rent
Can my rent be increased in line with RPI All Items instead of RPI Rent?
<p>I got an email from my Renting Agency earlier this week saying &quot;there is a rent review clause meaning the rent increases in line with RPI. The last few months the rents have been increased significantly and the RPI is on 11.1% but the landlord asked for a 7.6% rent increase.&quot;</p>
<p>There is a clause on my contract stating &quot;It is agreed that the rent as defined in this Agreement will be reviewed on the anniversary of this Tenancy and upon each subsequent anniversary in line with the change in the Retail Prices Index (RPI) for the previous 12 months and the rent varied accordingly either by way of an upward or downward adjustment.&quot;</p>
<p>My question is, they are considering the RPI All Items which is at 11.1% but the RPI Rent is at 3.1%. Obviously, this is a very big difference, and as it is not specified in the contract which RPI is, can I fight this decision? Although there are some issues with the house and things haven't been done on the landlord part like painting the house which was stated in the agreement, we still like the location and would prefer not to move but does not seem fair to pay 7.6% on a house that needs a lot of work and not much as been done on the landlord part.</p>

<p>The relevant index is the one referred to in the lease, which boils down to a question of contract interpretation.</p>
<p>The clause in question  seems to refer to RPI-All and that at a minimum seems to be a reasonable interpretation of the lease, when it doesn't specifically mention RPI-Rent.</p>
