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Question Title: Sharing
| Question: 284 |
| When letting to a group of sharers, I would like to draw up the agreement in the name of only one tenant so that that person is made to feel responsible for the house. Is this OK ?
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| Answer: |
| No ! Always put the names of all the adult occupants on the tenancy agreement. Putting only the head tenant on the letting agreement for a group of people sharing a house is bad practice. This is firstly because any other tenant paying rent in the property could potentially claim assured tenancy rights (with the added difficulties of repossession at the end of the term). Secondly, with a joint tenancy agreement, the principle of 'joint and several liability' can be invoked (assuming that the tenancy agreement includes an appropriate clause)and any joint tenant can then be held liable for the whole of the rent. Thus if one or more of the tenants does not pay, or disappears without forwarding address, you can proceed against the others for the full amount i.e. - each person is reponsible for the whole of the rent.
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References:
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Pages:
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Hyperlinks:
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Letting Update Journal |
Apr 2003 page 29 |
letting-update-journal.html
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Letting Handbook |
Chapters 1 & 9 |
letting-handbook-and-factsheets.html
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For more information, discuss on the Forum
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