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One of my joint tenancy holders has done a runner!!

Started by Hornblower, February 24, 2012, 07:22:59 PM

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Hornblower

Hi I am a landlord who has a fixed term joint tenancy agreement with four students living in a property that I own.  One of them suddenly left about two weeks ago and I only found out late on a Thursday night because her father (guarantor) phoned me on my mobile at 10pm after band practice to say that his daughter has moved out because of stress.  All the students have been warned about making noise.  He said that he will not be able to pay rent as agreed as she was now living somewhere else. In fact I have found out from one of the students that she is living with her grandfather in the same city as my property.  All she has left behind is her bicycle and she has not returned the keys to the property.  I am therefore presuming that the rent will be short on 1st March when the rent is due.  The rent is payable one month in advance.  I have yet to talk to the other three tenants about this but they are all getting back to me to arrange a meeting.

The question is do I have to approach the guarantor or the three remaining students for the anticipated shortfall when it happens?

Thanks, Hornblower!   :'(

Jeremy

Hello Hornblower,

I don't quite see the nnoise and stress relevence to your story, so my answer assumes she's not going to claim you've been harasing her over how she's living at the house.

By not returning the keys, I expect she has not done one of the "must-do" things to surrender the tenancy, i.e. whe is still bond by its terms.  If / When she fails to pay, you can approach her guarantor based on the terms of the document you signed.  Based on non-payment terms int eh tenancy you can work out when / how the tenancy will end.

I expect you have a joint and several liability clause in the tenancy agreement.

So you are in the situation of having two epople to pay the rent gap.  I would approach teh girl and her guarantor first but inform the remaining tenants that if you can't get her or her family to pay then they will be liable for her share.

Hope this helps.