Joint tenancy- housemate not been paying rent

A question about : Joint tenancy- housemate not been paying rent

Hey, looking for some advice please.

In July of last year I entered into a joint tenancy with 4 other people. It's a year long tenancy and we'll all be moving out at the end of it. Since the beginning of the year one of my housemates has had money problems and consistently not paid the rent. Obviously she's now built up massive rent arrears (approx Ј1500) and is still failing to cover about half of the rent each month.

The letting agency has told us that they are unlikely to follow the rest of us up for additional money to cover her rent arrears however unless things change dramatically in the next few months they will be keeping the deposit to cover it. The deposit was Ј450 each so it's looking likely that all of us will end up paying the vast majority of her arrears.

So, onto my main question. When we all moved in the person that hasn't been paying only paid Ј100 of her deposit for the house and still got given the keys. This was in July and she didn't pay any money at all to the letting agency again until October (this being the point when the letting agency contacted the rest of us, until then we weren't aware of the situation). Do we have any legal ground to stand on seeing as they let her have keys/sign the contract without having paid the deposit.

I realise probably not but we're at the stage now of desperately clutching at straws. The housemate in question is currently looking at ways to pay back the money before we move out but to be honest I can't see it happening and the rest of us are all considering worst case scenarios. It's a real kick in the teeth to have paid on time every month and done everything by the book only to end up covering someone else's rent.

Best answers:

• No you are all jointly liable for the rent. The landlord doesn't sound like they are letting you off the missed rent as they will take it out your deposit at the end.
  Can you find somebody else to move into the non paying tenants room, and her agree to move out? This will at least stop the arrears getting more and more.
• As pyueck says above.
  Best solution is to persuade her to leave and get LL's agreement to a replacement.
  But you are each liable for the full property rent - you are not just liable for your 'share'.
  Likewise with the deposit. The deposit is for the whole property, not sub-divided into shares.
• This is why its always better to get contracts per room rather than by house only flaw that way is normally thats far more expensive
• As others have suggested, try and limit your exposure by getting her and the LL to agree to reassigning the tenancy because you all have joint and several liability for the whole rent.
  You could take her to small claims court over her share of the rent (I think) but if she's having money problems you might have problems enforcing the judgement. Still nothing ventured, nothing gained.
  Are any of the utilities in her name and if so has she been paying them?
• The other side of the coin is to find out why she is having money troubles and try to help.
  She may need help with budgeting/debt/benefits. Suggests she goes to CAB and gets some help.
  This may mean that she will be able to pay off some of her arrears.
• It's not about "mitigating loss": Rent due is a debt, not a loss.
• Housebuyer - you are right that it makes sense to highlight arrears early, but there is no requirement on a LL to do so.
  Indeed, we see posts here from time to time where LLs have contacted tenants within a few days of payment being missed, and the tenant feling harrassed. No real issue, perhaps a temp cshflow issue or even a bank errror.
  LLs have to judge between jumping the gun and leaving it too long.
  But bottom line is, legally it is the tenant's responsbility to pay rent as per the ontract, not the LL's to collect/chase it.
• Well to take a more extreme (and invented) example lets say I rent a house for a year. I'm a very conscientious tenant and know that it's very easy to mess up a standing order. So I ask my new LL if I can pay Ј10 to them a few days before the first rent is due and then the rent - Ј10 on the day it is due. I will contact them to ensure the Ј10 is safe and sound in their account and then contact them again to make sure the full rent made it. This done I'll be safe and sound in the knowledge the standing order is good.
  Unknown to me my LL is a bit slapdash and runs multiple small enterprises including renting several properties, through the same account. There's lots of transactions going through it each day so when I call to ask they glance at a statement see Ј10 somewhere, decide that must be mine and confirm the money has made it. The same thing happens when I call to confirm the full rent is there.
  Unfortunately I made a small error in setting up the standing order (or maybe the LL even gave me the wrong acc no, they are a bit slapdash!) but as far as I'm concerned all is good.
  A year passes and I move out. LL, being a bit slapdash, only bothers to do any accounting on a yearly basis. Following this realises I haven't paid them any rent whatsoever and demands the full 12 months off me.
  I've believed in good faith that I was paying and have taken steps to ensure I was paying, which the LL confirmed, however in actual fact I was not. Does the LL really have a claim against me?
  Obviously the OPs situation is different but it's interesting to know where the dividing line is. Maybe a crucial part is getting confirmation from the LL the monies are in their account?
  Anyway, hypothetical scenarios do not help the OP. I suspect the above posters are right in that you have very little comeback but you could try asking them why it took them so long to tell you about the missing money in the first place. State that this is not your fault but due to their negligance and see if gets you anywhere. Though beware that an adversarial tone may just make the situation worse.
  Getting unpaying tentant replaced with paying tenant ASAP would be a very good idea. Writing a letter to unpaying tenant (take copy, get proof of postage, even if you end up effectively posting it to yourself...) stating you expect them to pay in full by date X could be a good idea too. If you want to claim it back in small claims it may help your case.
• Makes sense.
  How about if in my hypothetical example the LL had given me the wrong sort code or acc no in the contract and I had been diligently paying into that, would they have a claim? I'd presume not as I'd would have fufilled the terms of the contract (pay this, to this account, on this schedule) and also checked that the LL was happy they had received the money?
• to get back to the OP.......
  were references checked and did you need guarantors?
  The guarantor would be liable for your housemate's non payment.