Can I get fired for this?

libramoon175

I mentioned in a previous post, the outgoing tenant is refusing to pay her November rent and thinks we should cover it instead as we took longer to fill the room than she did. This is why the rent is outstanding. The agency won’t proceed with change of tenancy until rent is sorted so yes I can pay fees, I’m not ignoring you but at irrelevant anyway until the rent is paid and I can’t afford to pay double rent!

This is what the agency are taking us to court over

Manxman_in_exile

libramoon175 wrote: »

Well, I'm thinking about moving out as well. It's been a really unpleasant living experience and I understand why this girl is leaving. But god knows i don't want all this drama over fees myself, so i might just have to suck it up for the remainder of the fixed term (10 months!)

And you would be willing to let your fellow tenants put all the fees on you as outgoing tenant as per your original post? This puts a completely different perspective on this from your OP where, forgive me if I'm wrong, you had not fully disclosed the situation.

Manxman_in_exile

libramoon175 wrote: »

I mentioned in a previous post, the outgoing tenant is refusing to pay her November rent and thinks we should cover it instead as we took longer to fill the room than she did. This is why the rent is outstanding. The agency won’t proceed with change of tenancy until rent is sorted so yes I can pay fees, I’m not ignoring you but at irrelevant anyway until the rent is paid and I can’t afford to pay double rent!

This is what the agency are taking us to court over

What does "...we took longer to fill the room than she did." mean. Had she found a "lodger"?


I foresee little prospects for an accountancy career for you, whether with KPMG or some other firm, unless you can get this resolved.


I've looked at your OP and what you have subsequently told us is substantially different from that post.


Think about facts, a timeline, and telling a coherent and consistent story. In fact, think about answering a question on an exam paper...


PS - As Comms69 suggested - you should have posted on the Housing board before allowing this to happen

iammumtoone

What a mess, really the outgoing tenant should be liable for ALL costs as they broke the contract. What was the agreement with those left when the person said they wanted to leave.

However the agents are clever making everyone jointly liable so they make sure they get their money.

What does everyone else do for a living? I am sure they don't want a CCJ either, can you split the cost of the extra rent/charges.

It will take a while to get to court and as long as you pay straight after the court judgement you will not get a CCJ could you save up in this time?

jobbingmusician

Let me be very clear.

Monies due to landlords and agents need to be paid. As I said earlier, this is a two part problem.

1. Pay everything owed. This is worth far more to you than whatever the total is. It is worth your professional reputation. Have you read any of the boards on this forum? Do you know what CCJs do to people in ANY branch of finance, let alone such a prestigious firm as yours? It is worth you taking out a loan to make sure all sums owed are paid in the next 24 hours or so - I am conscious the clock is ticking. Didn't you say this all has to be sorted out by Tuesday?

If you pay the bloody money, no one can complain about you to your employer. No one can say you have failed to pay a debt.

2. ONCE YOU HAVE PAID THIS, you can focus on sorting out who owes you money, and what your legal recourse, if any, is. However, even if you get stuck with the lot, it is a lot less than £1000. How much is your career worth? Focus on paying the debt in time, then we can discuss getting money back and who owes what to whom.

steampowered

Comms69 wrote: »

Technically theres no such things as leaving the tenancy.

Any tenant can end a joint tenancy, so in reality, she did the OP a favour by finding a replacement.

As such, I cant construe that the leaving tenant should be liable at all

Are you referring to severance of a 'joint tenancy' in relation to joint ownership of property? If so, that is not the situation here - the Op is faced with joint and several liability in the context of a tenancy agreement.

You cannot walk away from a tenancy agreement whenever you wish. I suspect that all of the tenants named on the tenancy agreement will be jointly and severally liable for the rent and fees owed, until such time as the landlord has agreed to release the leaving tenant from the lease.

If the Op makes a payment to the landlord for which the various tenants are jointly and severally liable (such as November rent), the Op can ask the court to order that the other tenants pay a fair share of that.

steampowered

My suggestion would be to pay the rent, get all of this sorted and issue a small claim against the outstanding tenant for her share of November rent and anything else which the outgoing tenant should be paying.

It is very easy to do through the moneyclaimonline system. All you really need is an address for the outgoing tenant.

I'm not sure you'd get back the fees, but you should get back the rent owed until such time as the leaving tenant was formally replaced.

You don't necessarily need to do this instantly - you don't get a CCJ overnight - a formal pre-action process would need to be followed, then you would have at least 14 days to respond to court papers - and even if a CCJ is issued you have 28 days to pay before it sits on your credit record for the long term.

All of this is predicated on the assumption that your tenancy agreement makes you jointly and severally liable with the other tenants - you should check whether or not it says that, if you haven't already.

libramoon175

i've looked at my original post and nothing has changed. the agency are taking us to court over non-payment of rent. yes there's a lot more to it, but that's the fact. there has been a lot of arguing back and forth over fees but the bottom line is the rent is 14 days late (the outgoing tenant's share,not mine, but we are all jointly liable), and that's what they are taking us to court over.

iammumtoone

libramoon175 wrote: »

i've looked at my original post and nothing has changed. the agency are taking us to court over non-payment of rent. yes there's a lot more to it, but that's the fact. there has been a lot of arguing back and forth over fees but the bottom line is the rent is 14 days late (the outgoing tenant's share,not mine, but we are all jointly liable), and that's what they are taking us to court over.

Has everyone else paid? so the only amount outstanding is that of the tenant who left?

How much is the amount you are being taken to court over?

Do I take it the other issue of the £288 everyone owes for fees has not at this stage been threatened with court?

You need to be careful here not only do you not want a CCJ you may also need a reference when you need another flat. A landlord is not going to want take you on if you a history of non payment of rent.

*max*

As I understand it (I may be wrong!), the outgoing tenant refuses to pay rent for the month AFTER she left, because the room could have been filled were it not for the bickering over who pays the fees (which she states should not be her). Correct?

For what it's worth, I think the outgoing tenant should pay 3/4 of the fees IF they are being demanded ONLY because the contract was broken (by her) and has to be done again. However, I also think the NEW tenant should pay the remaining 1/4, as it's not fair for her to not pay anything at all when you've all had to.

If the fees are some kind of yearly agency fees for the tenants, then she shouldn't have to pay anything after she left - and the fees should cover the period from her departure onwards.

As for the rent, if the new tenant moved in when the other one moved out, then new tenant should pay her rent for the month she has actually lived there.

So. What are the fees for EXACTLY?