Hi Guys,

I'm looking for info or advice.

In 2006 I was tupeed, I still have my original contract for reference, I also have a tenancy agreement that stated I needed to reside on site to perform my duties. My rent for the property would be based on a percentage of my basic salary.

When my new employer updated staff contracts in 2010, they didn't update or renew the original tenancy agreement, but they took a copy for their reference, my rent went up 3 times between 2011 & 2017 being deducted directly from my wages by the payroll office.

All three increases have been at a much higher percentage than the original agreement states. I have since discovered that a colleague that has now left, that held the same role and conditions, disputed the payments and only had one rent increase in line with his basic salary.

What I am trying to find out is should I receive a refund of the paid amount over the set percentage, if so, could I expect to claim interest on the over payment.

My current employer has never updated or renewed my tenancy agreement, only sent a letter each time stating the rent would be increasing.

I would be most grateful for opinions on this.

So posters are aware of what Tuped means

https://www.gov.uk/transfers-takeovers

Regards

Andy

Sorry - you should have disputed this at the time. TUPE protects the terms of an employee at the point of transfer. It is a fallacy that nothing can ever change thereafter. In your case they changed the rent. Perhaps they shouldn't have, but they did - and you accepted this and paid the agreed amount. Passing it is agreement to it. You didn't dispute the rent. So I can see no grounds for you to claim TUPE in retrospect simply because you have now noticed that the rent was increased more than what was in your original contract.

I don't see that you would have a valid claim in law- but you might ask. And if you want to take it further I think only legal advice would do, which is unlikely to be free. I don't suppose you are in a union?

The tenancy agreement was never amended or updated by my new employer, they copied the original for reference, but I have a letter from the then HR team leader that states the percentage of my salary to be paid for rent. Nothing to do with the TUPE and my new working contract. The new amounts were deducted from my wages. This refers only to the tenancy agreement, the other details were just background info.

They told you what the new rent was, didn't they? And you paid it? That seemed to be what you were saying. That would constitute notice of a change ("here's your new rent amount") and agreement ("here's the rent"). You didn't dispute the amount. They didn't surely put up the rent without telling you it was going up? Your colleague must have been told, otherwise how could he have disputed it.

The issue here is that your are relying on a term that appears to have been legally varied without any dispute from you. And seven years later you area now disputing it, and that's too late. After seven years it really now is the contractual term - unless you can claim it isn't. And that's not going to be easy, hence the need to be clear and get legal advice if you want to dispute this.