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

As you say the landlord and the agent is probably trying their luck and to be honest without the guidance of you guys I thought I might have to say yes so I did almost fall for it. It’s been such a tough year for everyone and trying to find that cash would be hard. Their lucky they have tenants who have been paying them. I’ve heard of plenty of landlords who haven’t had rent.

Wow they are absolutely taking the piss because they know you want/need to stay there.

Terrible!

@Needhelpwithaquestion How's it going?

In ordinary times, you’d not even get served notice for non payment of rent til you owed 3m rent.

Basically you ought to phone the agent and tell them that you know they can’t serve you anything less than 6m notice, that they can’t raise the rent without (a) notice and your agreement

if they don’t back the fuck down you could even not pay a penny from now until you leave and there will be nothing they can realistically do...

You have WAY more power than you know, even before the Covid regulations

When the AST runs out in March it becomes a periodic tenancy providing you don’t sign a new AST. Legally to increase rent the landlord/agency must issue the rent increase on a Section 13 (form 6 I think). If you stay on in the property after the AST expires do not pay the increased rent (unless Section 13 rent increase has been provided) but continue to pay your current rent. Is your deposit protected? Do you have deposit protection certificate? At the moment (I believe until the end of March) to evict you from the property you have to be given 6 months notice. To evict a tenant a S21 notice must be issued.

All the rest of the advice on this this thread is brilliant except for ...

if they don’t back the fuck down you could even not pay a penny from now until you leave and there will be nothing they can realistically do

I am a landlord and what they have proposed is proper shady. Say no to the increase ( because if you pay it even once that is classed as your consent), carry on paying your usual rent and keep them informed. To smooth the way a bit you could agree to allow viewing for nrw tenants while you are still there but even that is not compulsory. During these Covid times I would be glad to have reliable tenants for a bit longer and would give you as much time as you need.

Fair enough AF, but the ll and the agent are acting without any courtesy at all and the tenant could actually decide she can’t afford to pay them and realistically there isn’t anything they could do about it.

I get the sense that @Needhelpwithaquestion wouldn’t do that, and I doubt I would either. But this for me is more said as a wake up call to show her she’s not being unreasonable at all, and they are trying to do her over. I get really pissed off when you’ve got ignorant and greedy ll, unqualified, irresponsible and incompetent agents who are trying to deny rights to the one person who’s paying on the nose and being a good tenant. This behaviour should be criminal.

If only all landlords could treat their tenants with respect rather than a means to a scam.

Indeed. Then the rest of us wouldn't get tarred with the same brush.

When I rented, my landlady was awesome

Until she wasn’t

Demands to access the house because she wanted to board the loft.

Erm, I don’t want people in my home for something I won’t use! I don’t want the hassle and as a landlord she can’t just insist on storing things in the loft without my permission, or deny me access to the loft just like that

“Oh but it’ll protect your things....”

Hmm, weren’t worried about my ‘things’ for the previous 10 years... must be coming back from Saudi then?

Sure enough just as we were waiting to complete on the house I’m in now, I got notice

10years... and they were astonishingly rude when I asked if they did want me to vacate a bit earlier so they could get in and redecorate. No. A really rude and blunt no.

And then 2 weeks before I leave a builder rings to say they’re coming into the property to quote. Erm, no. You’re absolutely not.

Agents need to be registered, there needs to be legislation and regulation and qualifications to be a landlord. Many ARE informed and fair, but too many aren’t and they need to be taken out of the lettings business

Hey, thanks all. So I said no and gave an open statement about how I have additional protection during Covid. The letting agents came back and said ‘you do, the landlord will have to serve you with notice for 6 months but once we got to March and it becomes a ‘periodic tenancy’ then we will serve you with a section 13 notice. He asked if we had a counter.

I haven’t gone back, I’ll let the landlord strew over Christmas.

It just doesn’t feel right that you could issue a section 21 (6 months notice) and also issue a section 13!

Let him serve the section 13 then challenge it on the grounds that it isn’t fair or reasonable as not in line with local rents.

blog.openrent.co.uk/how-to-increase-the-rent-by-serving-a-section-13-notice/

Or simply tell the agent you’ll be challenging it on those grounds.

Or, if you're planning on moving in two months anyway, then giving you six months notice surely won't make any difference to you?