Rent increase with no tenancy agreement in place

Landlord Discussion
1

Hi if I have no tenancy agreement in place and want a rent increase and they refuse can I serve a section 8 notice as it’s not an AST so there’s no section 21

2

What do you mean there’s no tenancy agreement? Is there any agreement in place? Are they squatting??

If there is no AST then no, neither Section 8 nor 21 is applicable.

3

No they pay rent no that’s not true I googled it saysyou don’t need an agreemet A verbal one is sufficient in law

4

It can be verbal. Why is the tenancy not AST? I cant remember of the top of my head, I think there is a form called section 13 you need to use for rent increase. For section 8, tenant will need to be 2 full months in arrears.

5

Thanks . Yes I’ve had tenant years and there a friend just want to initiate a rent increase

6

You don’t need to do anything except ask them to pay a new amount then. In your case, you only need an S13 if they are likely to refuse to pay it and you want to get a rent tribunal involved.

1 Like
7

Where there no written agreement in place then the tenant is obliged to follow statute and not contract terms.
I would suggest you take legal advice
Eg with no contract specifying responsibility of council tax the landlord is liable!

Rent increase is 5% per annum and once a year.
I think ( please get clarification from landlord association legal team )
You cannot serve s21 without contract you need to serve s8
Then you will need to have cause for eviction

8

You may also be in breach of your insurance.

9

I believe that s21 can be served with an undocumented AST, but not, of course with a non-shorthold Assured Tenancy. I haven’t heard of any rent increase limit with them either, but but there are plenty of other drawbacks, such as rent in arrears, no forfeiture clause if the tenancy ceases to be assured etc. The lack of a minimum 6 month term would mean that as you say, the landlord becomes liable for the Council Tax if the tenant defaults though.

10

Our local authority is billing both landlord and tenant !!!
They are even billing outside the six year statute
Times are hard
If there is no contract good luck !!!