There is a License to Occupy for a period of 12 months.
It is stated that License Fee will be increased on the 1st April annually by an amount at company’s discretion.
- If the fee has been increased after a month of the start of the contract in June and automatically collected, has the law been broken ?
- What about if it was after the 12 month period and the contract would have become a monthly rolling (I assume) ?
- What is the statue of limitation and what piece of legislature governs License to Occupy ?
Thank you
Is the licence to occupy legally enforceable? What are the circumstances? Is this a serviced appartment? Does your landlord live in the same building?
Why wouldn’t it be legally enforceable ?
It is not a serviced apartment. It’s a property guardianship “scheme”. The “landlord” is a company, therefore the answer is no.
Have you read any of the recent court judgements where proprty guardians have actually been found to be AST tenants?
No, I haven’t. Do you have any links to the cases ?
Assuming the License to Occupy is legally enforceable, is there any Act I can read which would cover it ?
I did not agree nor disagree to the increase. It was automatically taken from my card. The reason being was the property was no longer considered HMO and each “studio” was liable for council tax. However, this was not part of my contract.
Furthermore, other people had their license fee increased even before that decision…
It sounds like there are several potential issues here, including breach of contract, breach of your consumer rights, (assuming youre not operating through a company) and a sham licence arrangement. Everything will depend on the circumstances. You need to consult a specialist solicitor for an initial legal opinion. You should be able to get this without any charge. I would suggest JMW solicitors or Anthony Gold or any of the other housing firms.