Our landlord increased the rent twice in the last year adding £450 a month – can we do anything?

We’re shifting out of our rented flat in London as we have simply purchased our first residence.

We’ve lived there for 2 and a half years, and the owner has put the hire up twice. A 12 months in the past, we began paying £250 extra per thirty days than we had been after we moved in. For the final six months, we’ve got been paying £450 extra.

Every time, the owner’s purpose for placing it up was that our hire was beneath the market price.

However now he’s attempting to hire it to new tenants, and it’s clear that the hire is just too costly. At first it was in the marketplace for £200 extra per thirty days than we’re paying, and nobody needed it. Then he diminished it to the identical as we’re paying, and nonetheless it did not go.

Now, it is in the marketplace for £200 lower than we’re paying and it nonetheless hasn’t been taken. 

We all the time felt our second hire rise was unfair, however we weren’t able to maneuver as we had been only a few months away from shopping for. This appears to show it. Is there something we will do?

Ed Magnus of That is Cash replies: Congratulations on shopping for your first residence and escaping the ever-increasing rents charged by your landlord.

Whereas a landlord is inside their rights to extend the hire to mirror market charges, you seem to have been on the receiving finish of some fairly steep will increase.

The owner would in all probability argue that it is a free market and also you had been inside your rights to refuse the hire hikes and go away. 

Nonetheless, you argue that the second hire rise was unfair. That could be the case, however it could even be in breach of your contract relying on the tenancy settlement. 

Over the previous two and half years the common rents have shot up by simply over 20 per cent, in response to Zoopla. 

Even so, to have been charged £450 extra every month than you had been two and half years in the past looks like lots.

The typical hire has risen by £215 a month throughout that point, in response to Zoopla, from £1,055 a month to £1,270 a month.

Even by London requirements, your hire has gone up lots. The typical rental property within the capital has risen by £356 a month over the previous two and half years, from £1,757 in March 2022 to £2,113 as of September this 12 months. 

Finally, it is going to rely on rents in your native space, but when your landlord was making the most of your state of affairs with steady hire hikes, then it is value discovering out if there may be something you are able to do about it.

For skilled recommendation, we spoke to Nollienne Alparaque, head of the owner and tenant division at OTS Solicitors and Oli Sherlock, managing director of insurance coverage at lettings platform Goodlord.

Can a landlord hike the hire as and once they like?

Oli Sherlock replies: I am presuming that you just, like most tenants, had the related clauses included in your rental settlement that enable the owner to make rental will increase. 

Which means the owner was inside their rights to extend the hire at sure factors throughout your tenancy. 

Sadly, on condition that this provision was more than likely in your contract and also you agreed to pay the elevated charges on the time, there may be little or no you are able to do now.

Rental prices are sometimes dictated by the market. Rents throughout England have risen sharply in recent times. 

In some areas, costs over the summer season had been over 7 per cent greater than they had been the earlier 12 months. 

Nonetheless, value inflation is beginning to cool off as we head into winter. There’s an opportunity that the value will increase your landlord imposed had been aligned with market charges and demand on the time, and that native costs have since cooled.

Both method, that is nothing you are able to do at this stage in case your landlord adopted the phrases set out in your tenancy settlement. 

Nonetheless, as soon as the Renters’ Rights Invoice is handed into regulation, all rental will increase will solely be permissible by way of a ‘Part 13’ discover – this may imply that any will increase should be in step with market worth. 

And tenants could have the flexibility to dispute overzealous will increase by way of a tribunal. The Invoice is anticipated to be in place by summer season 2025.

Nollienne Alparaque replies: Whether or not a landlord can enhance your hire depends upon the phrases of your tenancy settlement. 

As a normal rule, a landlord can not increase your hire throughout a fixed-term tenancy until your settlement explicitly permits for it. 

In case your tenancy settlement features a clause allowing hire will increase at sure intervals, the owner can enhance the hire in step with that clause. 

Nollienne Alparaque of OTS Solicitors says a landlord can not increase hire throughout a fixed-term tenancy until the settlement explicitly permits for it

If no such clause exists, the owner can not increase the hire through the mounted time period, and you aren’t required to conform to any enhance.

As soon as your mounted time period ends, your tenancy will sometimes roll over right into a periodic (rolling) tenancy, at which level the owner can suggest a hire enhance. 

That is accomplished by issuing a discover underneath Part 13 of the Housing Act 1988. The discover should be in writing and offers you the chance to problem the rise for those who imagine it’s unreasonable.

To find out if the hire enhance was legitimate, you must first evaluate the phrases of your tenancy settlement. 

Was the hire enhance through the mounted time period of your tenancy? If that’s the case, examine in case your settlement allowed for hire will increase.

If the tenancy had already moved to a periodic rolling tenancy, the owner can not enhance the hire with out following the right process, together with issuing a Part 13 discover.

What in the event that they did not difficulty a piece 13 discover? 

Nollienne Alparaque replies: If you happen to had been on a rolling tenancy and the owner raised the hire with out issuing a Part 13 discover, you had been underneath no obligation to conform to the rise. 

On this case, you may have requested the owner to offer the proper discover, which might have allowed you to problem the hire enhance by means of a hire officer on the Property Tribunal.

Whereas you could have felt pressured to just accept the hire enhance to keep away from being requested to depart, it is necessary to know that the owner should observe the proper authorized course of for eviction. 

Part 13 discover: Throughout a rolling periodic tenancy, a landlord should difficulty a piece 13 discover to extend the hire

If the owner had needed to evict you for not agreeing to the rise, it might have taken a number of months and required a proper eviction process.

In abstract, if the hire enhance occurred throughout the mounted time period with out settlement or throughout a periodic tenancy with out a Part 13 discover, the owner didn’t observe the proper process. 

You had been underneath no obligation to just accept the rise, and also you had the fitting to problem it.

However can they problem it looking back?

Nollienne Alparaque replies: The issue is that the tenants agreed, as such a landlord can argue that each one events had an settlement in precept and the tenants paying the hire enhance could be an extra affirmation of their acceptance to the agreed rental enhance.

If the owner raised the hire throughout the mounted time period and there was a hire enhance clause, the tenants might argue this was a breach of the settlement. 

A landlord could in response argue in any other case that the tenants agreed by the use of a mutual settlement regardless. 

As such it could be difficult to reach efficiently getting any hire again.