Here is a question to the blog clinic from Ian (not his real name) :
We have been living with my aunt who has is a protected tenant but has sadly passed away.
We would like to take over the tenancy and have been there for eighteen months but the landlord says we have no rights as we need to be there for two years and even if we took it over it would revert back to an assured tenancy and he will put the rent up to market value. What rights do we have?
I am sorry Ian but you do not have any rights as regards the protected tenancy. The landlord is correct.
To acquire a tenancy by succession from a protected tenancy as a family member you need to have lived at the property for a minimum period of two years before the death of the protected tenant.
Nowadays only the spouse of the tenant will take over as a new protected tenant. Family members will, as the landlord says, acquire an assured tenancy. Where the landlord does have the right to increase the rent to a market rent using the statutory notice procedure.
However you may be entitled to be re-housed by the Local Authority under their statutory rehousing obligations if you meet the criteria of ‘priority need’ which you can read about >> here.
If this is the case, it is important that you do not move out, and that you contact the Local Authority homelessness officer asap and follow his advice.
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If YOU have a problem, why not put it to the blog clinic? However there are a lot of questions submitted, so if you need an answer quickly remember that members of my Landlord Law service can ask me questions in the members forum area, and will normally get an answer with 24 hours.
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