Landlord wants to increase rent with 2 weeks notice or repossess

Landlord wants to increase rent with 2 weeks notice or repossess

16:36 PM, 30th June 2015, About 10 years ago 3

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We have been living in our flat for a year (12 month contract), and our lease is up in 2 weeks. As our third flatmate is leaving (he gave his notice a month in advance like he needed to), I informed the agency with the details of the new tenant we found to make sure he would get on the new lease. They came back saying that the landlord wants to increase the rent by 10%.rent

I replied saying that from my understanding they have to give us a months notice before our lease is up, so that this notice is 2 weeks late and we can’t accept the rent increase. They then said that technically, according to notice 21, the landlord can repossess the flat when the lease ends. So we either need to pay the increase (which is a big increase in my opinion) or leave the flat in 2 weeks.

Can they just do this? From what I’ve been reading is that there’s also a 2 months notice in place for notice 21 so they can’t force us to leave the flat in 2 weeks?

Any advice much appreciated!!

Marj


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Neil Patterson

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16:45 PM, 30th June 2015, About 10 years ago

Hi Marj

Obviously we don't know all the circumstances and I do sympathise.

However, if it's a single tenancy then a notice from any one of the tenants applies to all. Section 21 is not applicable. If this is the case the landlord can go straight to court for a possession order.

Jay James

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9:44 AM, 1st July 2015, About 10 years ago

Is it a single tenancy Marj?

Paul Franklin

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12:38 PM, 1st July 2015, About 10 years ago

If it's a joint tenancy with your flatmate, your joint tenant flatmate ends the tenancy by giving notice. If you have a seperate tenancy, the landlord would have to end it by first giving written notice (that's where a Section 21 notice is needed which is at least 2 months notice).

If it is a joint tenancy and your flat mate has given a 'valid' notice to quit. There may be no requirement for the landlord to obtain a possession order from the court in order to evict you, although most will to be sure they are not accused of unlawful evction. By law I believe a landlord can peacefully evict a remaining tenant if a valid NTQ has been served by one of the joint tenants.

If you have a seperate tenancy, after the landlord's s21 has expired, if you remain in occupation he must obtain a possesssion order from the court and ultimately a bailiff warrant to lawfully evict you. There are curt costs involved in this process which you will ikley have to pay.

In either case I would encourage you to negotiate the increase with your landlord/agent, repossession takes a lot of time, effort and money along with re-let and void costs etc so he/she may be willing to negotiate. If you are a good tenant I see no reason why he wouldn't want to come to a sensible agreeement.

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