Housemate hasn't been paying the rent - what are my rights?

Rufus_348

Hi everyone,

I'm posting this on behalf of my friend who had a bit of a nasty shock yesterday.

He moved in five months ago with acquaintances - a man and a woman - and yesterday he came home to find a solicitors letter addressed to all of them telling them that the man hadn't been paying the rent for months and that they were all jointly responsible and liable to be taken to court to recover the debt.

The man has now agreed to set up a payment plan to repay the debt so they won't have to go to court (although the man will have to move out). However, in order to repay some of the missed rent the letting agents have used the deposits of my friend and the woman.

The deposit was six weeks rent so is quite a sizeable chunk of money, the man has agreed to pay him back but obviously he's not the most responsible person in the world. My friend has a six-month tenancy so he'll be moving out soon in any case, my questions are:

1) Is it legal for the agents to use his deposit in this way (ie: does he have any legal right over the money?)
2) If not, is there anything he can do to make sure that the man pays back the deposit money?
3) Considering that the housemates moved in at different times, and their tenancies end on different dates, are they really jointly responsible?

If you've got this far down thank you so much, any help on this would be much appreciated!

Colincbayley

First things first, do they have their own tenancy agreements or is there a joint one between all of them?

Is the property in England/Wales or Scotland?

Rufus_348

It's in England and I assume that they all have different tenancy agreements because their tenancies all finish at different times.

Fire_Fox

Rufus_348 wrote: »

He moved in five months ago with acquaintances - a man and a woman - and yesterday he came home to find a solicitors letter addressed to all of them telling them that the man hadn't been paying the rent for months and that they were all jointly responsible and liable to be taken to court to recover the debt.

The man has now agreed to set up a payment plan to repay the debt so they won't have to go to court (although the man will have to move out). However, in order to repay some of the missed rent the letting agents have used the deposits of my friend and the woman.

The deposit was six weeks rent so is quite a sizeable chunk of money, the man has agreed to pay him back but obviously he's not the most responsible person in the world. My friend has a six-month tenancy so he'll be moving out soon in any case, my questions are:

1) Is it legal for the agents to use his deposit in this way (ie: does he have any legal right over the money?)
2) If not, is there anything he can do to make sure that the man pays back the deposit money?
3) Considering that the housemates moved in at different times, and their tenancies end on different dates, are they really jointly responsible?

Their deposit(s) should have been lodged in one of the three schemes, were they? If so they cannot be used against the missing rent at this stage - check the wording of the letter carefully - I would expect this to be in the future tense.

Rufus_348 wrote: »

It's in England and I assume that they all have different tenancy agreements because their tenancies all finish at different times.

We need to know for sure so please find out, we also need the date each tenancy agreement/ the last joint tenancy agreement started and if the full amount of the rent for the house is in each agreement or just each tenants share. This is key to knowing who is responsible for the rent arrears.

omen666

when did it commence> was the deposit protected?

chappers

If they genuinely have seperate contracts then ,no your friends deposit cannot be used against the other tenants rent, also as FF says the deposits should have been protected and cannot be used against rent arrears until the end of the contract.

pinkshoes

If they all have separate agreements (thus not on the same one), then they can't use your friend's deposit as rent.

Your friend should write to the EA, showing proof that he's paid his share of the rent (did they all pay individually, or did he give his money to the other people???), and ask for proof that his deposit was protected.

Or, I'm not thinking that THEY paid the deposit, and your friend paid his third of the deposit to them (as often happens when people move in at different dates)?