John HW Anderson v Igors Kokins & Anor
[2024] UKUT 91 (LC)
Salvation Army Housing Association v Philip Kelleway
21 February 2024
[2024] UKUT 53 (LC)
Upper Tribunal
A landlord tried to raise rent using the wrong method. The court said the landlord had a clause in the agreement that let them increase rent, and that was the right way to do it. So the court let the landlord do that instead.
Key Facts
- •Appeal against the First-tier Tribunal's (FTT) reasoning, not its decision.
- •Dispute concerns rent increase for an assured tenancy.
- •Tenancy agreement contained a typographical error describing the tenancy as both assured shorthold and assured non-shorthold.
- •Landlord served a section 13 notice, but the FTT struck it out due to a procedural defect.
- •The FTT incorrectly held the tenancy to be a statutory periodic tenancy.
Legal Principles
Definition of assured tenancy and assured shorthold tenancy under the Housing Act 1988.
Housing Act 1988
Exceptions to assured shorthold tenancy status (Schedule 2A, paragraph 3).
Housing Act 1988, Schedule 2A, paragraph 3
Rent increase procedures for assured periodic tenancies under sections 13 and 14 of the Housing Act 1988.
Housing Act 1988, sections 13, 14
Rent increase provisions in a fixed-term assured tenancy do not apply during a subsequent statutory tenancy.
London District Properties Management Limited v Goolamy [2009] EWHC 1367 (Admin)
Right of appeal to the Upper Tribunal on points of law (Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, section 11).
Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, section 11
Definition of a periodic tenancy.
Prudential Assurance Co Ltd v London Residuary Body [1992] 2 AC 386
Outcomes
The FTT's reasoning was set aside, but its decision to strike out the reference was upheld.
The FTT incorrectly determined the tenancy to be statutory. The tenancy was an assured periodic tenancy with a contractual rent increase provision, removing the need for section 13 procedure.
The landlord is free to increase the rent according to the contractual provisions in the tenancy agreement.
The tenancy agreement, despite a typographical error, established a monthly periodic assured tenancy with a rent increase clause (clause 1.6).