Issue with rent increase (UK only)?
Can anyone please give me some advice for a tenancy issue I have?
I currently live in a private rented flat in Londin and the ‘landlady’ has just asked for an increase in rent from me.
It’s a 2 bedroom flat but there are 3 of us living here as she is sub-letting to me and possibly the other individual who lives here too.
She is not the owner of the property but it is rented in her name via a Letting Agent. I’m not sure if she has the agreement from the real Landlord to sublet but I think it’s unlikely.
A month after I moved in she asked me to sign a basic tenancy agreement she had drawn up which stated how much the rent was, when it should be paid, stuff about cleaning the flat etc.
It also said she would review the rent after 3 months but I declined to sign it as this wasn’t something we’d agreed when I first moved in. She agreed that we hadn’t discussed this, wasn’t applicable to me and she wouldn’t be reviewing the rent. I trusted her so stupidly signed the agreement without deleting that part as I felt we had a verbal agreement she would not review the rent!
Anyway, I’ve lived here for 4 months and now she is asking for an extra £70 a month from me. Not a massive amount but it’s the principle!
What I would like to know is, does she have the right to increase the rent like that and if I refuse to pay the extra rent does this ‘tenancy agreement’ she drew up herself have any legal worth?
Any help and advice is much appreciated.
Sorry meant to type I live in London not Londin! Also, I called my local citizens advice bureau but they have a 1 month waiting list for an appointment!
she is charging me £70 a month more! Not sure if she has asked the other person for an increase.
Passive Income
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Filed under: flat rent
It sounds like she it trying it on with you… Tell her you are going to speak to the letting agents about it and ask their advise, with any luck she will panic and say ‘Forget about it’ if not, then take up legal action of some sort, or ring citizens advice bureu
Its not her flat and she may be breaking the terms of her own lease! I’d speak to the letting agents or Citizens Advice (you can phone a branch miles away I think), but first I’d ask her if she had permission to do this from the leaseholder (to save too much bad feeling). Ask her to show you the arrangement she has with the leaseholder to clarify if you have to do as she says. Good luck
to add an extra 70quid to your rent is actually quite a lot.. i hope you meant 70 divided by the three of you for the whole house, not each individually. as for the tenancy agreement, well you have signed it. i dont think any verbal agreement would be taken into account. however maybe the fact that the owner of the house does not know she is subletting may deter her from taking legal action.
call a bluff, tell her you want a second opinion from the letting agent first
Sounds suspect to me. You are possibly correct in thinking she is sub letting.
Firstly the tenancy agreement you signed with her is void, she is not the owner, and does not have the owners permission to sub-let. If you have a problem, say with a leak, who do you contact? Do you know the agent she rents off?
My advice is unless she can prove she is the owner of the property, you will not be paying the increase, if you could get the other tenants to agree, you could stop paying her rent and contact the agent and offer to take on the tenancy. Maybe seeing you live in the flat with this person, you may need to speak to them.
Good luck
In fact if you stopped paying rent, the agent would get involved as she is proberly not going to pay the agent for a flat she is not living in.
In a nutshell,
Your tenancy is a contract, by signing you agreed to the terms of that contract.
Do you have any proof that she said that she wouldnt increase the rent?