Rent increase and no contract for 18 months?

Hi Piotr
That sounds less than ideal, however it doesn’t change your options. You can choose to stay and work with the landlord or agent to try and get your issues addressed. There are channels you can consider if your issues aren’t resolved. You may wish to consider reporting the person who carried out the EICR to their licensing body.
You can attempt to negotiate by agreeing to sign the new lease at the higher rent with the new AST start date in one month.
You can choose to give notice and move elsewhere; or you can refuse to sign the new lease and let the landlord issue you with a formal rent rise.
It’s possible that your landlord has chosen to issue a new lease to avoid waiting for the notice period. Either that or the agent has chosen to do this in which case you may find that a request for a months notice is accepted.

Firstly, I hope I speak on behalf of all responsible landlords, when I say that giving six days notice of a rent increase is both unreasonable and unacceptable.
Agents usually advise landlords to sign a new tenancy, so they can charge landlords their fee for the full contractual period if they are not providing a full management service.
Rent
– as advised above, check equivalent market rents
– if Form 13 used then no negation available, but at least one month’s notice must be given, so if you want to stay, it may be worth trying to negotiate
– if rent set using Form 13 is above market rent, tribunal will adjust down, but FTT will adjust to market in all cases so beware if new rent is still below market
Periodic Tenancy
– Statutory, as name suggests, is legally prescribed and rent is payable in arrears, also landlord will be liable for council tax from the date you leave, even if within notice period
Contractual Periodic
– specific terms will applyProperty Condition
You can raise your concerns with your local environmental health department, who are responsible for enforcing housing standards.
In the event that the EHO finds issues, they will be highlighted to your landlord and may prevent the landlord serving you a S21 no fault given possession notice
Good luck

Reply to the comment left by Rod at 12/02/2023 – 14:20Why do you say that rent is payable in arrears under a statutory periodic tenancy?
Such a tenancy arises if the tenant remains in occupation after the fixed term of a standard AST expires if a new agreement has not been signed and continues on exactly the same terms and conditions as the original tenancy, including payment of rent in advance.

Reply to the comment left by Seething Landlord at 12/02/2023 – 18:02
Quite.

Reply to the comment left by Seething Landlord at 12/02/2023 – 18:02
A statutory tenancy will apply because there is effectively no written agreement, since the original agreement failed to specify what would apply beyond the original term. As such, a new tenancy is created under the statutory provision.
Where a tenancy agreement does not specify that rent is payable in advance, the default position is that rent is payable in arrears – this is why you should always have a written agreement.

As this link highlights, by failing to have defined a contractual tenancy beyond the initial tenancy, you may also be in breach of compliance requirements if you fail to re-serve the relevant documents.

https://painsmith.co.uk/statutory-periodic-vs-contractual-periodic/

Reply to the comment left by Rod at 12/02/2023 – 18:49

I suggest that you refresh your memory by reading S5 (2) & (3) of the 1988 Housing Act.

Reply to the comment left by Seething Landlord at 12/02/2023 – 19:39Absolutely. Rent is payable in arrears unless the contract provides otherwise. A typical AST will so provide, and the payment in advance provision is continued in the new statutory periodic tenancy by s5 HA 1988.

Reply to the comment left by Julesgflawyer at 12/02/2023 – 21:33
mea culpa

The landlord does not need you to sign a new contract to increase rent.
The landlord will need to issue you a form 4 but only if your AST contains reference to the rent increase. If there is no mention then a simple message will suffice.
They can only increase after 52 weeks of the original AST start date and can only increase once per year.
The increase can only take effect on the anniversary of your payment.
If there is no mention in the ast of the limits the landlord can increase to whatever they feel however, you can request that a tribunal determine if this is fair and of the market rate – they can also increase to a higher figure so maybe do the homework first and work out if you are on a cheap rent to start with.
If you decide that a tribunal is the way to go you will need to make payment at the higher figure until the tribunal make their decision otherwise you will be in breach of contract.
Good luck and remember that the landlord also has a mortgage that could be astronomical to pay.

Reply to the comment left by Steve Penn at 13/02/2023 – 19:47
“If you decide that a tribunal is the way to go you will need to make payment at the higher figure until the tribunal make their decision.”

No. The new rent takes effect UNLESS the notice of increase is referred to the Tribunal before the specified date (s13(4)).