Tenancy Deposit

goldy1234

Hi there i was hoping someone could give me some advice on a current dillema. I am a student and i have just had information of the deposit returned. The problem i have is that one housemate has not paid any rent since december. We recieved one warning email stating that the rent for December had not been paid and this was it. He had vacated the property and transferred to another university. Rather foolishly as it now turns out we had assumed he would continue with the rent payments. Now instead of having the deposit returned this has been taken by the landlord and infact we owe £500 on top of this. When contacting this other house member he has indicated that he will not pay the rent as he appears to be in dispute with the landlord in regards the condition of the property. I believe we are in a weak position as we signed a join tenancy agreement and are all liable. Is this true and is there anyway that we can get this person to accept sole liability for the property.

BitterAndTwisted

Do you mean sole liability for their share of the arrears? If you've signed a contract acknowledging that you're all jointly responsible your only recourse is to try and get the defaulter to pay up, otherwise the rest of you will have to. Read the fine-print in your contract now. You cannot withhold rent because of lack of repairs, especially retrospectively just because it suits you.

Jowo_2

An identical dilemma was posted yesterday and the answers here also apply in your case. Basically, a joint agreements makes you all responsible - the actual defaulter is irrelevant. Look into taking the defaulting tenant to court. You can double check the position with Shelter who offer free expert advice.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1934361

Jowo_2

goldy1234 wrote: »

When contacting this other house member he has indicated that he will not pay the rent as he appears to be in dispute with the landlord in regards the condition of the property..

As per the earlier poster, the condition of the property is irrelevant to the legal obligation to pay rent. There are separate processes that are available to a tenant to seek redress for outstanding repairs during the tenancy and witholding rent is not one. If you are referring to a dispute about deductions made from the deposit for damage, the Shelter website will tell you how to dispute them.

By the way, if the property is in England and Wales, did the landlord protect your deposit in a tenancy deposit scheme and notify you which one he used?