To stay in the property post rental agreement ending

[Needhelpwithaquestion]

Quick thoughts welcome! We are currently renting a property whilst the house we brought is being renovated, because of COVID the work was delayed a little and I spoke to the landlord about staying on for 2 months post are lease expiring. They said they didn’t think that would be an issue

Subsequently today we got an e mail from the estate agents saying we could stay but they have added 40% onto the value of the rent for this 2 months. They have also listed the property as being available for rent when our lease ends.

I clearly don’t want to move to move again but equally I don’t want to pay that for rent and hate the feeling we are being taken advantage of.

A friend mentioned that under covid rules they would have to give us 6 months notice and couldn’t evict but that does sound stressful. I would of course pay the rent for the 2 months but under the agreed contract.

So YABU-it’s their property they can do what they want
YANBU-the government rules to are to protect those impacted by COVID, they are cheeky fuck*rs I would stay the extra 2 months

Really appreciate any advice/thoughts/what would you do? If it makes a difference we have children under 5

When did they serve notice?
They can't increase the rent without an agreement by both parties. As far as the law is concerned you continue living under the same terms until you leave or they evict you though the court - but there is no need for anything like that! They must give you 6 months notice and they cannot raise the rent in that time period, is the bottom line.

Write back and say you'll be staying on for the extra two months, but that you will not accept a rent increase. Don't give any arguments as to why, just say you won't.

Covid or not, they are taking the piss. It's only two months and they're very unlikely to evict you early as long as you're definitely moving out in two months.

They do not have to give you six months notice, but they do have to get an agreement for a rental increase. Shocking that they're raising it by 40%

@tectonicplates

Write back and say you'll be staying on for the extra two months, but that you will not accept a rent increase. Don't give any arguments as to why, just say you won't.

Covid or not, they are taking the piss. It's only two months and they're very unlikely to evict you early as long as you're definitely moving out in two months.

They can't evict them anyway. They haven't given 6 months notice for one thing.

@GlummyMcGlummerson

They do not have to give you six months notice, but they do have to get an agreement for a rental increase. Shocking that they're raising it by 40%

Yes they do

Thank you codename. The lease runs out in March and the estate agents wrote to us today saying ‘we understand that you want to stay on for 2 months’ the rent for staying on for each month will now be X’

Does it make a difference if you are on a fixed term contract rather than a rolling one do you know?

@Needhelpwithaquestion

Thank you codename. The lease runs out in March and the estate agents wrote to us today saying ‘we understand that you want to stay on for 2 months’ the rent for staying on for each month will now be X’

Does it make a difference if you are on a fixed term contract rather than a rolling one do you know?

The fixed term period runs out in March - you can end the tenancy then by leaving but they can't. If they haven't served notice at all then the tenancy simply continues after the end of the fixed period on the same conditions - they cannot raise the rent. You can end it by giving one months notice and they must give 6 as things stand now. This is of course all assuming you are in England. I would write to them saying "We are likely to leave on X date, but we will serve proper notice one full calendar month before the date we intent to vacate. As such the tenancy will roll over to a periodic tenancy and we will continue to pay £X rent as per the original terms. Yours sincerely etc"

I do feel really angry about it, I guess they think they have leverage because they know I won’t want to move with small children. The property had been empty for 6 months before rented it so I am doubtful they will get tenants straights away. I would have thought having a longer lead time would be in their favour for trying to find new tenants etc

That is so useful codename thank you. I am going to do that now.

@Needhelpwithaquestion

I do feel really angry about it, I guess they think they have leverage because they know I won’t want to move with small children. The property had been empty for 6 months before rented it so I am doubtful they will get tenants straights away. I would have thought having a longer lead time would be in their favour for trying to find new tenants etc

They are taking the piss and assuming you don't know your rights. They can't get you to leave at the moment. They just can't. It's 6 months notice before initiating court proceedings and there is a backlog at court. You hold all the cards here: you leave when you decide to leave and you pay exactly what you have always paid. They will know this but they will be hoping you don't.

AGAIN disclaimer this only applies in England!

Which idiots are voting YABU? Care to explain why these agents should get to flout the law?

They're cheeky fuckers, don't pay it!

I'm pretty sure after the 6 months they still have to get a court order to actually make you leave. By the time that's sorted your own house will probably be ready.
Say you don't accept the rent increase and then see what happens. If they try to evict you say you'll leave after they give you the proper 6 months notice.

The thing is, if you're on a fixed term contract and it comes to an end without you officially renewing it, then it usually automatically becomes a rolling contract instead. Technically they reserve the right to increase your rent at that point, but realistically, it's only the people who are too scared to argue, or don't realise they can, that just accept such ridiculous rent increases. You'd be amazed how many times tenants say they won't accept a rent increase, and the agent just goes "Oh, okay then", especially as they know you're moving out in a couple of months anyway.

You get tenants who get themselves into unnecessarily complicated situations where they start seeking legal advice, phoning Shelter etc, when realistically a simple "no" seems to work a lot of the time. Or, as happened to us once, they announced a huge rent increase on the grounds that it matched the rate of inflation, except that they lied about the rate and it was actually much lower. They were trying to claim that inflation was at 4% when it was actually at 1.5% or something (can't remember the exact figure), and once we told them that, they said "Oh okay then, we'll just give you a minimal rent increase instead". Lettings agents tend to talk a lot of rubbish but they tend to quickly shut up when challenged about it.

@Rosebel

I'm pretty sure after the 6 months they still have to get a court order to actually make you leave. By the time that's sorted your own house will probably be ready. Say you don't accept the rent increase and then see what happens. If they try to evict you say you'll leave after they give you the proper 6 months notice.

They have to serve proper notice before they could even apply to court and at the moment that is 6 months

Yes based in England. Thank you for your advice, I automatically went to ‘we’ll have to pay it or find somewhere else for 2 months’

@tectonicplates

The thing is, if you're on a fixed term contract and it comes to an end without you officially renewing it, then it usually automatically becomes a rolling contract instead. Technically they reserve the right to increase your rent at that point, but realistically, it's only the people who are too scared to argue, or don't realise they can, that just accept such ridiculous rent increases. You'd be amazed how many times tenants say they won't accept a rent increase, and the agent just goes "Oh, okay then", especially as they know you're moving out in a couple of months anyway.

You get tenants who get themselves into unnecessarily complicated situations where they start seeking legal advice, phoning Shelter etc, when realistically a simple "no" seems to work a lot of the time. Or, as happened to us once, they announced a huge rent increase on the grounds that it matched the rate of inflation, except that they lied about the rate and it was actually much lower. They were trying to claim that inflation was at 4% when it was actually at 1.5% or something (can't remember the exact figure), and once we told them that, they said "Oh okay then, we'll just give you a minimal rent increase instead". Lettings agents tend to talk a lot of rubbish but they tend to quickly shut up when challenged about it.

They simply can't increase the rent without agreement of the tenants, whether they reserve the right to or not. If the tenant wants to sign another fixed term agreement they may introduce a rent increase as part of that, but they can't unilaterally change the terms of a tenancy agreement, which is what they are trying to do to the OP.

@Needhelpwithaquestion

Yes based in England. Thank you for your advice, I automatically went to ‘we’ll have to pay it or find somewhere else for 2 months’

Nope! That's your home and you legally occupy it until you leave, but make sure you give them notice in writing before the rent due date a month before you leave.

Did they serve a section 13? It’s the only legal way to increase rent.
Then you could fight it in a tribunal as it’s unlikely to be considered reasonable.

They also need to serve the section 21, I’d ignore or dispute and stay until you need to!

No they haven’t served us with anything.

They simply can't increase the rent without agreement of the tenants, whether they reserve the right to or not. If the tenant wants to sign another fixed term agreement they may introduce a rent increase as part of that, but they can't unilaterally change the terms of a tenancy agreement, which is what they are trying to do to the OP.

Okay, but what I meant to say was, regardless of legal rights, a simple "no" seems to work a lot of the time. I'm taking it they already know the OP has completed on the new house, has the keys and is going to move into it soon. Regardless of the law, it is simply not worth their time and effort to try to evict someone who already has a new home to move into and is refusing a rent increase for the duration of just two months, and it's not worth their time and effort to sit around arguing about the rent increase when it's only going to cover such a short time.

Your tenancy doesn't end at the end of March then!
Thanks for that info @justinebuns I didn't know the legalities of the section 13.

@tectonicplates

They simply can't increase the rent without agreement of the tenants, whether they reserve the right to or not. If the tenant wants to sign another fixed term agreement they may introduce a rent increase as part of that, but they can't unilaterally change the terms of a tenancy agreement, which is what they are trying to do to the OP.

Okay, but what I meant to say was, regardless of legal rights, a simple "no" seems to work a lot of the time. I'm taking it they already know the OP has completed on the new house, has the keys and is going to move into it soon. Regardless of the law, it is simply not worth their time and effort to try to evict someone who already has a new home to move into and is refusing a rent increase for the duration of just two months, and it's not worth their time and effort to sit around arguing about the rent increase when it's only going to cover such a short time.

Definitely. It's not just not worth their time and effort - it's literally impossible, as the OP will be long gone before they could legally file papers with the court.

Id they haven’t served you with a Section 21 (Notice to leave) then they need to do so and give you 6 months notice. This is currently the law so I don’t know what they’re playing at. Remind the agent of this!