Questions from a protected tenant regarding a property move

This is a question to the blog clinic from Nigel whose mother is a protected tenant

My mother has been in a rented property for 38 years, it is a 4 bedroom detached house, sadly my father died a couple of years ago and she would like to move. Her landlords are offering her a 2 bedroom bungalow very close by. I have a few questions in relation to this:-

• What rights does she have as a long term tenant in relation to rent increases?
• Would these rights transfer to the new property?
• The move is beneficial to the landlord as I believe she is paying rent which is well below the market value, could she request any sort of compensation for moving into a smaller property?

Can you direct me to a site where I can read up about this.

If your Mother moved into this property in about 1974 then she will be a protected tenant with long term security of tenure.  If she is going to move she needs to make very sure that the landlord really is the same landlord, otherwise she will lost her protection. However assuming the landlord is the same then:

• You Mother as a protected tenant is entitled to have a fair rent.  Under regulations this cannot be increased by more than about 10% at every rent review.
• However if she moves to a new property the Rent Officers will calculate it afresh without the 10% increase cap, so your Mother may find the rent is more than she thinks.
• She may be able to negotiate some payment for moving into a smaller property but it is not something she is entitled to as of right.  However if as you say the move is advantageous to the landlord he may be willing to pay something.

So far as reading up on this, I have a certain amount of Rent Act guidance on my Landlord Law site. but there is a (modest) fee for using it.  You may also find some open access guidance on the Shelter website.