Tenant Moving Out. HELP!

MkPaul

Hi all, basically I'm a student sharing a house with 3 other people and the other day one of them said they wanted to move out.

I'm in a bit of a worry now because I want to see how it will affect me and the other two friends sharing the house. The tenancy ends June 2014.

Will this affect myself and the other two from a financial perspective? If the person moving out finds a tenant to fill their room and pay for their rent, do we have any say? Vice versa if the landlord finds somebody else? I really don't want some random stranger moving in, surely we have some rights?

The house is all communal and there are no locks on the doors, surely we can get the landlord to put some on for us or at least allow us to? I know some landlords are a bit iffy when it comes to locks.

Lastly, we have, as a four, signed a joint tenancy agreement so surely if they move out, the three of us will have to sign a new agreement with the new tenant and can we refuse if the person is horrible?

We have no problems with a new person coming to move in providing they are nice people and it doesn't cost us any extra money.

Please advise, we're all really worried!

Knalchemist

Is it a student house, or is it just a house whereby a landlord has allowed 4 students to live in it?

Each of you are jointly responsible for the rent. So, the person leaving is still going to be responsible for their part of the rent, but so you the rest of you.

It is up to the landlord if they will allow a new person to take over the tenancy from the person moving out. This will result in a new agreement, which may incur a charge if you went through an agent.

MkPaul

It is definitely a student house. If the tenant agrees to them moving out and bringing in a new tenant, will we have any say?

ihatemyhouse

do you all have separate tenanctys or 1 between you all

MkPaul

ihatemyhouse wrote: »

do you all have separate tenanctys or 1 between you all

One between us that we have all signed.

Knalchemist

As far as the landlord goes, I doubt they would bring another person in.

You 4 have signed an agreement for £x per month, so all 4 of you are responsible for paying that amount, whether you're living there or not.

What does your tenancy agreement state?

ihatemyhouse

if that is the case, your choices are

make him pay his share
the 3 of you pay all the rent
get some one to take his place

sandsni

If it's a "student house", as opposed to a privately let house that happens to be in a university area, did you rent it through the college/university? Do they have any guidelines about changes of tenants mid-term? They must come across this scenario on a regular basis.

You will each be liable for the whole rent for the whole tenancy, and that also means your respective guarantors if you have them (pretty common for student lets). If you can afford to pay the whole rent between the three of you there's nothing to say you HAVE to get a replacement at all.

The LL will probably want to reference/credit check any replacement tenant so they will have to know what is going on.

If you don't want a replacement foisted upon you by the departing housemate or LL, then your best bet is to find someone yourselves (from your classes, societies, clubs or whatever) that the three remaining housemates agree on and who is likely to pass the LL's checks. There's a good chance other students are in a similar position of wanting to move out of their current place at this stage and are looking for somewhere.

MkPaul

Knalchemist wrote: »

As far as the landlord goes, I doubt they would bring another person in.

You 4 have signed an agreement for £x per month, so all 4 of you are responsible for paying that amount, whether you're living there or not.

What does your tenancy agreement state?

The thing is, she has contacted the landlord and has already looked around to find a new tenant. If she finds somebody who is willing to move into the house until June and pay her share, can the landlord just agree to that and bypass myself and the other 2?

Knalchemist

MkPaul wrote: »

The thing is, she has contacted the landlord and has already looked around to find a new tenant. If she finds somebody who is willing to move into the house until June and pay her share, can the landlord just agree to that and bypass myself and the other 2?

Yes I believe so.

redcard

MkPaul wrote: »

The thing is, she has contacted the landlord and has already looked around to find a new tenant. If she finds somebody who is willing to move into the house until June and pay her share, can the landlord just agree to that and bypass myself and the other 2?

Offer to up your rent to cover the 4th person. Sounds a fair compromise.