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Question Title: Tenant's boyfriend
| Question: 400 |
| A few months ago one of our tenants asked us if her boyfriend could come and live with her at the flat that she rents from us. We are managing agents and the landlord lives overseas and is often difficult to contact. We agreed pending a decision from the landlord which, as yet, we have not received. We started receiving the rental payments on cheques drawn on the boyfriend's bank account. There have been no problems with these as the cheques have been met when presented. We have now been told by the tenant that she will be moving out at the end of the fixed term as she no longer gets on with her boyfriend. I phoned the flat this morning and the boyfriend told me that he does not intend to move out at the end of the tenancy. What is his position in the property and what can I do to get him out of the property if the landlord does not what him in the property?
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| Answer: |
| The difficulty faced here is that, by accepting rent from the boyfriend, you may have tacitly accepted that he is a party to the tenancy. However, at best, he can only be considered to be a joint tenant with his girlfriend and notice by one joint tenant to terminate a tenancy at the end of a fixed term is sufficient to bring the tenancy to an end, so, provided that you do not accept any rent after the end of the fixed term, he will have no right to remain in the property. If he does remain after the end of the fixed term then what is his status? He is a trespasser and appropriate possession action can be taken.
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References:
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Pages:
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Hyperlinks:
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Letting Handbook |
Chapter 12 |
letting-handbook-and-factsheets.html
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Letting Factsheet No 14 |
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factsheet-14
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For more information, discuss on the Forum
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