Joint tenanxy

propertyrental

.. we’re just on our 1st year of a 5 yrs tenancy..

These are the defining lengths of the term where matters can change:-

1. For a term of 3 years or under it does not have to be witnessed and can be drawn up by a landlord & tenant quite simply.
2. Over 3 years then it does have to be signed as a deed and witnessed.
3. If you want to grant a tenancy of more than 7 years then you should use a tenancy at common law as you could make a tenant responsible for all repairs if you wanted to! (quite common in commercial tenancies). You would need to ensure it does not come under the Landlord & Tenant Act 1954 or you could be stuck with the tenant. also remember that a letting/lease for over seven years must be:
   a. by Deed; and
   b. registered at HMLR.
4. For tenancies over 21 years then different rules apply.

nrmm

propertyrental said:

.. we’re just on our 1st year of a 5 yrs tenancy..

Your tenancy agreement will be invalid unless it was Executed as a Deed.

Why? You can’t have a long term tenancy agreement with such duration ?

RAS

Which country are you in?

In England any tenancy over 3 years has to be executed as a deed. 

nrmm

RAS said:

Which country are you in?

In England any tenancy over 3 years has to be executed as a deed. 

England. All parties have signed the contract and our neighbour was the witness.

GrumpyDil

Your neighbour witnessing it suggests it was signed as a deed.

I say suggests as I would expect specific wording in there around the agreement being executed as a deed. 

In which case I rather think you would need all parties to have to formally agree to end the tenancy which might also need to be done by deed and would need your partner to have capacity to do so. 

nrmm

GrumpyDil said:

Your neighbour witnessing it suggests it was signed as a deed.

I say suggests as I would expect specific wording in there around the agreement being executed as a deed. 

In which case I rather think you would need all parties to have to formally agree to end the tenancy which might also need to be done by deed and would need your partner to have capacity to do so. 

Or having the LL ending the tenancy based on any clause mentioned in the tenancy agreement and execute a new tenancy contract just for me as sole tenant?

propertyrental

nrmm said:

RAS said:

Which country are you in?

In England any tenancy over 3 years has to be executed as a deed. 

England. All parties have signed the contract and our neighbour was the witness.

Forgive me being a bit pedantic and labouring the point but...
if it's a contract it's invalid.
If it's a deed, properly executed, it's fine. The witness suggests it's a deed as Grumpy says, though it also has to specify it's a deed.

Note I've amended my earlier post.

RAS

You absolutely need to know the legal status of that witnessed document before people can give you accurate advice on this situation.

nrmm

Right there’s “deed” mentioned on the tenancy document that has been signed by all of us. And on the 2nd page it says 

1.                        Type of Tenancy.

This Agreement is intended to create an Assured Shorthold Tenancy as defined by section 19A of the Housing Act 1988 (as amended) and shall take effect subject to the provisions for the recovery of possession set out in section 21 of thatAct.

propertyrental

nrmm said:

Right there’s “deed” mentioned on the tenancy document that has been signed by all of us. And on the 2nd page it says 

1.                        Type of Tenancy.

This Agreement is intended to create an Assured Shorthold Tenancy as defined by section 19A of the Housing Act 1988 (as amended) and shall take effect subject to the provisions for the recovery of possession set out in section 21 of thatAct.

More important is the wording around the deed.

However from what you've said I'm guessing it's fine - if somewhat unusual for an AST to be so long.

Is there a Break Clause?

Now - back to your issue. How to get ex off the agreement.