Assured Shorthold Tenancies Operate On ‘market Rents’
For more than a decade, control of rents has been a fairly hands off affair for officialdom. How much you’re being asked to pay will usually be a combination of the local conditions, the state of the property and, of course, the price of local property versus how much you can afford to pay.
This is known as a ‘market rent’ (as opposed to the old strictly controlled ‘fair rents’ that – believe it or not – still apply to very old tenancies). Most of us should welcome this. ‘Fair rents’ contributed to the sharp decline in property to rent, whereas ‘market rents’ have
encouraged a growth in supply, generating far more choice and availability. This is good news for tenants, but it has set costs spiralling.
Rent Assessment Committees
There are still some very limited facilities, which tenants can use, but only in situations where they really believe that the rent they are being charged is basically outrageous –
way beyond other similar units ing their area. The Rent Assessment Committee (RAC) exists to exert some limited influence on totally excessive rent levels; but tenants should be very wary about making an application. Rent levels are often raised by this committee as well as reduced.
If you genuinely feel that the rent you are being charged is totally out of line with others in the same area, you can obtain details from your Citizens’ Advice Bureau about where your local RAC is. Check thoroughly before you make an application. All RACs keep a public record of their decisions, which you can examine. If the difference is marginal they are unlikely to intervene, and you are likely to have irritated your landlord for no good reason. Don’t expect a lease to run long with an agitated landlord.
Far better than taking on a property which you think is unreasonably priced, or worse still, one that you are going to have difficulty managing to pay for, is to look carefully at what is on offer in the area you need to live in, and rent something which you
can afford.
Understanding Your ‘fixed Term’
I know it sounds like boring technical stuff, but every modern tenant needs to
really understand the principal of fixed terms. This is the original duration of your lease written onto your assured shorthold lease. This fixed term is vitally important and is explained in more detail in Lesson 8.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that all tenancies end on the dot of their fixed term by any stretch. Many run on for years, with or without much alteration in terms. Nor does it mean that a landlord/agent can simply put you onto the street on the day the fixed term expires – there are legal processes that need to be used to evict
any assured shorthold tenant. However it does mean that, once these fixed terms come to an end, any landlord has a legal right to insist on having their property vacated (this legal process is explained in Lesson 12). Control of how long you remain reverts absolutely to your landlord once your fixed term ends and that decision will almost always depend on your conduct as a tenant. However, they don’t need
any legal reason whatever to ask you to leave after that.
During your initial fixed term, you do enjoy a degree of security – in other words, you’d have to be breaching a significant element(s) of your lease – like not paying rent or causing damage – before any court would agree to terminate your contract during the initial, relatively secure, fixed term. In return for this limited security, you become liable for rent during the
entire fixed term. The longer the fixed term, the longer your security
and your liability for the rent (with some safeguards, explained later).