do i have a right to a lease? ( london )

so my lease is about to run out and my landlord says "yah we prefer to wait two years to review the terms of leases, because it costs us money to do a new lease and basically the market will have risen more in two years so we can ask for a bigger hike then" (or words to that effect)... now while it's true that london rents have risen sharply in the last year, and therefore i'm fine with keeping my terms the same, i don't feel great about being on a "rolling" lease, and don't relish the prospect of a massive hike in a year's time. i sort of want to be like no, actually, we need to sign a new lease, let's do it. but maybe if they don't want to, they don't have to?

Can you not just sign an identical contract for another year or two?

i think the implication is that TH's landlord has asked him to sign a rolling contract for an indefinite period until such time as TH's l. feels he can get away with raising the rent

which is wank

landlords eh

My lease is years out of date, but then my rent's never gone up + my landlord keeps a very low profile. Still, they are the scum of the earth, for sure.

You landlord sounds alright as far as scum of the earth go.

He's one of the better ones (as SotE or landlord)... so far

Can you not just sign an identical contract for another year or two?

you'd think!

In England and Wales, most tenants do not have a right in law to a written tenancy agreement. However, social housing landlords such as local authorities and housing associations should give you a written tenancy agreement. If you are visually impaired, the tenancy agreement must be written in a format you can use, for example, in large print or Braille.

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/your_family/housing/tenancy_agreements.htm

thank you! :(

OTOH, there is no break clause or obligation on your part to give him any notice beyond one month! Assured tenancies can be DIY on the part of the landlord - they do the forms at Oyez (legal form place) so cost to him unlawyered is appx nil! DUMB LANDLORD.

Yeah I was under the impression it's actually better for the tenant not to have a set lease.

That's how mine works and it doesn't seem to be a problem. My landlord hasn't put the rent up at all since we moved in 4 years ago.

suzy otm. They still have to give you two month's notice to quit, whereas you can go with a month's notice.

Sorry for the slight subject change, but I seem to have forgotten everything I once knew about finding a flat in London. What are the options other than an estate agent? Do people use e.g. gumtree the way that Craigslist is used in the US?

We found a really nice house on Gumtree fairly easily BUT you need to search for private landlords only, there are a load of letting agencies who just have their ads on auto-refresh even though the properties have long since gone. Moveflat.com is also pretty decent.

Toby - should probably warn you in advance that finding a rented place in London is MUCH tougher that it was five or six years ago when I last looked, especially if you only go through agencies and can't react quickly. There are nowhere near as many places on the market for fairly obvious reasons, so start looking as early as possible.

We will be looking pretty much exactly 2 months out - I hope that's sufficient! Thanks for the warning, though, that's good to know. We're going to be aiming to do the whole thing pretty quickly (every flat hunt we've done in the US has taken us under 48 hours), so hopefully it works out OK.

I'm also not looking forward to finding out how much the rent has increased by since we last signed a new lease (2005, I think).

i have no interest in leaving this place, so suddenly having the option of terminating my occupancy is not useful to me. i want to stay here and hopefully keep the rent where it is.

good luck w/it toby and welcome back!

When are you guys back by the way?

September 1st is the plan. Will be around a bit in early July, too.

What does reacting quickly involve these days? Does that mean bringing a big wad of cash, or pot of gold to secure a place if we like it? Or just being prepared to sign a lease right away?

In NYC it always used to mean bring prepared to write a check for the security deposit on the spot

If you see a place you like you'll probably need to be able to stump up a holding deposit and sign a contract almost immediately just to ensure no one else gets it.

Do they oweeeee us a lease? Of COURSE THEY FOOKIN' DO!