Advice please - fathers landlord

[loopsaloo]

Hi everyone.
My dad is 80 this year. He's lived in the same rented house for years and years, at £800 per month. Last week he received a letter from his landlords new letting agent to advise that the rent would be increased by £500 as of the 8th of August, or he will have to move out. He's in pieces. I have been in touch with the letting agent from the beginning as he's too distraught to advocate for himself - we have offered a £200 increase. This was over 10 days ago and there's been no response from him.
Dad has multiple health problems and is used to where he lives - I think it's very unreasonable to expect him to find somewhere suitable in such a short timeframe. The letting agents are also upset by it all - they are trying to contact the landlord daily and he's just not communicating.
Does anyone have advice please?

What income has he got, could he be entitled to housing benefit? Also look at there something called ‘Fair Rent’ assessment

If a tenancy started before 15 January 1989, this is likely to be a regulated or secure tenancy.
A landlord or a tenant of a regulated or secure tenancy can make an application to have a fair rent registered.
A fair rent may be lower than the market rent.

He lives on several pensions

Does the £500 increase bring it closer to market value? What sort of tenancy is your father on, is there anything in there about rent increases?

R u in scotland

I think it must bring it closer to value but he's absolutely distraught at the thought of having to uproot everything at his age. The lack of communication from the landlord is so frustrating

As above, what would market rent be for a similar property (or as close as you can find)?
And any clauses in the contract about annual rent increases?
Unfortunately, this is one of the things that can happen when renting. The uk market isn't great.

In UK

Is there not a rent cap of like 6 percent?

I'll check Thankyou

There are different rules, notice periods depending on where you are in the UK.

The rent cap is in Scotland, not in rest of UK

That's why I asked if ops father was jn scotland first

What year did he move in to the property? This is very important

2007

First off: don’t panic!

Secondly I’m going to assume this is England abs not Wales or Scotland where different rules apply.

The landlord is allowed to raise the rent by giving the correct notice - look at this

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/housing/renting-privately/during-your-tenancy/dealing-with-a-rent-increase/

If the increase means the rent is above local market levels then your dad can refer to a tribunal.

He should check whether there are any benefits he can claim which may make a higher rent more affordable: use the calculator on Turn2Us

He cannot be evicted unless correct notice has been given and various other obligations have been complied with by the landlord - see this

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/housing/renting-privately/ending-your-tenancy/get-help-if-youre-being-evicted-england/

The process can take many months so no need to panic.

Given his age the Council will help him if he is in fact evicted. As a plan B he should speak to the housing officer at the Council to discuss his options.

I would pay the usual amount

Wait to see if the landlord issues a section 21 please vacate the property

Ask the letting agency if they have any suitable accommodation that your DF can move to

Claim attendance allowance for your DF it is not means tested

If he does end up needing help from the council, he must not leave until evicted by bailiffs. This is the qualifying criteria for involuntary homelessness, where the council has to help. Voluntary homelessness, the council won't help with.

@Irunoncoffeemascaraandhighheels i agree with this BUT sometimes for older people there are age restricted social housing options where you don’t need to be homeless to qualify - certainly where I live it’s way easier to get housing for over 60’s than in any other category and you don’t need to present as homeless to get it. OP’s Dad can gave a conversation with the housing officer to see what the options are and whether they do require a court order before they will provide housing for him

Your poor Dad this is awful. I would advise speaking to Shelter too for help.

Is £1300 pm fair market rate for the property?

Can he afford it?

If he can’t afford the rent increase the best thing for him at 80 is to get some form of council housing eg sheltered flat or bungalow. You or he needs to contact them asap.Different councils will have different times for property. My dad waited 18 months for sheltered. Some are much quicker. It can take a while to be evicted and if he has a wait for a council property then he just waits as much of it out at his home.

Fancy increasing the rent of an 80 year old man by that much. Yeah I know mortgages are up but if he has been there a very long time he will have helped pay a bulk of it off already!

If his rent has been £800 since 2007 I’m not surprised the landlord is putting it up, the market value will have risen substantially in the past 16 years. I would be seriously considering trying to steel your dad to a move.

You don't need to be homeless to qualify for any social housing. It's just the reality is the homeless have higher priority.

In this area people have priority points as well as banding. Homeless (among others) would be band A, but there are other properties offered with priority to those in bands B, C or D. There's a longer wait though for those ones.

Age restriction housing is the same here, some will be band A, some for lower bands. Obviously because those younger can't access it, and old people tend to die or go into a care home a lot more quickly than younger people, the age restriction housing becomes available a lot more often so there's less of a wait.

If OP's DF wants housing by the council he shouldn't leave his home without being officially homeless, ie evicted by bailiffs, because if he leaves voluntarily the council has no duty to house him in temporary accommodation until something permanent comes up. In those circumstances he'd be left to stay with friends/relatives/on the streets etc whilst waiting for a council property.

There's nothing to stop him joining the council list before he's homeless if he meets the eligibility criteria, which is usually a "local connection" ie family/job/resident in the area who's list he is applying to join. He'll be graded as whatever (depends on each areas system and his "need" as determined by the council).

Then DF would have to contact the council to update his status in the future, when he received eviction notice and date. Here, this would result in reassessment of his banding and points. OP eviction notice is not the landlord saying "leave", it's the notice of date for bailiffs showing up to make him leave. This happens after its been to court etc. So months away.

If your dad has spare rooms in his home try and get another 2 people in to help with the the rent but let the letting agent or landlord know and there rents from the rooms will help to cover the rent this is a form of house hacking where you can live rent free so if the rent is £1500 a month you could rent the rooms out at £750 a month to each person then your Dad would technically live in the house rent free. You could also use this method when paying a mortgage on a house you live in but make sure you do checks on the persons you rent the room to or get a relatives to move in.