vacant, just issue the relevant notice to leave, Section 8 in this case, taking care to comply with its terms.
So, what John said. A fixed term, if not renewed, becomes a statutory periodic tenancy. She has therefore right to stay as long as she has not been given proper notice.
You say that she has till Feb 22 to move out. Have you given notice or has she given notice? If not, then she is not going anywhere.
Yes, in a SPT you can increase rent. Note that you have to give the tenant notice and some prescribed information etc. You find the document on the government’s website. There are several threads here that can help.
I disagree with John however. If you provide her with the correct documents and there is no deficiency in the paperwork then she must start paying the new rent. The only way for her to avoid is to ask/appeal to a tribunal where a judge will decide if the new rent is “market rent”. If she doesn’t appeal it means she has accepted the rent increase. You can only increase rent once per year.
Question is why you would want to increase it now when it would take effect from essentially when she moves out (you hope?!)?
She doesn’t intend on moving out… I have issued her with a section 21 notice to vacate 12 Feb 22, accompanied with copies all relevant docs… Gas cert, EPC, How to rent guide etc…
She is being very difficult at the moment…
Don’t bother raising rent. If she’s going to cause you problems and not leave you could just provoke her to not pay rent at all. What would be her incentive for paying you more if you’re evicting her? Just playing devil’s advocate here.
And if you were to go after her for any rent arrears you’ll just make it more difficult for yourself. For what - a couple hundred quid total max?!
Thanks for getting back - I just really need her out of my house 
Put your house on the market. Advertise it as it will be vacant on contract exchange/completion.
If you get someone to buy it, chances are you won’t complete in feb especially if the buyer is buying with mortgage.
Fingers crossed, house is sale, she leaves in feb, new owner gets it as vacant possession.
Be prepared though to fight over house viewing. I guess if you let the estate agent conduct the viewing, ie take yourself out of the picture , I think the tenant would cooperate with showing the house to potential buyers
I disagree with the advice about putting it on the market now unless you are willing to accept low offers from investors. It could take many months to get her out if she digs-in.
I can’t put it on the market now as she hasn’t actually looked after my property, so I can’t sell it until I have been able to get in and start a bit of renovation… So it probably going to take months before I can even think about selling