Rented Student House outstanding bills previous tennants

amboy

quite suprised they are all on seperate agreements, are they all friends and found the house together? This allow one tenant to default and the others will not be liable so that is a bonus for you.

Lady_K

Well when she first moved in there were 3 of them just herself her friend and a lad that has been in there for the last year. Even though there are 4 available rooms they still just paid the rent for thier own room. She said she they each had thier own tenancy with just thier name on it but the landlord didnt want them to sign the tenancy until he got someone else for the last room which he has done now. He said he wanted them all to sign it together so I'm not sure if they have one each with just thier name on it then one for all of them now that he has 4 tenants. She moved in 3 weeks earlier than the tenancy agreement states but he didnt want it signing then.

Does this mean if they have a group tenancy that if one person leaves or does not pay the rent they have to foot the bill for the landlords lost rent?

amboy

Lady_K wrote:

Does this mean if they have a group tenancy that if one person leaves or does not pay the rent they have to foot the bill for the landlords lost rent?

Thats exactly what it means.

However, this is the worst case scenario and the LL if reasonable would allow another person to take the room if this arose, generally students find a house together and sign one contract, this means they are jointly liable for bills and rent and alsoprotects them by not allowing the LL to take a dislike to one person and trying to evict tha individual.

In your daughters case however, has she actually signed 2 contracts? Who is liable for bills, I would strongly advise you to not put her name on any of the utility bills.

Also I doubt the LL is going to sort her council tax exemption out, if she hasnt got her certificate yet, get her and her housemates to request a copy from the uni and contact the LA to getthe bill to zero.

Lady_K

She a student council tax letter which I used for home as this is still classed as her home and the council accepted it. It says on it that her course runs out in july 2008 so I'm pressuming she doesnt need another this year and that this will be ok to use at the student house too. I will have to ask her if the others have one, I hope so. The lad in there though is a huge problem he was there last year and has no bills in his name, at the moment he is not contributing to any bills and they have heard that all last years tenants have left because of him. He obviously has problem with debt and bad credit so they are worried about this. If he didnt get a council tax exemption would they have to pay his bit on that or anyone else in there? apparently his parents pay his rent and the bills but it seems its either lies or he fritters it away. They called his parents house and they were fine till they asked who it was calling, when they were told its was fellow tenant from thier sons house they instantly became nasty and said he was very busy and couldnt come to the phone.

My daughter has just the NTL broadband in her room in her name, they had to have it for study she is sharing it with her friend. The gas and elec arent sorted yet but they were going to have those put into all of the tenants names rather than 1. The water is in last years tenants name too at the moment till things are sorted. The tv license I suspect will also be in last years tenants name, 1 lad last year seemed to take on all of the bills in his name we think because the others had bad credit and couldnt go on

Lady_K

The tenants are liable for the gas, elec, water, council tax and tv license

Crispy_Ambulance

If students have individual contracts then they each need a tv licence if they have a tv in their own bedrooms. If they have a joint tenancy, then only one licence is needed, as jointly, they are one "tenant."

Always avoid joint tenancies - they protect nobody but the landlord. If all the other tenants move out, the landlord can legitimately claim all the rent from one or all of the tenants. Every year, student advice centres end up representing students in court who are suing each other over joint tenancies.

You can't join someone to a joint tenancy and you can't have a mixture of single and joint tenancies for the same property.

A single tenancy does not give any less protection against eviction than a joint tenancy. A landlord cannot evict a tenant without a court order - if they try it, then the tenants need to call the police as illegal eviction is a criminal offence.

amboy

yes her council tax letter will suffice at this address, however it gets a little tricky when the lad from last year is concerned.

Hopefully the LA will have him on their records and his certificate will cover him for this year Or

This is where the question of what contract they have signed is crucial, if they each have a contrct then for council tax the LL is liable for the tax and he would then collect from tennts as LA do not chase individuals in shared accommodation.

I would be tempted to say this is what your circumstances are from what you have described as you cannot really have a joint tenancy and individual one UNLESS

He has been realy clever and produced the joint contract (if one has been signed by everyone) to the LA thus they will hold the tenants lible until they can ALL prove theri exemptions, even if one person cannot prove exemption then their will be a full bill minus 25% single person discount. BUT

This is assuming the LL is being coy and I done want to unnecesarily make you more anxious.

The next serious question is how are they going to get any money out of teh guy who is already livingthere? s he is the longest standing person in the house Ihope he does not try and be clever to what he may see as younger naive students entering the property.

I appreciate that the tenants are liable for utilities but again it is crucial to state exactly wha type of tenancythey signed, for the shared accommodation units I run i always include bills as. I would not rely on each person who is recruited independently to pay their fair share

amboy

Crispy_Ambulance wrote:

If students have individual contracts then they each need a tv licence if they have a tv in their own bedrooms. If they have a joint tenancy, then only one licence is needed, as jointly, they are one "tenant."

Always avoid joint tenancies - they protect nobody but the landlord. If all the other tenants move out, the landlord can legitimately claim all the rent from one or all of the tenants. Every year, student advice centres end up representing students in court who are suing each other over joint tenancies.

You can't join someone to a joint tenancy and you can't have a mixture of single and joint tenancies for the same property.

A single tenancy does not give any less protection against eviction than a joint tenancy. A landlord cannot evict a tenant without a court order - if they try it, then the tenants need to call the police as illegal eviction is a criminal offence.

You wil be hard pressed to find LL prepared to give properties to a group of students who are all recruited jointly on a single tenancy.

Illegal eviction is for another topic, however joint tenancies do stop the LL legally evicting one individual who falls behind on their rent as the others would be expected to make the rent up. If this is a negative or Positive I guess depends from whos point of view you are looking at it from !!

Crispy_Ambulance

amboy wrote:

You wil be hard pressed to find LL prepared to give properties to a group of students who are all recruited jointly on a single tenancy.

Illegal eviction is for another topic, however joint tenancies do stop the LL legally evicting one individual who falls behind on their rent as the others would be expected to make the rent up. If this is a negative or Positive I guess depends from whos point of view you are looking at it from !!

Most student advice centres will advise students to ask for single tenancies and if the landlord refuses, they can always look elsewhere. There are lots of landlords wanting to fill properties and joint tenancies are always to be avoided.

It is much better for any tenant to be responsible for their own rent and nobody elses. A tenant has to be in at least 2 months arrears for a landlord to evict for non payment of rent - I don't see how 1 tenant being evicted has any detrimental effect on the other tenants on single contracts?

Lady_K

My daughter had to have a guarantor though to be able to move in so we just assumed if they didnt pay thier rent it would be the guarantor they would approach but things are becoming more clear now