Moving out but others are staying, who is liable for the rent?

[Fennie]

Hi there,

We signed a joint short term assured tenancy agreement for 6 months but it has become a rolling contract since January now and we signed guarantor forms also.

2 out of the 4 us are planning to move out of our current property in the next month or so but my friends are planning on staying.

Written notice has been served by the 2 leaving tenants.

Who is liable for the rent for my room? After my notice period of 1 months rent has been served?

Is it me? or is it all of us jointly? or is it the remaining tenants?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers!

[Joa]

Fennie; as I am not sure on rent liability in joint periodic tenancy, I have asked someone to help, so please be patient. In the meantime, any resident expert, please feel free to assist.

[pengirl1962]

Hi Fennie,

did you give notice to the landlord? if so, then you could have ended the tenancy for all of you. You will need to check the notice given. it must be for 4 weeks and must end on either the first or the last day of the tenancy period, if it does not, then it is not a valid notice. A landlord can accept a notice as valid, in so far as the technicalities of common law are concerned and may treat this as surrender.

Otherwise, they need to negotiate with the landlord to see if he will issue a new tenancy for the remaining parties.

once way around this sort of arangement is to insist that you have a 'tenancy in common' rather than a 'joint tenancy' as this will allow the tenants in common to dispose of their interest without destroying the tenancy.

in respect of the rent, you would be liable for the rent within the notice period if you are a periodic tenant, after which time it would be difficult to show that there was any further liability. If your room was re-let within the notice period, but after you had vacated, then teh liability to pay rent should end.

hope this helps
Lin

[Aequitas]

It is a rule that, where there is more than one tenant, any one of the tenants can give notice terminating the tenancy without reference to the other(s). This has to be the case, otherwise no tenant would be able to end his liability without the consent of the other(s). So, if your notice is in correct form, the tenancy comes to an end when the notice expires. If rent is accepted after the expiry of the notice a new tenancy with the tenant(s) who stay on will begin.

The rule does not apply to the exercise of a right to break if the terms of its exercise require all the tenants to give notice.

[jackieandwayne]

How about asking if you can assign you part of the tenancy to those who wish to remain in occupation? As opposed to terminating the tenancy in its entirety for everyone, which is what I suspect you have inadvertently done.

[Aequitas]

Originally Posted by jackieandwayne

How about asking if you can assign you part of the tenancy to those who wish to remain in occupation? As opposed to terminating the tenancy in its entirety for everyone, which is what I suspect you have inadvertently done.

If the tenancy has already been terminated it is too late to assign it.