Rent increase's

[Growing4twins]

Hi everyone,  I was just wondering if anyone knows the rules & regulations about rent increase's.  On my allotment site the secretary is increasing the rent this year by £3.  It's not an increase from the council, its down to the association.  Are they allowed to do this without giving notice??  Can somebody shed some light on the subject for me??   

[Growing4twins]

[Flighty]

Do you pay your rent to the association or the council? I would suggest that you contact whoever and ask if it's in the rules and regulations.  Do you have a copy of them?
I would also have thought that you should be given notice of any such proposed increase in writing.

[Growing4twins]

Last year i payed to the council, but we can pay to the associatiion.  I would have thought we should have been given some notice.  Either in writing or a notice in the allotment.  I think im gonna give the council a call.

[saddad]

We are "private" and any rent increases have to be agreed at the AGM previous, so the £3 that we increased for Oct 2009 was agreed at AGM in Nov 2008...

[reddyreddy]

our allotments are run by a charity, they are increasing from £12 to £25 next year but we've been given a years notice!

[cornykev]

As Saddad said, any rise would have been agreed at the AGM 08.    :-\     ;D ;D ;D

[Unwashed]

What does your tenancy agreement say about increasing the rent?  If there isn't a term to allow the rent to be increased then the landlord can't increase it at all.

Whatever your tenancy agreement says, the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contract Regulations 1999 require your landlord to give you 12 month's notice of any increase, and unless the contract provides an objective formula for arriving at an increase your landlord isn't allowed to increase your rent by more than CPI, which is what, 1% or so at the moment?  The landlord certainly can't just decide for herself how much she wants to increase the rent by.

Your landlord might respond positively if you tell her the above, but then again she might not.  You can always make a complaint to Trading Standards and they'll put your landlord right.

If your site is a statutory allotment site (that is, it was acquired by the council to use as an allotment site) then the Allotments Acts apply and you have a right to pay quarterly if you want to, and your tenancy agreement should tell you that.

[Growing4twins]

Well i had an interesting conversation with Birmingham city council yesterday about the rent increase.  Apparently they have no power wot so ever as far as rent is concerned.  If the association wanted to they could trebble the rent.  Its not the fact that the rent has gone up, its just the way they have done it.  If they had given some notice then ie last years meeting then there wouldnt be such a fuss over it.

Thanks for that info unwashed, im gonna have to did out my tennancy agreement & have a look, paying quarterly would be great!

[kt.]

You are entitled to 12 weeks notice.  Our council put up the lottie rents this year but because they had failed to give the 12wks notice,  they did not collect the rent money until 12 weeks past the due date.....

Our rent is governed by the town council.  It is discussed then voted on at one of the the 3 meetings.  We voted against any increase.

Ask why the rent is going up.  Have you overspent your budget this year?  If not then why the increase?

[Unwashed]

Hi ktlawson

Can you say why it's 12 weeks notice?  Is this what's in your tenancy agreement or is that your understanding of the legal position. 

As I understand it a rent increase can only be by agreement, and if you don't agree it ends the tenancy, so that means you need to be given enough notice of a rent increase for you to give your notice that you're giving up the plot.  Mostly the tenancy agreement will require you to give 12 months notice (though in practice nobody does), so that's where my figure of 12 months comes from - so that's not exactly right, it depends on the tenancy agreement.  Do you figure it otherwise?

[kt.]

Can you say why it's 12 weeks notice?  Is this what's in your tenancy agreement or is that your understanding of the legal position. 

The council voted to increase the rent by 10% when rents were due a month after the meeting.   I am going off what the town council were briefed by their superiors / legal department when they put it forward to be rubber-stamped.  I am the allotment supervisor and work on behalf of the town council on allotment matters.  That is how I got to know about it.

On a slightly different note but similar stance - my wife was previously made redundant with 1 weeks notice.  We took the company to court and our solicitor advised the defence that they legally had to give 12 weeks notice.  This was a major factor that was upheld and assisted  us winning the case.

[Unwashed]

Ah, right.  I think that's pretty usual, but it's not enforceable.  Councils can't just decide for themselves how much they want to increase the rent by because that isn't fair, and they need to give the required notice otherwise that isn't fair either.  It's a consequence of the tenancy agreement being a consumer contract covered by the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contract Regulations 1999, and although it's 10 years old, it doesn't seem that many councils know about it.