Buying a house from renting

[xxxPandora]

Hi I’d really appreciate some advice on this.

I privately rent a house and have been living here with my daughter for 7 years. I look after the property and have always paid my rent on time, always got on with the landlord etc.

I have been saving for a while and now able to get a mortgage to buy a home. I put an offer on the house back in October and it’s all still going through (taking ages!!). My solicitor told me we were ready to exchange in March, so I handed my notice in on my rental property. Due to unforeseen issues with the vendor’s solicitor, the exchange dates keep getting pushed forward so I contacted the landlord to see if I could stay on another month- which she agreed to. Fast forward another 2 months (June), I’ve had to reach out again to the landlord asking again to stay on as the house sale is taking a long time. This time she agreed, but said if I was to stay, I had to pay an extra £200 for rent. Her reasoning was that I am paying below average rent. (Not excessively so IMO). I just paid the extra £200, hoping that this was the last month I was in the rental house. She also advised that if I need to stay on another month, she’ll be increasing the rent further.

Today I have found out that the house purchase is still delayed so I am having to email the landlord again to see if I can stay another month. If she says yes she’ll add even more rent on. What happens if she says no? Does she have to give me notice to leave the property? If so how long would I have? Obviously I would continue paying rent. What happens if she allows me to stay if she adds on another £200 and I say no to the added rent as I can’t afford it?

I have not signed a new contract.

I’m so stressed at the moment and do not have the mental strength to challenge the landlord on this hence why I just paid it last month as I didn’t really have much choice. I just feel that I’ve lived here for 7 years and to add in an extra £200 last month, and likely another £200 added (£400 rent increase within 4 weeks) this coming month, I’m not sure what to do. Do I just pay it? Do I have any rights?

I know I’m lucky she allowed me to stay on but I feel she knows I have no where else to go and that I’m in limbo, so adding all this money on, I feel, is really underhand. There’s also been no cosmetic up keep on the house in the 7 years I’ve been here (I did pay myself to change the kitchen floor as it was heavily marked) and the carpets need changing and it all needs painting.

Any help/advice with this is very much appreciated.

I would phone/talk to your local citizen’s advice bureau asap. It all sounds very unreasonable to me. We were in a short term rental between house purchases a few years back and it dragged on. But past the initial 6 months we signed up for, we just had to give a months notice after that. Sounds like they’re trying to squeeze extra money from you as they know they might have a month or two without a tenant after you go. Really dreadful behaviour after you have been there so long.

Unfortunately by paying the £200 you have accepted that as your new rent, your landlord can increase like this once per year on a rolling contract and upon paying its deemed you accepted it as the new fee.

They cannot put it up monthly though.

That’s super helpful thank you. I’m happy to pay the extra £200 as she is doing me a favour letting me stay- that’s how I’m reasoning it. I won’t be accepting another increase so will just offer the extra £200 again. Otherwise she can say no to me staying on but she needs to give me 8 weeks notice to leave- this was advice from citizens advice. I hope to be out in a couple of weeks.

I am a landlord and this raises a few questions.

When does your tenancy end - as in your notice period? If there’s not a ‘live’ agreement in place or you’ve got written confirmation that the landlord has agreed to a change of conditions then you will have limited rights.

You handed your notice into the landlord but due to complications with your house purchase you are staying in the property longer - the landlord should have drawn up a ‘rolling’ tenancy agreement and agreed a fixed rental figure.

It’s completely unreasonable for them to increase the rent especially as you have been a loyal long term tenant and have looked after their property.

These things happen - no reason for the landlord to behave like this though - it’s not like they’ve got a new tenant to move in straight away it seems as they wouldn’t have allowed you to extend in the first place!

Hope all goes through soon OP!

She's not doing you a favour. She's managing her own business interests.
Hope your move starts to happen soon and you enjoy your new home. Good luck.