Rent increase in house share

Kevo

Hi everyone,
I'm currently renting in a 4 bed house share in Dublin. Two of us are on the lease which recently expired. After the lease expired we continued to pay rent for two months. Then two people ( the ones on the old lease) decided to move out.

Two of us are left and we were never explicitly mentioned on the lease but we continue to pay rent.Last month we were sent a new lease, which myself and the other tenant that isn't leaving signed. This included a 4% rent increase which we have paid once so far (this months rent).
I have been living here for 6 months while the other tenant has been here for over a year.


Now we have been told that the landlord doesn't have time to manage the house so we are being handed over to a letting agency.

The agency claims that as we were never on the original ease, they can increase the rent beyond the 4% limit. They also claim the new lease is invalid as it may include the names of one of the housemates that is leaving. Is this true?

We are looking at a 20% rent increase as they a treating this as a brand new tenancy.

So I have two questions:
Is the new lease invalid?
If it is in fact a brand new tenancy, can the rent go up more than 4%?

Any advice appreciated.
Thanks

srsly78

Nope the rent is tied to the property, not the tenant. Even if they get new tenants they are still stuck with 4%.

gizmo81

No it's not allowed.

Open a free dispute with the RTB and report the estate agent to www.psr.ie if they are registered.

surrender monkey

Should there not be a 90 day notice for a rent increase before it takes effect? Maybe someone more knowledgeable can clarify? Have you been living there longer than 6 months op?

gizmo81

The Residential Tenancies Act prohibits the landlord from setting a rent that is in excess of market rent. If a landlord intends reviewing the rent, they must inform you, in writing, of any review in rent, a minimum of 90 days before the new revised rent is due to take effect.

https://www.rtb.ie/rent-pressure-zones/rent-reviews

surrender monkey

So the 4% increase is invalid as there was no 90day notice as is the proposed new rent from the management agent!. I suppose the op could point this out to the new agent and if they don't get any satisfaction there then opens case with the RTB?

gizmo81

From what i understand from the OP they received a rent increase and immediately paid that increase. A valid notice of rent review requires information regarding dates, how it was calculated and importantly how it can be disputed. Templates are on the RTB site.

The behaviour of the new agent sounds improper and I'd be referring a dispute for free immediately.

Giblet

You don't actually have to sign a lease either, you have Part 4 Tenancy.

Kevo

Thanks for the replies everyone.

We were not given the 90 days notice however as we all believed that 4% was a reasonable increase (the rent hasn't been increased in several years) we decided that we would pay it regardless and sign the lease.

The letting agen is now looking to increase the rent by 20% of the previous rent value by pretending that the existing lease is invalid.


I have got some updates. One of the tenants on the lease has given me the most recent lease which was signed in May 2015. So since, May 2016 we haven't had a written lease. I wasn't aware of this until now. Does this change anything?

What does it mean when you say part 4 tenancy? I understand from googling tht after 6 months you get some additional rights. Does this apply in a house share where people are coming and going every year or so?


Also, the letting agent is requesting references from work and landlords, despite the fact that we have been living here for quite some time.

My apologies for all the questions - I haven't had this issue before.

Thanks again,
Kevin

gizmo81

You don't have to sign a lease after six months

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/housing/renting_a_home/types_of_tenancy.html

From what i can understand from your posts you have had two rent increases in a short period of time. This is not allowed. Whether the landlord or an agent is dealing with the lease they cannot increase the rent because of a change in representative.

Is it a national company? An independent company? An individual?

Kevo

It's a company though I imagine that they don't have all of the information as we didn't know much about the previous lease when we were on the phone. Hopefully we can inform them of the existing lease and the previous lease details and get this fixed up.

It seems that the letting agent is chancing their arm by saying the previous agreement is invalid and thus the rent was not actually increased. We have all the relevant payment history and signed lease so we should be ok to continue with just the 4% increase.

I'll be calling them tomorrow to make this clear. Many thanks for the advice. I'll post updates when we know more.
Thanks,
Kevin

gizmo81

I'd advise an email over a call.

Kevo

Yeah, I'm thinking of writing an email so I have the response in writing. It's possible that this is just a misunderstanding/miscommunication given that we have only been in contact once so may try a call first.

The_Conductor

gizmo81 wrote: »

I'd advise an email over a call.

Keep everything in writing- it saves on people having their own recollections of what was said and there is no element of hearsay associated with it.

Fian

This letting agent is pretty out of order.

You don't need to worry about having a lease - you have a part IV tenancy. The suggestion that the RPZ controls do not apply is pure nonsense.

The last rent increase was invalid since you did not get the required notice.

They cannot increase again until 12 months after a valid rent review - and then by a maximum of 4% per annum.

The first rent review is 2% per annum, at least 2 years after the last rent increase/commencement of tenancy and 90 days notice to run after that 2 years has expired.