Hi,

I am in a bit of a quandary and would be very appreciative of some advice. I'm currently renting a property with a fixed 6 month Assured Shorthold Tenancy Agreement (it's a shared house but we all have our own contracts) which commenced at the start of May. The landlord wants us all to move out so essentially he can extend the property and rent it out to more people in the future. He's offered an alternative property but I'm not keen on it because it's got a smaller kitchen, is in a different area, has no dining room and is more expensive (it has a private bathroom). As such I don't want to move and as a result he's threatening a rent increase.

In the contract it states the following: -

"This is an agreement to create an Assured Shorthold Tenancy as defined in Section 19A of the Housing Act 1988 or any successor legislation (the "Act")."

And the clause which specifically applies here is as below: -

"The Landlord may increase the Rent for the Property upon providing to the Tenant such notice as required by the Act."

So what I'm not clear on is the notice period that is being referred to above that he has to give before increasing the rent within my 6 month contract period, it's quite an extensive document! (I want to move out by then so there's no worry about the contract expiring and it then being raised)

In the Housing Act it references different dates for the length of the notice period (such as "in any other case, a period equal to the period of the tenancy" - section 13 3c) but I know that this relates to rent increases under assured periodic tenancies which doesn't apply to me because I have the rent increase clause in the contract.

Also I have seen on this forum that "A clause in a contract is not enforceable in court if: (b) The wording of the clause is not clear enough for the tenant to be able to tell what the increase will be. It should state the amount of the increase, or give a formula for how the increase will be calculated (e.g. by applying the Retail Prices Index). And it should say how much prior notice of the increase the landlord must give the tenant." So also is the clause in my contract enforceable due to the seeming ambiguity?

Phew! I hope that's clear, if anyone could provide some advice to help that would be much appreciated to help me understand what my right are.

Thank you for your time,

TT

https://www.gov.uk/private-renting/rent-increases

https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/private_renting/rent_increases

Thank you for your reply, the thing I'm not sure about though is around the specific wording of the contract. In the first link it says: -

"If the tenancy agreement lays down a procedure for increasing rent, your landlord must stick to this".

Now there is a procedure for increasing rent in the contract, but it says: -

"The Landlord may increase the Rent for the Property upon providing to the Tenant such notice as required by the Act."

So my question is how long does the Housing Act of 1988 stipulate for this as a notice period? It seems to be rather ambiguous as there are a number of notice periods outlined in the act (see my example in the my initial post above) across a number of sections - which one applies here?

Thank you for your help,

TT