Legal Advice - Joint Tenancy

[deathboy]

I'm trying to gather some information for my little brother. The situation is the typical pitfall of joint tenancy contracts: one or more party decides to simply leave and refuses to pay.

My understanding is that, as much as it sucks, the landlord can hold the remaining tenants (or indeed just one of them, from what I read) responsible for any money owing.

Ryan's situation is this: one housemate left last month. This month they haven't yet filled the vacancy and have discovered that (as they were paying individually, despite being on a joint contract), the housemate had not paid last month. They also, therefore, haven't got anyone to pay this month's rent, which has just gone. This means they are out to the tune of 600 quid.

To make things even more unpleasant, one of the remaining tenants has said he too intends to leave just before christmas, back to Spain, where he has no intention of returning, or continuing any financial obligations.

This leaves Ryan and his single non-asshole housemate with numerous problems: the debt, how this could be recovered from the individual that's already left, what steps could be taken against them by the landlord, and what they should do next.

At this point, they're considering upping and leaving in the middle of the night before the next rent is due, forfeiting their deposits and hoping they're not pursued by the agency for either the debt or any compensation for the months remaining until the contract ends.

If you have any experience about the legalities or the practicalities of this situation, please let me know your opinion, it would be very much appreciated.

I'm sending him down the CAB at his earliest convenience, but I'm a little stuck on this one; in the past, I've had it happen and simply paid the deficit myself out of desperation (never live with West End actresses in dives in Wimbledon...).

Like I say, comments much appreciated.

Comments

[johnnydarke.livejournal.com]

...i'd've thought glitchdrei would be the person to talk to....

[deathboy.livejournal.com]

does she know about such things?

[johnnydarke.livejournal.com]

i was going to refer you to her recent posts....she's been going through a similar experience [i believe legal proceedings were even started], but she seems to have deleted/hidden the posts.

have a word with her; i'm sure she'll be happy to help.


OR she might be so sick of the whole topic that she rips you a new one.

worth a try, though.

[deathboy.livejournal.com]

cool, I'll have a natter, ta ;)

[echomirage.livejournal.com]

and if that fails you'll have a new one opening a whole new possability of parlor tricks and bets

yeah, what he said

[jaketherat.livejournal.com]

i'm currently working as a lettings agent (amongst other things) and i'd concur exactly with the above

except for one small detail - namely landlords (if decent sorts)are often prepared to make some arrangement towards terminating a contract before its term, although they're under no obligation to do so. it's highly unlikely that even in this case they'd get their full deposit back, but they will retain something potentially more valuable if they intend to continue renting, which is a positive (or at least neutral) reference. seriously, having none, or a bad one can make it VERY difficult to get somewhere.

oh, and most shorthold tenancies (12mth ones) have a six month break clause, although i don't think he's been there that long has he?

[tanurai.livejournal.com]

From bitter experience:

If the joint tenancy has everyone's name on it, and nothing more specific than that, you're ALL liable for the debt, regardless of who built it up. They can chase all people on the tenancy agreement for any bit of the debt. Probably in this case, your brother and the other housemate, as they'll be easiest to find.

If it has everyone's name on it, and then a breakdown of who is responsible for each share, your brother is only responsible for his share, and the skanky flatmate for his share - the landlord will have to chase the skanky one for the skanky share and so on.

If the tenancy agreement has more than one name on it, usually only one person named on it is needed to give notice for the whole agreement - i.e. if skanky housemate decided to give notice to the landlord he could, in effect, give notice for the whole place. All the rooms.

Oh, and the one who wants to move to Spain is within his rights to do so, I'm fairly sure.

Send brother down to the CAB like you were going to do. Pronto.

[sobrique.livejournal.com]

Well, IANAL, but the first step is 'read the contract'.
As I recall, a joint tenancy is usually a price for the whole house, split amongst the occupants - which means yes, sadly the landlord can persue them for the debt.

Then again, presumably the scarpering toe-rag also left his deposit behind, so the landlord may be prepared to accept that in lieu.

The second step would be to contact the landlord, fill him in on the situation, and hope he's not just an arse.

[sobrique.livejournal.com]

And I'd add persue the 'previous' in the small claims court. It's relatively easy to do.

[markeris.livejournal.com]

"I am not a lawyer" is not the best thing to use an acronym for, said the man with the puerile humour.

[zombiebrick.livejournal.com]

Been on both sides of this one, while renting one of my house mates couldn't pay his rent and ran up about 600 quid in backrent, for which, due to our joint tenancy, we all were responsible for and had to shell out 200 quid each. In theory, each person should be liable for an equal share in the debt, but if they can't find one of them, the others will prob' have to pay an increased share.

The only thing that might help is if the dissapearing housemate had someone sign a garantour (sp?) form for him, saying they would pay his share of the rent. But they'd prob' only end up paying that persons share of the debt, not the whole whack.

When we rented out our old family home for a year while me and my sister were in London we had a some people in the house who hadn't paid for about 4 months and i reckon talking to the landlord's the best bet. It's bloody expensive trying to get someone evicted for non payment of rent, and you run the risk of getting your money back (plus court fees) at a rate of £5 a week, which no one forces the ex tennant to pay. If they don't you have to pay to hire someone to sue them again, they promise to pay, the court fes are added to thier debt, and you're still getting £5 a week, and not seeing you get your cash back for fucking years.
(At least that's how the solicitor explained it to me when we were trying to get the pikey bastards to pay the rent on our house in Wolv')

[leftoftheedge.livejournal.com]

It's a longshot, but it worked for me once. If the landlord's not a total bollocks, talk to him and explain what's happened. A flatmate skipped out on me once, leaving me to cover his 300 quid backrent which I was a long way from having. The landlord wasn't enough of a decent bloke to let me off the rent, but he agreed to split it over the next year and I paid it off 25 quid a month.

Like I said, longshot, but worth a try if nothing else works.

for what its worth....

[ynl.livejournal.com]

If it's a joint tenancy then all people with their names on the lease are liable for any monies outstanding.

Only on occasions where the arrangement is a sublet is this not the case.

IIRC, In a residential tenancy agreement, you have a statutory 2 months break clause if the lease does not explicitly have one. If it goes to the courts you can claim hardships.

Unfortunately the law of the land in the UK has been designed to keep tenants *in* a property - that is to not make people homeless, and as such as somewhat baised in cases of people trying to leave.

At best without coming to an agreement with the landlord/agents, the best they can legally make out with without the landlords/agents full corporation/approval/court interference, is current outstanding and two months from next rent in full.

Point him to a CAB.

[aoakley.livejournal.com]

If the agreement says "jointly and severally" then your brother is indeed in the poop, as this phrase means that the landlord can persue one for the debts of all.

Your brother is in a sinking ship. Tell him to get out immediately.

The solution for your brother is to up and leave, this week, with no forwarding contact details, before he becomes the last person in the house. He would, of course, forfeit his deposit.

It's a shitty thing to do but it would solve his immediate problem (by handing them off to whichever sucker remains).

Lesson learned: never sign a joint agreement unless you have the means to cover everyone's failures. How I've done this in the past is to set up a joint bank account and insist that everyone else in the house pays, IN ADVANCE, as much money as is required to cover until the end of any possible required notice period.