joint tennancy what can i do?

legohouse123

hi there

my housemate and i signed and moved into a property the beggining of december.

we have had a few problems with the property and he has moved out.

we are both jointly liable for the rent.

he hasnt paid for this month and the bill was suppost to come out yesterday.

i havent heard from him at all.

i had previosuly asked the la to ask to ll if we could quit he said two options:

1 find a replacement tennant and pay about £400 in charges and empty the house and move back in the next day

2 continue to pay the rent until aug 12 and move out the 1/08/12


1 is no good as noone will be able to share with me as the property is mouldy the celing leaks and its generally grim noway could i advertise the room for half of the rent. i dont have the £400 for the charges to cover my mate moving out


2 i my wages dont even cover the full rent each month! let alone car pertol bills food clothes

what can i do?

should i offer the ll all of our deposit for an early surrender of the propety which would cover 1 months rent and the charges to cover the reletting fees.

also who would get chased for the payment if i was to just leave? bearing in mind they know what i earn?

thanks

BitterAndTwisted

It's not you who should be paying the reletting fees, it's your absconding ex-house-mate! Where have they gone? Both you and the house-mate are jointly liable for the whole of the rent until the end of the fixed-term or until the landlord accepts an early surrender.

Nice mate! Know where he's gone? Know his parents?

Your plan to negotiate a surrender and for the landlord/agent to take the deposit might work. You need to speak to them asap.

If you just leave they could pursue either of you or both of you. They will take to court whichever of you is easiest to find.

legohouse123

It's not you who should be paying the reletting fees, it's your absconding ex-house-mate! Where have they gone? Both you and the house-mate are jointly liable for the whole of the rent until the end of the fixed-term or until the landlord accepts an early surrender.

Nice mate! Know where he's gone? Know his parents?

Your plan to negotiate a surrender and for the landlord/agent to take the deposit might work. You need to speak to them asap.

If you just leave they could pursue either of you or both of you. They will take to court whichever of you is easiest to find.

i know it shouldnt be down to me but i feel it is quite a good bargening tool to the ll?

i think he has gone back to the parents, yes i know his parents but they have been abusive to me in the past

basically if they dont have my current work adress and i dont leave a forwarding adress they wont be able to find me? thats if worst comes to worst.

so the contract is for 12 months with a 8months break so aug so we are liable until that date or whenever the ll will agree too?

for the ll wont it cost them a load to try to find us and take us to court?

surely if i am saying to them take the whole deposit so £900 which would cover a months rent and the money to pay the reletting fees they would just go for this?

thank you b&t for your advice

Ulfar

Did the house leave because of the state of the property ?

You are both jointly liable so they will chase both of you. If you leave you will still be liable for rent until the property is re-let or the end of your fixed term period.

The reason I asked about the state of the property is because it will have an impact on how quickly they can re-let.

If you were to leave and not pay rent and the LA/LL would be able to take you to court. More detailed information on why the house mate left might give posters more avenues of advice.

If the property is uninhabitable then that may be able to be used in court to lower any award against you, but the property would have to be in a really bad state.

legohouse123

Ulfar wrote: »

Did the house leave because of the state of the property ?

You are both jointly liable so they will chase both of you. If you leave you will still be liable for rent until the property is re-let or the end of your fixed term period.

The reason I asked about the state of the property is because it will have an impact on how quickly they can re-let.

If you were to leave and not pay rent and the LA/LL would be able to take you to court. More detailed information on why the house mate left might give posters more avenues of advice.

If the property is uninhabitable then that may be able to be used in court to lower any award against you, but the property would have to be in a really bad state.

my exhousemate isnt even talking to me so im not too sure really. he just upped and left in the morning and took all his stuff no text no note nothing :S

the house is in a bad state but only the my bedroom the kitchen and lounge his room is fine mine has a dripping celing and a rotting crittle window which is constantly pouring water straight on to the floor by the elecrtic radiator. i dont honestly think it is unlivable.

thank you for clarifing about taking us to court that is something i really dont want or need lol! i think that coming to an agreement with the ll is going to be the best way to get this solved?

what would you offer as a solution?

thank you

Annisele

legohouse123 wrote: »

i know it shouldnt be down to me but i feel it is quite a good bargening tool to the ll?

You might want to be careful about how you express that thought to your LL. If you effectively say "I can't afford to uphold my end of this contract, so I'm not going to, so you should be grateful for the little I do give you" your LL might not be too chuffed.

If you do everything you can to help ensure the place gets relet and the LL isn't out of pocket, LL is likely to be much more willing to talk.

basically if they dont have my current work adress and i dont leave a forwarding adress they wont be able to find me? thats if worst comes to worst.

I wouldn't bet on that! If the LL did a halfway decent job of taking up references a month ago, you won't be too hard to find now.

so the contract is for 12 months with a 8months break so aug so we are liable until that date or whenever the ll will agree too?

Yep. But break clauses are often tricky, and need notice to be given at exactly the right time - be sure that you really do have a break at 8 months.

for the ll wont it cost them a load to try to find us and take us to court?

Maybe - but if he thinks that one or both of you has the money, he might choose to go after you.

surely if i am saying to them take the whole deposit so £900 which would cover a months rent and the money to pay the reletting fees they would just go for this?

Not necessarily. If you don't think anybody else would take the flat, then his choices are:

• Hold you to your contract - and (try to) get another 11 months rent out of you; or
• Allow you to leave for the price of your deposit plus a month's rent - then risk having the place sat empty for the next 11 months earning no rent at all.

You can certainly explain your predicament to the LL, and ask to be released early. If the LL thinks the flat can be relet easily, he'd probably rather relet it than have the hassle of chasing you for rent that you can't afford. On the other hand, if it's going to be very hard to relet he's more likely to want to keep you.

legohouse123

Annisele wrote: »

You might want to be careful about how you express that thought to your LL. If you effectively say "I can't afford to uphold my end of this contract, so I'm not going to, so you should be grateful for the little I do give you" your LL might not be too chuffed.

If you do everything you can to help ensure the place gets relet and the LL isn't out of pocket, LL is likely to be much more willing to talk.



I wouldn't bet on that! If the LL did a halfway decent job of taking up references a month ago, you won't be too hard to find now.



Yep. But break clauses are often tricky, and need notice to be given at exactly the right time - be sure that you really do have a break at 8 months.



Maybe - but if he thinks that one or both of you has the money, he might choose to go after you.





Not necessarily. If you don't think anybody else would take the flat, then his choices are:

• Hold you to your contract - and (try to) get another 11 months rent out of you; or
• Allow you to leave for the price of your deposit plus a month's rent - then risk having the place sat empty for the next 11 months earning no rent at all.

You can certainly explain your predicament to the LL, and ask to be released early. If the LL thinks the flat can be relet easily, he'd probably rather relet it than have the hassle of chasing you for rent that you can't afford. On the other hand, if it's going to be very hard to relet he's more likely to want to keep you.

sorry i dont mean to confuse you but with someone else taking on the flat i ment with me in place of my exhousemate.

with regards to referances they did this in october and i got made redundant in dec (shop closer) so i have now got myself a new job.

my main issue is that for the rent of jan i dont have the £600 i have £300. what would the ll actually do? i am happy to move out and forfit the deposit but as i have read on other posts he would have to issue a s21 or a s8 depending on the situation we find our selfs in.

if i continue to pay my share of the rent so £300 will the ll chase my exhousemate for the rent?

if i uphold my part of the contract so £300 rent for the next 8 months (until break) what could the ll do?

if it went to court and the ll tried to sue me could i show that i have paid my half of the rent each month and he wouldnt have any claim against me?

i think when speak to the la i will email so this way i can think about what is said before i put it like your above comment.

i honestly dont think it is fair on the ll but if he is going to try to keep me in a contract where i physically dont have enough money to cover the rent each month surely he would be stupid to do that and the court would see that i have tried to pay my way? my wages are £520 per month and the rent alone is £600 that not incuding bills c tax car petrol food ect.

also would it help to say before we got the tenancy i asked if we could be contracted as tennents in common as this is the way our deposit was done and the la said no?

thank you

Annisele

legohouse123 wrote: »

my main issue is that for the rent of jan i dont have the £600 i have £300. what would the ll actually do?

To begin with, chances are he'll just say "uh, rent's short, when am I getting the rest of it?". He can't even start trying to evict you for a while (I can never remember the exact timescales, so I won't give you them - but if he does take court action to evict the whole process takes months rather than days).

if i continue to pay my share of the rent so £300 will the ll chase my exhousemate for the rent?

if i uphold my part of the contract so £300 rent for the next 8 months (until break) what could the ll do?

if it went to court and the ll tried to sue me could i show that i have paid my half of the rent each month and he wouldnt have any claim against me?

Unfortunately I think you misunderstand the contract that you've signed.

If you and your housemate have a joint tenancy, then you are both jointly liable for the whole of the rent. So, from the landlord's perspective, there's no such thing as "your half" and "his half" - you are both liable for all of it. The LL can choose to chase whichever one of you seems most likely to be capable of coughing up the money (which in your case may well be your friend, but the LL could still choose to take you to court if he wished).

You may well have a private arrangement with your housemate that you'll each pay half - but that's between the two of you, and nothing to do with your LL. So long as one of you pays, LL should have no need to care whose pocket the money came from.

i honestly dont think it is fair on the ll but if he is going to try to keep me in a contract where i physically dont have enough money to cover the rent each month surely he would be stupid to do that and the court would see that i have tried to pay my way? my wages are £520 per month and the rent alone is £600 that not incuding bills c tax car petrol food ect.

On those figures, I agree you can't afford the flat. Are you claiming all the benefits / working tax credit you're entitled to?

also would it help to say before we got the tenancy i asked if we could be contracted as tennents in common as this is the way our deposit was done and the la said no?

I don't think so. Sounds as though you asked if you could have individual contracts, LA said no, and so you freely chose to sign a joint one. Now you are unfortunately stuck with that joint contract thanks to your housemate.

Are you certain you won't be able to find a replacement housemate? If you can, that sounds by far the best option. I know you say the place is "generally grim", but you presumably you saw it before you signed the contracts, and you still chose to rent it. Plus it sounds as though the problems are pretty much confined to your room.

There are procedures for getting LLs to deal with disrepair, but withholding rent is (usually) not part of them - and the disrepair is a completely separate issue to your housemate swanning off.

Emmzi

I thought part of the reason your housemate moved out was becuase your partner moved in

So move your partner in properly and get them to pay half the rent, no?

girleight@

Perhaps if you let the landlord know that you have no money apart from the deposit and offer them the deal they mentioned. You could tell them that otherwise they would probably end up having to evict you as you have no way to pay the rent. Ensure they are aware how expensive this could be for them and they might take the deal?

dancingfairy

Legally you signed a contract. As said above the landlord isn't going to care 2 hoots about who pays, as long as someone does. No you shouldn't have been left in the lurch by your ex housemate but you are going to have to try and get yourself out of this mess somehow.
I suggest you start by talking/groveling to your landlord. If this fails and you are left in the house I suggest you start getting repairs enforced because this will mean a) either the house comes up to a decent livable standard (which it doesn't sound too great to be honest) in which case you can try and find a lodger and it will make your standard of living better or the landlord will perhaps be more inclined to release you from your contract early (by mutual surrender).
I think you will have to pay your 'half' of the rent and hope that the landlord goes after your ex housemate and not you and wait and see how things play themselves out (obviously writing and trying to explain the situation and see if he can help you out at all - ie releasing you from the contract etc).
df