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Question Title: More than four tenants in one tenancy agreement?
| Question: 317 |
| I have been told by one of my colleagues that I cannot grant a tenancy to more than four people. I do a large number of student lets and they are often groups of more than four. What can I do?
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| Answer: |
| The position is not as difficult as it might at first appear. Section 34(2) Law of Property Act 1925 limits the number of persons to whom a legal joint tenancy can be granted to four. That, however, does not mean that you cannot have tenancies for more than that number. It simply means that any further tenants only have an equitable interest in the tenancy. If all the tenants are named in the tenancy agreement, the first four will be legal tenants and the remainder will hold in equity. This distinction will not have any practical consequence for the rights and duties of the parties. The recent Law Commission consultation paper "Renting Homes 2: Co-occupation, transfer and succession" [2002] considered the distinction and recommended no change and proposed that there should be no limit to the number of people to whom joint rights of occupation should be granted.
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References:
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Pages:
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Hyperlinks:
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Letting Handbook |
Chapter 9 |
letting-handbook-and-factsheets.html
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For more information, discuss on the Forum
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Tenancy Agreements