Our tenancy is up on Sept 29, and we’ve been given the option to extend. What we didn’t realise when we extended last year was that the estate agent removed the cap of 5% to rent increases on the extension.
We signed the new contract with this removed as the rent didn’t change. They didn’t mention the removal of this cap and when we questioned they stated it was down to us and they don’t have to tell us about changes they make to new agreements. I understand that we should have read the contract, but we took it in good faith that nothing changed.
Come to this year, and they’ve attempted to increase our rent by 8%. I get they didn’t last year, but that’s no excuse. And with the cost of living crisis, they’re asking for an extra £125 which over the course of a year is a full extra months rent.
When we asked if the landlord was happy to agree to £1600 a month and if she would agree to capping increases to 3% a year (she mentioned she wants long term tenants) she agreed to both.
The estate agent, however, told us that it’s against the law for them to include this rent cap. He quoted “Tenant Fees Act 2019” stating that it was against this act. We asked him for us to confirm the conversation he had with the landlord and the estate agents refuse to put this into the extension in an email but he refused and said that his legal team advised that he can’t.
Are we hearing BS? I’ve read the act and even from the coverage years ago, it mentioned nothing of caps. Only about fees (as the title suggests) and not rent caps.
There is nothing against rent csps where both parties have agreed to it so estate agent is tslking BS.
Having said that an 8% increase is still a rent reduction in real terms with inflation expected to be 11-12% by October which when combined with no increase last year means you’ve have a decent real terms cut. Rents in most areas will have gone up my more than this.
Unless you have it in writing from EA that nothing changed on new contract you will have been expected to read the contract so dont really think there is much you can do.
There is no such thing as an extension to a tenancy. When a tenancy expires, the landlord either lets it become periodic, (usually rolling monthly) or issues a replacement tenancy, which is a whole new tenancy. It can therefore have different conditions to what went before.
Yeah. We compromised and we never expected the rent to stay the same. We don’t have an issue with an increase. It’s more so the fact that we’re being told the rent was going up 8% which would take it higher than similar properties in the area, and the original contract stated a cap of 3%
We and the Landlord agreed on a 5% rent cap in the tenancy, but as mentioned above, the EA said there’s a law preventing them from adding it to the agreement. He won’t state which section of the Act he’s referring to, and I think saying it’s against the law and throwing an Act at us is a scare tactic.
There is no law preventjng them from adding it to the tenancy agreement, but it wouldnt be sensible from either landlord or agents point of view.
You could decline the new “extension” tenancy and say you would prefer the tenancy to just go periodic. That would retain the terms of your existing tenancy. The agent cabt prevent this. It will happen automatically when your current tenancy expires. However, I think that the agent will say its either a new tenancy or a s21 notice.
You could appeal to the landlord to over-rule the agent, but I doubt they will.
All costs are increasing for landlords and agents and whilst 8% is higher than youre comfirtable with, unless its way above the local market rent, there is little you can do to challenge it.