Ex not paying rent in joint tenancy

thesaint

mrginge wrote: »

You need to mitigate her potential loss.

Poppie68 wrote: »

You stand a good chance of losing in court if you haven't made steps to mitigate your losses ie: surrendering your tenancy,winning is not a forgone conclusion.

On what part of the law must he mitigate his loss?

tom9980

sharp910sh wrote: »

I will not let her surrender the tenancy, I guess I will see her in court.

This is the bit that i find most unsettling. You really should cut your losses and move on if you cannot afford the property by yourself, i find your stance on this very unreasonable. Your ex wishes to mitigate her loss so she can move on with her life but you wont let her do so, this is the reason she has stopped paying her half of the rent to force you to act, otherwise she will be potentially liable for eternity.

The Bills are yours to pay. The fact she cheated on you is not relevant.

LannieDuck

sharp910sh wrote: »

I see the only options is for her totske her to court. She will get a ccj against her, very simple. Whether or not she will pay is a different story. As far as I know she will be scared when she has to go to court. And a similar thing happened before and rather than defending herself she just paid the sum owed.

Let me make this clear I will not be letting this go. So when would be the best time to take her to court?

Again I repeat dhe has keys and comes in when she wants. Yet won't pay the rent.

Does she still use it because you won't let her surrender? Quite often people on here suggest an ex goes back and makes their presence felt in the house if the current occupier won't let them off the mortgage/rent. It can be a tactic to try and force the issue.

eddddy

From what you say, it sounds like the legal position is as follows:

Your ex agreed (i.e. made a contract) with you to pay half the rent and half the bills. She is now breaking the terms of that agreement.

If you want, you can now start the process for making a court claim against her.

See: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/going-to-court/going-to-court/taking-court-action/step-one-write-a-letter-before-action/ (It talks about a 'trader', but the concept is the same.)

If your ex says she doesn't owe the money, and the claim reaches court - the court will decide on the balance of probabilities.

i.e. they will look at all the evidence you provide (witness statement, other docs etc) and all the evidence she provides, and decide who is most likely to be telling the truth.


As you probably appreciate, this has nothing to do with your landlord. Evidence that she signed a joint tenancy agreement isn't necessarily evidence that she had agreed to pay you half the rent and half the bills.


(I can't see how the comment about mitigating your losses is relevant. That might apply if you were claiming damages over and above what your ex contractually agreed to pay you. That's not the case here.)

sharp910sh

Eddddy thank you for the advise. As your correctly stated the agreement is between me and her. I am not involving the Landlord.

foxy-stoat

sharp910sh wrote: »

Sounds like you have to bite your tongue and deal with it.

I would just leave and find somewhere else to rent.

You would do well to take your own advice given earlier in the year and move on!

Or if you do want to punish her, take her to court NOW and make yourself feel better when/if you give her a CCJ. If of course you lose, she will be laughing even louder and it would of cost you another £100 and your time.

Good lucks!

martindow

Are you married and needing to divorce? If so this could be dealt with as part of the division of assets as part of the divorce.

If you do decide to make a claim I would suggest that you do this once you have negotiated an early surrender or, if the LL won't agree to this, at the end of the contract.

Only when you have left will you know the amount to be claimed. If you start it too soon it will only be a partial claim and you may well need to do a second claim later.

sharp910sh

So the best time to claim is once she owes the full rent, not just a months?

foxy-stoat

sharp910sh wrote: »

So the best time to claim is once she owes the full rent, not just a months?

Start the claim now and make the value to the end of the current 12 month agreement. Factor in the deposit if she paid anything towards it. Also add in anything that she damaged while she was living there, if you think the Landlord will charge you when you leave.

sharp910sh

Yes she did have animals here which soiled the carpets. Which the landlord will charge for.

I think I will start the claim this month. But first wait till she owes a months rent. The first stage of the claim is fairly simple, I just have to write her a letter as per Eddddy link. And see if she responds first. Then take action with the claim.