Ex not paying rent in joint tenancy

thesaint

foxy-stoat wrote: »

Start the claim now and make the value to the end of the current 12 month agreement..

You can't sue for money not yet due.

Guest101

I think the claim is going to be difficult to get at the moment.


Contractually you both owe the LL £___ x 6 months.


Separately you have a contract which in effect is:


She will pay you half the rent.


However this is clearly not indefinite, so we are to presume its for the fixed term. However there would be nothing stopping you getting judgment from her and then agreeing early surrender, thereby profiting from the claim.


I would be raising that point as her defence in the first instance.


Secondly she has rights to use the flat, and again in her position, if I received these papers I would immediately move in (partner in toe) and make life incredibly awkward for you.


I'm sure you don't want to hear steamy sessions from the bedroom.


There are real risks to you, despite the strong legal position.

Angie_B

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.

Why not? Because you want to punish her? What she did wasn't nice but it's happened and you are really not helping yourself by becoming this bitter.

How will you feel if you force her to honour her contract on the property and thus she feels completely entitled to use it (she is paying half the rent for it after all). So, you come home and find ex-girlfriend and her new fella making use of the bedroom? She would be fully entitled to, after all. Is that what you really want?

Are you sure you want to go down this route? Is it not better to just let it go and move on with your life? You say in the first post that the LA has suggested that a surrender is possible but would need your consent. Why don't you just consent, negotiate surrender with the LL and move on. Honestly, for your own mental health, this grudge action is not worth it.

Edited to add: Crossposted with Guest101.

Guest101

Angie_B wrote: »

Why not? Because you want to punish her? What she did wasn't nice but it's happened and you are really not helping yourself by becoming this bitter.

How will you feel if you force her to honour her contract on the property and thus she feels completely entitled to use it (she is paying half the rent for it after all). So, you come home and find ex-girlfriend and her new fella making use of the bedroom? She would be fully entitled to, after all. Is that what you really want?

Are you sure you want to go down this route? Is it not better to just let it go and move on with your life? You say in the first post that the LA has suggested that a surrender is possible but would need your consent. Why don't you just consent, negotiate surrender with the LL and move on. Honestly, for your own mental health, this grudge action is not worth it.

Edited to add: Crossposted with Guest101.

great minds and all that!

chappers

martindow wrote: »

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.

That is correct, the small claims court is for monies owed and is not the place to enforce the completion of a contract.
God only knows the costs that may be involved to try and enforce a contract that consists of a few emails and bank entries.

To be honest I think the OP would be on a hiding to nothing in court, he has a spurious contract with his ex, which has no actual bearing on the underlying rental contract.

He is either in financial hardship because his ex has left, in which case the court would look more favourably on him if he has tried to mitigate the fact by say negotiating an early surrender with the LL. But his exes defence will be that she wants to try and negotiate an early surrender as she cant afford to pay rent on two properties, but he is holding her to ransom over the current rental agreement. The court won't be interested about their break up.

If he isn't in financial hardship and can afford the rent, then the court may deem that he is being vindictive, her counter evidence will be that she can't afford to pay the rent on two properties, with the fact that they were paying inequitable shares of the rent, as confirmation.

However the overriding factor will be that under the current rental agreement they are both jointly and severally liable for the rent and if he wants to uphold that contract and remain in the property without fear of eviction he will have to pay the rent as a whole , the current rental contract will be irrelevant to his claim.

To the OP, break ups are never easy, but you need to separate your emotions from your financial situation, just going for your ex, because you think you can will serve no benefit to either of you.

Have you considered what will happen if you lose(I don't think you have a very strong case), your ex will not have just a financial victory over you, but an emotional one too.
Also a case like this could take months to resolve and in the mean time you will still have to pay the rent or risk fighting another legal claim for a) rent owed(I expect it will be you they will come after, as you will be the easiest target) and/or b)eviction

Do the sensible thing and a)if you can afford the rent and want to stay there, then just get on with your life and ask to have your ex removed from the tenancy, so she has no rights to the property or if you cant afford the rent on your own, then ask the LL if you can surrender the tenancy early. You may find that your ex is more amenable to paying her share of the rent if she knows it is only until the LL finds and alternate tenant.
Be the bigger man here and do what is best for you.

sharp910sh

I know she doesn't want to come here. I have said to many times you are free to use the flat as your please.

She knows I am not stopping her using the flat.I am only wanting to claim from her 6 months of her portion of rent we agreed.

So if I cannot claim in the future, which makes sense. Am I better of waiting till she owes me say 3 months rent, and then seeing how it goes. This may set a president to for her to pay the full amount in future assuming I win.

It's nothing to do with bitterness towards her if this was my friend and the same thing happened. I would still claim against them.

mrginge

thesaint wrote: »

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

On the general principles of English contract law.
This is not a reichmann vs beveridge scenario.

Pixie5740

sharp910sh wrote: »

It's nothing to do with bitterness towards her if this was my friend and the same thing happened. I would still claim against them.

I am starting to understand why she left you.

thesaint

mrginge wrote: »

On the general principles of English contract law.
This is not a reichmann vs beveridge scenario.

Sounds like fluff.

Guest101

chappers wrote: »

That is correct, the small claims court is for monies owed and is not the place to enforce the completion of a contract. - In theory I agree. Rent is debt, so the money is owed, but as I said there's a reasonable defence to pay the money as it becomes due, rather than in one sum.
God only knows the costs that may be involved to try and enforce a contract that consists of a few emails and bank entries. - Surprisingly not high for the judgment. Higher for enforcement of said judgment.

To be honest I think the OP would be on a hiding to nothing in court, he has a spurious contract with his ex, which has no actual bearing on the underlying rental contract. - Two separate contracts. The OP has a reasonably strong position. Proof of contract and proof of payments.

He is either in financial hardship because his ex has left, in which case the court would look more favourably on him if he has tried to mitigate the fact by say negotiating an early surrender with the LL. - Mitigation isn't necessary for a debt. It's necessary for a loss. But his exes defence will be that she wants to try and negotiate an early surrender as she cant afford to pay rent on two properties, - That's no defence, otherwise tenants would use it to move out whenever they wanted to. but he is holding her to ransom over the current rental agreement. The court won't be interested about their break up. - Nor is the break up relevant.

If he isn't in financial hardship and can afford the rent, then the court may deem that he is being vindictive, her counter evidence will be that she can't afford to pay the rent on two properties, with the fact that they were paying inequitable shares of the rent, as confirmation. - Irrelevant. She chose to leave. Again this is no defence, otherwise it would mean tenants could just move out whenever.

However the overriding factor will be that under the current rental agreement they are both jointly and severally liable for the rent and if he wants to uphold that contract and remain in the property without fear of eviction he will have to pay the rent as a whole , the current rental contract will be irrelevant to his claim.- Exactly.

To the OP, break ups are never easy, but you need to separate your emotions from your financial situation, just going for your ex, because you think you can will serve no benefit to either of you.

Have you considered what will happen if you lose(I don't think you have a very strong case), your ex will not have just a financial victory over you, but an emotional one too.
Also a case like this could take months to resolve and in the mean time you will still have to pay the rent or risk fighting another legal claim for a) rent owed(I expect it will be you they will come after, as you will be the easiest target) and/or b)eviction

Do the sensible thing and a)if you can afford the rent and want to stay there, then just get on with your life and ask to have your ex removed from the tenancy, so she has no rights to the property or if you cant afford the rent on your own, then ask the LL if you can surrender the tenancy early. You may find that your ex is more amenable to paying her share of the rent if she knows it is only until the LL finds and alternate tenant.
Be the bigger man here and do what is best for you.

Unfortunately I think you're looking at this incorrectly.


It's not to do with the rental contract at all. She owes rent on two places by her own choice. That continues whether or not the OP takes her to court.


But ultimately a court will decide