Hi,
My friend is a landlord. The tenancy with his tenants is coming to an end in the end of January.
The current rent is £975. The landlord mentioned to the tenants that their tenancy will be renewed in the end of January and the new rent will be £1050 (£75 increase).
The tenants are not happy to sign with a rent increase of £75. They will do only if the rent increase is only £50 or less.
The landlord (my friend) does not want to reduce the rent in the renwal - he wants to keep it £1050.
The reason is there are other properties (similar type of his property) in the area on the market for £1100 and also his mortgage on the property has gone up when he re-mortgaged.
Can the landlord ask the tenants to vacate the property if they do NOT want to sign the renewal with the new rent?
Thanks
You don’t need to renew a tenancy to increase the rent. The landlord can issue a section 13 notice notifying of the new rent, which the tenant then has to pay or appeal if they believe it’s an unfair rent.
Best to allow the fixed term tenancy to expire, at which time it rolls into a periodic tenancy, which as Richard says above will become the norm anyway from May.
I was wondering whether there is any issue if a new tenancy agreement for 1 year is signed with the new rent when the tenancy comes to an end. Landlord is happy to send the new agreement 1 month before the current agreement comes to an end.
A new tenancy agreement can be issued, there is no problem with that if both are in agreement.
It’s just unnecessary & reduces the landlords rights for eviction if necessary and puts extra obligations on them to re-serve all relevant information ( gas safe etc).
Plus it won’t be a one year agreement even if it says so, because when the renters rights act comes into force in May it will turn into a periodic tenancy anyway.
Thanks, the landlord prefers to sign something to show the rent increase. If it is NOT against the law then he likes to sign a renewal tenancy agreement on OpenRent which will show the rent increase as well. Hope the landlord has to send the EPC, EICR and Gas Safety documents to the tenants again.
What myself and the previous contributors may not of understood is the main reason for wanting a new tenancy is you want to bring the tenancy over to Openrent. If this is the case then yes it would be worthwhile for you to do a new tenancy agreement.
Anyone can ‘ask’ anything informally and LL can propose 1050 with 1 month notice using form 4 so if they don’t pay they become in arrears, but to formally get them to leave LL has to serve s21 no fault eviction or evict on other grounds and it may take 6+ months. And tenants may appeal the increase to the Tribunal too
Getting a new AST to record the rent increase is plain unnecessary and a waste of £ setting up a new AST plus the effort to re -serve the EPC etc. Main reason for a new AST would be to get tenants to commit till 1 may (after which becomes a rolling tenancy under RRA)
There is a specific form 4 the LL has to serve to propose the rent increase (Google ‘Renting out your property gov uk’) so it is recorded in that and in the correspondence accepting it. And recorded in the subsequent payments received. No need for a new AST at all.
£75 increase is well above inflation at 7.7%. I would advise accepting the counter offer of £50 which is still a 5% increase. That’s pretty reasonable and avoids the risk and costs of a void period whilst allowing the tenants to feel their wishes have been taken account of. If LL is happy for tenants to stay (presumeably because they pay etc).why take risk of losing them and the risk of getting worse ones as well as the void period for 25 quid a month? As @Colin3 says, seems v tight and not worth the risk of the tenants then leaving. I get the LL has to cover their own rising costs but few people are getting 8% pay increases and like all price negotiation a deal is more likely if both sides willing to compromise.
He can ask, but please consider how a price hike affects the tenants and the value of a regular payer.
If they don’t leave you have to evict and that’s at least 3 months plus costs.
@george123 it’s not against the law to sign a renewal agreement its just totally unnecessary as there is a process for the existing tenancy (which will likely become a rolling one automatically when it ends but LL needs to check tenancy agreement wording).
By ‘renewal’ you actually mean a brand new tenancy agreement and the old one ending. This can only happen with joint agreement of tenant and LL. So the new rent in the new agreement isn’t really a rent increase from old tenancy it’s a brand new agreement. If LL and tenant agreed to double the rent for the new agreement it would be legal. But if tenant doesn’t agree then what happens at end of existing agreement depends on wording of existing agreement- it may automatically turn into a rolling tenancy in which case either tenant or LL gives notice or tenant/LL jointly agree to surrender (end) the tenancy or LL evicts tenants.
Before 1 may 2026, when Renters Rights Act 2025 will affect this, for an existing tenancy there are no legal limits on what a rent increase can be but if too high a tenant can challenge at tribunal and meanwhile pays current rent. From 1 May 2026 it’s tighter and must reflect market rates, can only be increased once per year and again can be challenged at tribunal by tenant
Think LL maybe needs to get some training if they don’t understand all this
LL also needs to check their tenancy agreement and understand if it will turn into a rolling tenancy at end Jan (they can ask OR support via contact us button on OR Faqs page) and what notice is needed to end it - standard OR tenancy agreement has a mutual break clause specifying 2 months notice by either party to end it (again ask OR support) tho any tenancy can by ends by mutual surrender at any time if both tenant and LL agree.
Ps remember for a new tenancy as well as serving the ‘how to let’, epc, eicr, the deposit has to be returned as part of ending the old tenancy (with any deductions for damage or rent arrears etc) so LL may need to do end /start of tenancy inspection/photos/inventory then decide whether to return deposit in full
and a new deposit supplied (if needed) and protected. Otherwise the LL can face a fine of 1-3 x deposit plus legal costs if deposit protection is not done properly.
The current tenancy is with OpenRent and the deposit is also with OpenRent/OpenRent’s deposit protection.
The landlord does not want to make any change to the deposit to make the process simple.
He is happy to keep the same deposit when the tenants moved in first (it is lower than the rent). But, he does not want to change it now to make the process simple. He is only looking to renew the tenancy on the OpenRent platform.
Amount or ‘not wanting’ is irrelevant. At the end of a tenancy the deposit is returned (unless LL wants to retain eg for damages in which case has to claim it ) that’s the law. What you call renewing is ending current tenancy and starting a new one.
A new tenancy means a new deposit if LL still wants one. Old deposit has to be returned new deposit supplied. If LL doesn’t return old deposit it’s a breach by LL and tenant can potentially later claim deposit, legal costs and a fine of 1-3x deposit amount.
If there was any damage during old tenancy it won’t be covered by new deposit for new tenancy.
So letting old tenancy become rolling is much simpler.