UK Landlord Forum / Life

Current tenancy is jt periodical . One of the jt tenants has left the property I want to issue a NEW tenancy to the reaming tenant. I also need to increase the rent as it has been the same for 3 years and is under market value. What is the best option. NEW single assured shorthold tenancy or NEW single fixed tenancy? As it is a new rental agreement can I just increase the rent on the new agreement?

Be wary of advice from a forum.
Always do your own research.

There isn't quite enough info below.
Did the leaving tenant serve notice that they no longer want to be in the property? If not then how do you know.
The way a periodic tenancy works is that all parties to the agreement must "agree" to continue the Lease, so one joint tenant refusing to extend will actually terminate the lease for all.  (Seems amazing a tenant unilaterally can effectively kick the other tenant out as well? But this was confirmed by the House of Lords).  The notice is known colloquially as a Monk Notice after the name of the case heard.

So at that time the other tenant became a trespasser.
However if you acted along the lines that another Lease was in place with the resident e.g by collecting rent, not serving eviction notice etc then you have already created a new lease by parol (verbally) which will be an Assured Shorthold Tenancy.

So actually whether you realise it or not is you are asking whether you should document the new Lease, although this is not necessary.

Now comes the opinion part of this response:
1. Always try document things as this may prevent dispute
2. I would serve again all the requirements/documents required of a new Lease post Oct 1 2015 and the effects of the Deregulation Act, e.g. Smoke alarms
3. Do the right to rent checks
4. Re-serve s21 on the right form at the right time
5. Etc etc  etc

I would also call up the relevant tenancy deposit scheme and ask their advice as to how to manage the deposit.  To my (limited) knowledge I haven't seen guidance on what to do if one tenant remains and another leaves.  Technically the deposit was for all the tenants and if the leaving tenant was the one noted as the head tenant for the deposit then you may have to return it and get another deposit.

Much to do and ponder I'm afraid....

Your other 2 questions make no sense and I suggest you look up on the internet what an assured shorthold tenancy is.  Such a Lease has a fixed term period so your question implying selecting one or the other is an impossibility.

A new agreement need not have any reference to rent from a previous agreement, of course your tenant might think otherwise!

Best of luck.

 Thanks for the reply.....I was left with one tenant as they were in a relationship and this relationship has ended. The tenant texted me to tell me her partner had left the property and their relationship was ended (so she said) She has no income and so went to the Welfare people who told her she needed the tenancy in her sole name in order to claim housing benefit on top of her normal allowance she was entitled to as her partner had left the household.
As far as I`m aware legally that tenancy is deemed ended because he had left without giving me due notice. I then had to decide if I wanted to rent to the remaining tenant given she has no income (other than welfare payments) I decided i did not want to do this. I was intending to sell the property next year as I retire and the tenants knew this from day one. I then issued a section 21 notice with the required minimum 2 months notice as per the tenancy agreement to quit. The final day of occupancy is 31st March. She contacted me Thursday last week to say she had had a letter off the local council she professed to not understanding. I went to see her and it turns out the local authority commenced a selective licensing scheme last year which I was not aware of. Therefore I cannot legally get her out of the property.She has paid her rent to the end of the notice period. Because she has not found another property yet she asked me for more time for which she will pay the rent. My problem is that the assumed tenancy you refer to will mean I cant possess the property for at least 8 months including the 2 months required notice. The point i`m not sure on is legally is she deemed to have had an assumed tenancy with me as soon as she notified me of her partner leaving due to the property being unlicensed or is it from the end date of the notice to quit which I gave her. The property is now in the process of being licenced.

Holy moly.... that's a lot of information missing from your first post!
What kind of advice were you expecting with less than half the facts?   

Anyway let's try and pick through this one.

1. Technically speaking Notices need to be served pursuant to s196 of the Law of Property Act 1925 (check your tenancy agreement).
This means that the tenants have not correctly served notice to determine the Lease as it needs to be in writing and to the Landlords address. 

2. Furthermore if the text (which doesn't count anyway) only informed you that a joint tenant was leaving that in itself is insufficient to qualify for a notice to end the Tenancy.  You need not reside in a place to rent it.  In fact here are cases where prisoners after serving their term were able through the courts to enforce their tenancy agreement (albeit with a caretaker friend in the place  etc)

3. Therefore legally the joint tenancy agreement is still in force (unless of course there is more information you have not divulged!).

4. The tenants are most likely to be jointly and severally liable for fulfilling the covenants in the tenancy agreement and that means the resident tenant needs to get you the full rent.

Consequently your statement "as far as [you] are aware the tenancy is deemed ended" is incorrect until you get a proper notice.

So now let's go on

Whether the tenants knew your intentions to retire or not are neither here nor there so forget about that.
The assumed tenancy I referred to was based on an actual Termination of the current agreement hence why I asked how you knew about the tenant leaving.

Note you are only one notice away from being the situation that the tenancy is ended (by notice) but if the tenants are either switched on or advised by the council I will be blown away if you get a Notice to Quit from the tenant that left.

In the massively unlikely scenario you do get a notice then your next step is crucial.  If you accept more rent from resident tenant then you will have established a new lease.  The 6 month period before you can take possession would apply even if you rather than by parol created the new lease as a Contractual Periodic Tenancy.
If you refuse to accept rent then the resident has no agreement and is therefore a trespasser and no longer benefits from protection under the Protection from Eviction Act 1977 however the correct way to remove them would be through a court order (so that takes time and a little money), I presume in your desperation you will probably Google "how to remove a trespasser" and find that legally you are permitted to use reasonable force but this is a very very risky strategy.  I doubt even the police who have the ability to remove a trespasser under the Civil Procedure Rules will get involved on this one as it stems from a civil matter and so you should go the court route.  However given the Low probability on this fear I have somewhat digressed.....

I will add one caveat ... I know nothing about your Selective (housing) Licence Scheme situation.
I think your best bet is suck it up until you have a Licence and can serve a valid s21.  I seriously hope you have all your other paperwork in order failure of which may preclude your submission of a s21.  If you offer a new agreement now then you will be (a) locking in 6 months (subject to section 8 action) (b) acting unlawfully as you don't have a Licence! (remember?)

Best of luck