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Legal matters

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Original poster

Tenancy Agreement Issue

52 replies

Unexpectedbaby · 02/05/2022 19:07

Wondering if anyone can offer some advice.

We have been in our rental property 4 years this summer. We signed a new 2 year tenancy agreement in January which included a rent increase. This has been mentioned prior without an amount in conversation. When signing the agreement the rent was increased by £20 per month. Thought it was odd but read through it with the landlady agreed and signed.

One month on following the first increased payment and she has noticed she made a mistake and meant to increase it by £120.

We have had a number of problems here including on finally just having a boiler service for the first time this past week despite chasing for it and it being a legal agreement.

Most specifically when we moved in we were promised new doors as the current ones are not secure and are not insulated. It's been impossible to heat this house in the time we have been here and have spent winters under blankets wasting heating.

I have now said that we are not comfortable with such a substantial rent increase, whilst in this new agreement, with the doors in the condition they are in. The response currently has been that if we are not happy we should look for somewhere else to live.

Legally, can they insist on a rent increase now we have a new agreement signed, even with their mistake? Also legally are they allowed to break tenancy and make us leave?

OP posts:

Tschecked · 11/05/2022 23:11

Landlords can be given unlimited fines and up to 6 months in prison for failing to provide a gas safety certificate. That might be some power to your elbow.

LakieLady · 17/05/2022 11:17

chesirecat99 · 02/05/2022 21:11

It's also illegal to let a property with an EPC below E, which, if you can see your breath with the heating on, I suspect the property might be.

It looks like they have a lot of fines and possibly a prison sentence coming their way if you report them.

As I said before, they can't evict you for not agreeing to a rent increase if you have a fixed term contract unless there is a rent review clause. Even then, they can't evict you using a Section 21 notice if they don't have a valid EPC or gas safety certificate for the property.

There was some case law a few years ago, which effectively created a secure tenancy because a GSC wasn't in force on the day the tenancy started.
The reasoning went that, as an assured shorthold tenancy requires a GSC, if there isn't one, it's not an AST, and is by default a secure tenancy.

On the basis of that precedent, a landlord ended up paying my client to give up the tenancy. I wonder if that principle would apply to an EPC?

It might be worth asking the housing advice team at your local council, OP, or environmental health, as they deal with housing that's unfit.

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