Moving out of rented property as relationship has ended

TeeMac67

Hoping someone can help please. My daughter rents a property with her (ex) boyfriend and the relationship is now over. They have a tenancy agreement until February and my daughter has agreed to pay her share of the rent until then.
He has refused to allow my daughter to try and end the tenancy early with the landlord and is now demanding her share of Sky TV, electricity and council tax up until February also.
I think she should only have to pay the rent but maybe I am wrong. Can anyone tell me if she has the right to refuse to pay her share of the bills until February should she have to pay everything that she currently pays whilst living there?
Thanks very much in advance.

Tigsteroonie

Well, the council tax bit is definitely daft - he can apply for the single person reduction immediately!

I presume your daughter has moved out and living elsewhere - is he staying on his own in the property? (just to clarify)

Fosterdog

Is she still living there?

If she is then yes she should pay her fair share, if she is not then no she shouldn't pay the extra bills/utilities and regardless of what the ex wants she should contact the landlord to explain what has happened. Is the tenancy in joint names or just one? If just one is it in his name or hers?

TeeMac67

She is still living there unfortunately - she has nowhere to live as she moved to Essex from Scotland. She has to serve her notice at work so can't leave until 18 December
He will be staying there until the tenancy agreement ends in February

Pixie5740

I think your daughter paying the rent is fair but he can pay the bills on his own. He can apply for a single person discount on the council tax and he's the one using the utilities.

Your daughter needs to be aware that just because the fixed term ends in February this does not mean the tenancy will end and that a joint tenant she will continue to have joint and several liability for the whole rent.

TeeMac67

TeeMac67 wrote: »

She is still living there unfortunately - she has nowhere to live as she moved to Essex from Scotland. She has to serve her notice at work so can't leave until 18 December
He will be staying there until the tenancy agreement ends in February

The tenancy is in joint names. She is still living there until 18 December.
He will not allow her to contact the Landlord :-(

Tigsteroonie

TeeMac67 wrote: »

He will not allow her to contact the Landlord :-(

"allow her"? They're both adults, surely?

Do you mean that he has the tenancy documents and she doesn't know who the LL is to contact? Does she remember the agency they arranged it through or anything?

She should certainly contribute to rent, bills etc until the end of December if she is living there until that point.

Pixie5740

How can he stop her from contacting the landlord? Surely they're not together 24/7.

TeeMac67

Its really difficult because she has to stay there until 19 December and is afraid she will not get any of the deposit back
I think she should write to the landlord and explain the situation regardless of what he wants
It is so difficult because I am too far away to step in and help remotely

She is more than agreeable to pay the extra 2 months rent until the contract ends in February but I don't think she should be paying for elec, sky, council tax, insurance etc

Tigsteroonie

Well if she's worried about repercussions, maybe she holds off posting that letter to the Landlord until she actually moves out. Will it really make much difference to do it now or then, I don't know.

But whilst she is still there to intercept incoming post, maybe she should set up mail redirection in her name to her future address (is she moving back with you?).

I think she can probably kiss goodbye to her half of the deposit. What's to stop the ex-boyfriend trashing the place after she's gone, then the deposit would be consumed by redecoration fees anyway.

TeeMac67

That's good advice. Yeah, she is moving back with me. I think she should wait til she leaves, write to the landlord and hand him her share of the 2 months rent whilst her dad is with her when leaving.