Bats in the belfry, windows are jammed - London flat renting, deposits & landlords

TLDR; Our flats up for renewal next month.

• Landlords agent comes to us and says 'landlord wants to increase your rent from 1390/mo to 1460/mo
  
• We reply with 'absolutely no way we are taking an increase' and referenced with links to a bunch of the resources about rents stagnating/falling in london.
  
• Agent replies with 'Your rent is very low for the area, heres all these similar flats on rightmove'
  
• Given our flat was list ed at 1570 on rightmove last year and it was there for ages, and we eventually got it for 1390, we reply with 'we dont believe rightmove is an accurate resource'
  
  

So our latest reply is:

I have gone to the landlord with your comments and have put your request for the same rent.

The landlord has said the lowest he will go is £1420pcm and that’s the final offer.

Please let me know if you wish to proceed and I will send your contracts out to you in due course.

Do i stick to my guns? Im 100% not moving out. Can we just.. not do anything? What do??

take the risk (be in a position to move) and call the bluff I'd say. If you are right he'd struggle to get new tenants at that rate plus its more money/resource on his side.

I literally cant move.
Renewal is 4th of Nov, im in the US from October 27th - December 12th

Can we just.. not do anything?

They can evict you at the end of the contract. Not worth the hassle for £30 a month I'd imagine. Bear in mind that if you don't have a contract in place they can evict you quickly and reasonably easily. But you can just not sign a contract until the landlord either agrees with you or evicts you.

You can negotiate further on the duration of the contract. So suck up the £30 PCM but have the contract 2 years. If you want to live there that is.

Are you good tenants? If so, I'd be keen to remind the LL that you don't cause any hassle. Better the devil they know.

Where is your flat?

Yeah we've been totally fine, not really asked for anything other than a broken extractor fan to be fixed.

Its in balham.

Yeah, so I would

• agree to the £30PCM but get something else you want, i.e. a longer contract at that rate, or
  
• say no to the £30PCM and say 'look, we are good tenants, we cause you no trouble, you get regular income, it will take you ages to get the back the cost of new tenants at market rates', or
  
• do nothing, call their bluff, bear in mind they can evict you with eight weeks so notice once the contract expires.
  
  

Also, do you know the landlord personally? Tell them to sack the agent :)

◦Agent replies with 'Your rent is very low for the area, here's all these similar flats on rightmove'

Are the flats they're referring to Let out, or currently advertised to let?

You can also take it to arbitration if you wish.
Either to get a fair rent or just to bluff the LL.
I find it's often the agent who's telling the Landlord they can squeeze more out of their tenants, obviously it benefits them too.
The best relationships I've ever had were directly with the landlords after they ditched the agents. If you can get hold of the LL yourself ask for a two year contract directly with them at current ppcm and they'll be benefiting by up to 10% of the rent just by binning the agent. All depends if you want to stay.

Don't forget the agents will probably want another fee on top (from both tenants and the LL) to draw up new contracts...

a mix.. but the price on rightmove never reflects what actually got set in the contract. Our flat says 'let' at over £200 a month more than we actually pay.

Our landlord actually owns over 100 flats in my 500+ flat block.. so theres no actual 'landlord' as in one person

Exactly. If they are the agents who have let any of these flats, ask if you can see the relevant AST agreements. Probably not, because of data protection, etc, but at least it looks like you know what you're talking about.

Our landlord actually owns over 100 flats in my 500+ flat block..

Oh. Well there's a thing.

Might not care if they just evict you then. Depends how their numbers stack up.

My recommendation would be to agree to the increase on proviso that contract is 2 / 3 year.

@pikfo

So you think this would be a useless email?

'Final offer' is disappointing language, I'd to know what the justification for a rental increase is? We haven't asked for any additional work to be done and have paid on time every month.

You mention 'We are also achieving considerably higher in the block for other 2 beds.'

Can I see some recently dated AST agreements proving this?

Yeah that's a waste of time.

Tell them what you want. They don't have to show you anything, and they probably won't. And frankly what other people are dumb enough to agree to has no bearing on this negotiation. They'll just dig out the most expensive / stupidest tenant.

If you want to really push them, then I'd go with:

'Our current rent is fair and affordable and we've been ideal tenants. It would be disappointing to receive a Section 21 for what we feel is an unreasonable and unjustifiable rent increase. We will continue to pay the current rate and will discuss the increase no further. If you wish us to sign a new contract at the existing rate please supply me a draft. We will continue to pay the existing rent until we receive a formal notice, and then take appropriate action'

As above, wouldn't really recommend this approach, probably better to agree to the £30pcm for a longer contract and the proviso that there's no bullshit 'contract' fees. That way you get what you want, they get what they want, and hopefully dickhead agent doesn't earn a fee.

If you don't want a longer agreement then ya call their bluff.

@rogan what did you do in the end?

Have accepted rise from 1390 to 1415. On conditions of a few replaced things and its fixed for two years with a break clause after one year.

Seems all a bit of a faff for £300 but meh, thats their problem.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-41996972

Sad & curious this. No idea why the management co. would either be threatening the tenant of a what I assume is a leaseholder or even talking to the tenant directly.

The management co's interpretation of quiet enjoyment is also hilariously* incorrect. Would love to see how this would go if it got to tribunal.

Hope the tenants get clued up on their rights and make their tomentors' lives a misery.

* hilarious if it wasn't so sinister

I saw this. I currently live next door to a screaming child. they've calmed down a lot now but they used to wake up at 4-5am every morning and scream, and scream, and scream. It was utterly infuriating for me as I'm a light sleeper but I would never have complained to anyone but the parents. Where is the empathy?! I'm sure the parents are hating the lack of sleep too but these children will grow out of it.
Where are the sausages?

I lived below someone who let their toddler run round their uncarpted floor at all hours whilst screaming.

It was fucking awful. And for this reason we will move out of our top floor flat before our N+1 is a toddler because it's not fair on the poor bastards who live below us. Our walls are thick enough that crying of a newborn isn't a problem, but with older properties this isn't the case.

But anyway the tl;dr is however that they can do that and no tribunal is going to go in favour of the landlord if they seek repossession for breaking some kind of nuisance clause*.

What's wrong is young children in flats above the ground floor in new and poorly converted flats, not what children do.

* I say that like I've done some research. I haven't. But still...

No one likes the noise of crying babies. I can see how annoying it would be to be woken up or disturbed if you had a shift job etc. but have a fucking heart!

Although you never know, someone might have been complaining to have better soundproofing / similar, the the mgmt Co just thought fuck it.

the mgmt Co just thought fuck it.

They are idiots or chancers however - they have no grounds for taking action and neither does the landlord. Who might be one and the same, not that it makes any difference.

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/187325/?offset=1000

End of tenancy. Letting agent has said:

The check-out will be taking place at the property on xx/03/2018. As the tenant, you will be liable for the cost of this check-out which is charged.

Only references in our tenancy agreement that I can find are:

2.8 Any goods or personal effects belonging to the Tenant or member of the Tenant’s household which shall not have been removed from the Premises within 14 days after the expiry or sooner termination of the tenancy hereby created shall be deemed to have been abandoned and thereafter the Landlord can dispose of such goods as he deems appropriate.

2.9 In such circumstances the Tenant shall:

2.10 Pay to the Landlord damages at a rate equivalent to the rent payable for the Premises until either the Tenant or in default the Landlord shall have removed all such items from the Premises

2.11 Pay to the Landlord any additional expenses incurred by the Landlord in checking the said Inventory and Schedule of Condition which can not be finalised until all the goods belonging to the Tenant or members of his household have been removed.

And

3.63 Having replaced the landlord’s items in the same areas of the premises (as far as is practicable) as at commencement of the tenancy, to co-operate in the checking of any Inventory and or Schedule of Condition and to pay, or be liable to pay, for any previously agreed costs involved in the checking of any Inventory and or Schedule of Condition.

So, so long as we don't leave any of our stuff at the house we shouldn't be liable for any cost of moving out?

Just tell them to fuck off, they are chancing it. Money grabbing, bad suit wearing cunts.