Tenancy agreement question

viktory

Hi

Got a quick question about renting. My daughter has been offered the opportunity to rent a room in a house share. Thing is, the landlord has said she has to sign a contract stating that she agrees to live in the room for a minimum of one year. If she moves out, she will still owe the remainder of the years rent. This sounds all wrong to me. Is this standard practice or is the landlord (as suspected) pulling a fast one?

At 19 years old my daughter is desperate to move out of where she is currently living (not at home) and I want to stop her making a potentially expensive mistake.

She has also been told she will have to split the bills with the other tenants, now this is fair enough, but how does she find out what her share of the bills is? What if the other tenants refuse to pay?

Any advice gratefully received.

pcwilkins

viktory wrote: »

Got a quick question about renting. My daughter has been offered the opportunity to rent a room in a house share. Thing is, the landlord has said she has to sign a contract stating that she agrees to live in the room for a minimum of one year. If she moves out, she will still owe the remainder of the years rent. This sounds all wrong to me. Is this standard practice or is the landlord (as suspected) pulling a fast one?

Of course it is alright. You agree to rent the room for a year. Having said that, if you want to move out after 6 months and can find a replacement for you who is acceptable to the LL, then usually the LL will simply make the switch and let you off the remaining six months. Also if you do move out early the LL has a responsibility to try and fill the room and if he does then you will not be charged for the remainder of the contract.

It's a standard fixed term contract just like for a mobile phone or leasing a car. The LL will have to credit check and reference your daughter and this costs money --- if she only stays for a week then the LL may not recover these costs.

At 19 years old my daughter is desperate to move out of where she is currently living (not at home) and I want to stop her making a potentially expensive mistake.

If she wants to rent she will have to sign up for a minimum period. It's usually six months but twelve is not unusual.

She has also been told she will have to split the bills with the other tenants, now this is fair enough, but how does she find out what her share of the bills is?

Take bill, divide by the number of people in house.

What if the other tenants refuse to pay?

Then they are probably in breach of the agreement. That would be the LL's problem, not your daughters. Having said that she needs to make sure she can trust her co-tenants.

Peter

thesaint

What if the other tenants refuse to pay?

pcwilkins wrote: »

Then they are probably in breach of the agreement. That would be the LL's problem, not your daughters. Having said that she needs to make sure she can trust her co-tenants.

Peter

I agree with the rest of your post, but this one is not correct.

If the bill has the OP's daughters name on it, the landlord would not be too bothered, she would be the one chased and taken to court for payment.

pcwilkins

Sorry, yes, you are right --- I was assuming that LL would receive bills and take contributions from tenants.

If bills are addressed to the tenants then they need to sort out between themselves who pays what. Best to have a written agreement I would think. If one refuses to pay, they are all still jointly responsible for the whole bill and could all end up in court.

Thanks for clarifying

Peter

scrummy_mummy_2

On the assumption the rental to which the OP refers is of an entire property which is let out on an Assured Shorthold tenancy to a number of individuals all of whom are individually named on the tenancy agreement......all of those named on the agreement are legally (what is termed jointly and severally liable) for bills. This means if one (or more) of them defaults, the others are liable (and agree to) pick up that share of the bill. It doesn't matter whose name the actual account is held in, and whose name thus appears on the utility bill...if one refuses/cannot pay their share, the remaining tenants are each equally and jointly liable for the others' non payment. This joint and several liability is an inherent term of signing a many party/person AST.

However...if your daughter's name is on the account...it would be her the utility company would take to court for non payment of the account, and her who got the CCJ!...she would then either have to counter sure all of the other tenants for any unpaid monies! or name tham as fellow respondents in the original matter.

viktory

Thank you, one and all. The above information was very helpful.

lynzpower

pcwilkins wrote: »

Sorry, yes, you are right --- I was assuming that LL would receive bills and take contributions from tenants.

If bills are addressed to the tenants then they need to sort out between themselves who pays what. Best to have a written agreement I would think. If one refuses to pay, they are all still jointly responsible for the whole bill and could all end up in court.

Thanks for clarifying

Peter

Only if the bills are in all the tenants names.

I had the gas, one of my mates had electric, someone else had the phone. we are all suposed to pay each other for shares, but if someone didnt, then tough luck ,your names on the bill thats who the provider will come to and you have zero recourse to getting the money back off the other people you share with.