Forum Spotlight: Changes to a joint tenancy
Our members only forum is a good place to share experiences with other landlords and seek advice.
In our forum spotlight this month, we take a look at a recent question a landlord posted on our forum relating to a joint tenancy.
The tenants are a family of four living in a three bedroomed house - two adults and two children.
They have been renting from the landlord for two months and have asked if they can change the tenancy agreement from listing both of the tenants' names to just one.
The landlord says the tenants want to do this because one of them is paying all the rent. The landlord said that she would prefer to have both tenants remain on the agreement for now, but took to our forum to ask for the opinion of other landlords.
The responses
The first person to post said that if they were in this landlord's shoes, they would be concerned about removing the other person from the tenancy agreement. This is because in the case of unpaid rent, this landlord would then only be able to claim from one person instead of two. Due to this, they would be tempted to politely decline the request.
Another forum user agreed with this landlord's comments, and said that, in their opinion, it would be better to have both adults named on the tenancy, because each are then jointly and severally liable for covering the rent each month. They suggested the landlord should let this tenancy proceed exactly as it has been set up for now, and then potentially in 12 months' time review it, when the tenants have been living at the property a little longer.
Then, a member of our advice team joined in.
They agreed with the comments made by other forum users, and made it clear that this landlord is not under any obligation to issue a new tenancy agreement at the tenants' request, and may indeed wish to leave the agreement in place so there are two tenants liable for the rent.
However, if they did want to comply, they would need to create a brand new tenancy, unrelated to the first, so would need to start afresh and issue all the relevant paperwork again. This would ensure they could serve a valid Section 21 notice (if needs be) in the future.
The member thanked those on the forum who had offered advice.
To read the original forum post, click here.
