My partner moved out but still on tenancy and refusing to pay rent or arrears

mellyc

My ex partner is still on the joint tenancy for my house I still live in with my 5 children. 

He now lives elsewhere but hasn’t taken his name off the tenancy. 

He refuses to pay towards the rent which is fine because luckily my UC covers it now under it being an ‘untidy tenancy’. However we still owe rent arrears from when he lived here and he won’t pay anything. When he was still here we had a payment plan in place with our landlord to repay a specific amount each month. We made the payments on time but when he left I’ve been responsible for finding the money for the arrears on my own which I am now not able to carry on alone it’s crippling me. 

I’m scared to tell my landlord he’s moved out because I’ve been told that this can cause the landlord to end the current joint tenancy and it’s not guaranteed that he will begin a new tenancy with me as a single tenant? 

I am also scared to inform my landlord that I’m not able to make the rent arrears payment this month in fear of him getting angry that I’m not sticking to the agreement to repay the arrears. 

What can I do for the best in my situation? I can email my landlord and explain about the arrears and offer to pay a smaller amount each month but what if he doesn’t agree this is good enough?
ive applied to my local council for a discretionary housing payment for the arrears but they denied my claim because when we missed the rent payments that caused the arrears we had enough to pay rent but according to them we used the money for other things. This is partly true but it was not done by me and without going into detail it’s down to my ex partner’s behaviour and other reasons that led to our relationship ending. 

Now I’m left picking up the pieces and have no idea what to do for the best that won’t jeopardise my home or anything?

[Deleted User]

mellyc said:

My ex partner is still on the joint tenancy for my house I still live in with my 5 children. 

He now lives elsewhere but hasn’t taken his name off the tenancy. 

He refuses to pay towards the rent which is fine because luckily my UC covers it now under it being an ‘untidy tenancy’. However we still owe rent arrears from when he lived here and he won’t pay anything. When he was still here we had a payment plan in place with our landlord to repay a specific amount each month. We made the payments on time but when he left I’ve been responsible for finding the money for the arrears on my own which I am now not able to carry on alone it’s crippling me. 

I’m scared to tell my landlord he’s moved out because I’ve been told that this can cause the landlord to end the current joint tenancy and it’s not guaranteed that he will begin a new tenancy with me as a single tenant? 

I am also scared to inform my landlord that I’m not able to make the rent arrears payment this month in fear of him getting angry that I’m not sticking to the agreement to repay the arrears. 

What can I do for the best in my situation? I can email my landlord and explain about the arrears and offer to pay a smaller amount each month but what if he doesn’t agree this is good enough?
ive applied to my local council for a discretionary housing payment for the arrears but they denied my claim because when we missed the rent payments that caused the arrears we had enough to pay rent but according to them we used the money for other things. This is partly true but it was not done by me and without going into detail it’s down to my ex partner’s behaviour and other reasons that led to our relationship ending. 

Now I’m left picking up the pieces and have no idea what to do for the best that won’t jeopardise my home or anything?

The joint tenancy doesn’t end if you tell the landlord your ex-partner has moved out, that’s just not how it works so whoever told you that is talking out their hoop.  Both you and your ex-partner have joint and several liability for paying the rent and the arrears which means each of you owes 100%. The landlord is at liberty to pursue one or both of you for the money and as you’re the one residing in the property it would be easiest to go after you.  You can propose a reduced payment plan to the landlord and the landlord may or may not agree but realistically as long as the arrears are less than 6 months worth of rent there’s not much the landlord can do about it at the moment. 

Any arrangement for the split of payments between you and your ex-partner is between the two of you so you could send a letter before action to your ex claiming the arrears owed to then paid to the landlord, filing a money claim online to take your ex to small claims court if necessary. 

You should also see about severing the joint tenancy and for that you’ll need to come to some agreement with your ex and the landlord. 

For more information read: Ending/renewing an AST: what happens when a fixed term ends? How can a LL or tenant end a tenancy? What is a periodic tenancy?