Tenancy agreements

tempUsername280720

As nobody can be evicted for the next few months you should just stop paying rent now.

Slithery

stalin said:

As nobody can be evicted for the next few months you should just stop paying rent now.

You surely can't be serious?

For a start no-one has even mentioned eviction, the OP wishes to end their tenancy ASAP. But even if that was the case the tenants would still be liable for any rent outstanding. It would be better to come to a compromise with the LL rather than the tenants getting a CCJ and ruin their credit history and any chance of renting again in the near future.

shinytop

Slithery said:

stalin said:

As nobody can be evicted for the next few months you should just stop paying rent now.

You surely can't be serious?

For a start no-one has even mentioned eviction, the OP wishes to end their tenancy ASAP. But even if that was the case the tenants would still be liable for any rent outstanding. It would be better to come to a compromise with the LL rather than the tenants getting a CCJ and ruin their credit history and any chance of renting again in the near future.

s/he's another troll unfortunately.

saajan_12

 In the absence of a new contract being signed for 1 July onwards, if The Tenant is still in residence, the current contract would roll into a periodic tenancy (either a CPT if one is detailed on your original contract, or an SPT). If you're on a joint tenancy then all the tenants are considered one unit. So 'The Tenant' means some or all of you. It's upto you as housemates to agree whether you all want to vacate by 30 June, or continue and pay the full rent upto x date or some of you want to negotiate a separate contract in their names only. If anyone continues without a new contract, then you would all be jointly and severally liable to the LL for the full rent, as you are now. In practice you may choose to pay a % each and change that based on who wants to stay, IF you all agree, but none of that affects your liability to the LL's. 

student20

saajan_12 said:

 In the absence of a new contract being signed for 1 July onwards, if The Tenant is still in residence, the current contract would roll into a periodic tenancy (either a CPT if one is detailed on your original contract, or an SPT). If you're on a joint tenancy then all the tenants are considered one unit. So 'The Tenant' means some or all of you. It's upto you as housemates to agree whether you all want to vacate by 30 June, or continue and pay the full rent upto x date or some of you want to negotiate a separate contract in their names only. If anyone continues without a new contract, then you would all be jointly and severally liable to the LL for the full rent, as you are now. In practice you may choose to pay a % each and change that based on who wants to stay, IF you all agree, but none of that affects your liability to the LL's. 

Okay, thank you. So there is no way for me to get out of it by the date we signed so that if some decided to stay longer I would no longer be liable? It just does not seem entirely fair that I will be made to pay when I do not want to be there and will not be there just because some housemates have stayed past our end date. 

Comms69

student20 said:

saajan_12 said:

 In the absence of a new contract being signed for 1 July onwards, if The Tenant is still in residence, the current contract would roll into a periodic tenancy (either a CPT if one is detailed on your original contract, or an SPT). If you're on a joint tenancy then all the tenants are considered one unit. So 'The Tenant' means some or all of you. It's upto you as housemates to agree whether you all want to vacate by 30 June, or continue and pay the full rent upto x date or some of you want to negotiate a separate contract in their names only. If anyone continues without a new contract, then you would all be jointly and severally liable to the LL for the full rent, as you are now. In practice you may choose to pay a % each and change that based on who wants to stay, IF you all agree, but none of that affects your liability to the LL's. 

Okay, thank you. So there is no way for me to get out of it by the date we signed so that if some decided to stay longer I would no longer be liable? It just does not seem entirely fair that I will be made to pay when I do not want to be there and will not be there just because some housemates have stayed past our end date. 

Life lesson number 1:
Dont sign joint contract with people you cant trust
Life lesson number 2:
Life isnt fair - someone lied to you if they told you otherwise

student20

Comms69 said:

Life lesson number 1:
Dont sign joint contract with people you cant trust
Life lesson number 2:
Life isnt fair - someone lied to you if they told you otherwise

Yeah I definitely know that now. Unfortunately at the time it was a rush to get a place before my course started and this was one of the only properties we found and it just so happened to be a joint tenancy. I knew joint meant we were all liable for damages but did not know a periodic tenancy was a thing. 

saajan_12

student20 said:

Okay, thank you. So there is no way for me to get out of it by the date we signed so that if some decided to stay longer I would no longer be liable? It just does not seem entirely fair that I will be made to pay when I do not want to be there and will not be there just because some housemates have stayed past our end date. 

My post outlines the agreement as between you and the Landlord. For the LL, it wouldn't be fair to have to get involved in housemate disputes on when to leave, when they presented as a group. If some of you stay, will he be able to find new occupants for the vacant rooms, who want to live with your housemates? What if he only agreed to let because some of you were stronger than others in references, and the ones staying can't afford the rent. What if the ones who can't afford it refused to leave and the LL has to spend money evicting - it would be fair for the LL to be able to recover the cost of evicting, but he only let to you as a group on the basis you could collectively cover rent / damages / costs.  It all gets very messy, which is why it is how it is. 
Hopefully that makes you more comfortable on why the current law is fair, but ultimately it is what you agreed to, fair or not. Separately, you may be able to argue to the other housemates, that you agreed to split rent x ways upto June and then move out (if that's indeed what you agreed). If you end up paying the LL more rent than that solely due to a housemate staying on, then perhaps that housemate should cover the extra rent you had to pay. However that would be between the tenants, you'd have to pay the LL and then claim from the housemate. Whether they dispute the agreement between you ("we were going to split rent for however long we lived together") or whether they can pay is another story..