Tenants rights – statutory periodic tenancy

Hi Jan

I am going to make the assumption that you are a residential tenant in England or Wales and that your tenancy is an assured shorthold tenancy agreement.

You were well within your rights to refuse to be tied into another 6 month tenancy, just as your landlord was.

You may give your landlord 30 days notice to terminate your tenancy and your landlord is within his rights to give you two months notice. If you don't leave within two months after your landlord has served notice then your landlord can apply to the Courts for a possession order.

Your landlord is well within his rights to increase your rent but he must give you two months notice unless the increase is by mutual agreement. Most landlord lose money when one tenant leaves and another has to be found due to costs associated with re-decorating, re-letting and loss of rental income between tenancies. Therefore, you are in a good position to negotiate.

The correct notices are:-

1) Section 13 notice for rent rise.

2) Section 21 4a to terminate the tenancy

I hope that helps.
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Reply to the comment left by "Mark Alexander" at "05/07/2014 - 09:30":

agree with Marks comments.... the only bit that confuses me Mark is this '30 day' notice you mention? my understanding of a periodic is that that the tenant has to give a months notice around a rent payment period, ending on the last day of a period of the tenancy...

I believe Mark is correct. If you pay monthly, one month notice commencing at the end of your rent payment period.

Good to see advice given here to tenants as well as landlords. Most landlords want to provide a decent, honest service to their tenants. It's the greedy, unscrupulous few that give us a bad name, and prompt populist 'sound-bite' reactions from the likes of the Labour Party.

If the period of the tenancy is one month then it's indeed one month notice by the tenant to expire with a tenancy period (which is not necessarily the same date as a rent period).

It's also one month notice to increase the rent with a s.13 notice.

it might be blindlingly obvious when you say, but when would a tenancy period get out of step with a rent period ?

Reply to the comment left by "Jeremy Smith" at "05/07/2014 - 13:48":

Well, tenant and landlord might agree to change the rent due date at some point to suit one or the other, or just simply agree a specific rent due date from the very start.

Another scenario is that sometimes, whether on purpose or by mistake, the initial fixed term AST is for a term not exactly n months long. As the statutory periodic AST is created immediately after the fixed term AST ends, tenancy periods then likely do not start on a rent due date.

It is my understanding that the law does not allow the rent to be increased within a year of the previous rent increase nor within a year of the start of the tenancy. However I do not have a reference for this.

Therefore the answer is that the Landlord can increase the rent, but with restrictions on 'when'.

Often a new tenancy agreement is used to increase the rent less than a year after the previous rent increase.

What I am not sure about, given Superstrike, is if there is a six-month initial term in a tenancy agreement that then goes Statutory Periodic, then can the rent be increased 12 months after the start of the initial tenancy or is it 12 months after the start of the Statutory Periodic tenancy?
I have never considered this before because my policy is to review rents every two years.

Reply to the comment left by "Romain " at "05/07/2014 - 16:26":

I have recently signed an agreement with new tenants where the tenancy period is from 28th of the month, but rent due date is 3rd of the following month.
This is because they get paid 1st of month and don't want the temptation of a lot of money 'available' during the month.

Isn't it two months and one days notice on section 21? Also what if a landlord gives section 21 notice say in June 2013 and tenant stays and pays rent for 10 months not all rent but some, can that sect 21 still be used in april 2014??

Reply to the comment left by "AA Properties Wales " at "05/07/2014 - 22:46":

Yes
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