Is a new tenancy needed when one party of a joint tenancy leaves?

Is a new tenancy needed when one party of a joint tenancy leaves?

10:34 AM, 6th December 2022, About A year ago 6

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Hello, I have a joint tenancy – a couple now splitting up – and one of them has left the house and no longer wants to be on the agreement, since they have to rent somewhere else. Their split was on good terms, and they have been excellent tenants so far (for three years or so).

My question is: do I need to get them to both sign a letter giving me notice that they are terminating the current tenancy agreement, followed by the tenant that wishes to remain simultaneously applying for a sole tenancy on the property and line up the end date and start date to be consecutive days (and going through the full process of re-issuing Prescribed Materials, credit/salary checks, etc)?

Or can I simply re-issue the signature page, and get the sole tenant and a witness to sign that?

They took out an insurance based deposit service, so no deposit is held by the TDS or DPS; I suspect that this will need to be changed to a sole name, at the tenant’s expense. Based on the salary stated three years ago, the tenant can easily afford the property on their own.

I’d appreciate advice on this, as I want to stay 100% on the right side of the law!

Thank you,

Steve


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Comments

Graham Bowcock

10:49 AM, 6th December 2022, About A year ago

I think the sugestion in your second paragraph is the correct way to do it. - that's certainly what we do here (as agents and landlords).

If the original tenancy is joint, then that is ending. Therefore the sole tenant staying on needs a new tenancy in their own name. We make sure that we do all the compliance bells and whistles to as to to be watertight.

Josie Hawes - Guest Author

10:50 AM, 6th December 2022, About A year ago

We had this a little while ago and decided it was better to just get the tenants to give notice to terminate the tenancy and then set up a whole new tenancy in the sole name of the remaining tenant. We also added a guarantor at the same time which is always a good idea especially if you only have one tenant in the property.

Richie

13:01 PM, 6th December 2022, About A year ago

I had the same situation last year, I used a "Deed of Assignment of Tenancy" just one document downloadable from the NRLA website and used it under their guidence.
Basicly the leaving tenant signs everything over to the staying tenant (with details) If the deposit was jointly paid that is dealt with agreemet by themselves.
The deposit originally paid remains and I just channged the name on the DPS site,
Both to signed each with independent witnesses, copy to each plus Landlord (and an agent if there is one) to put with the AST, All quit easy and no need to rewrite the AST unless you want to add/detete as its all in the Deed and no problems.

David

13:05 PM, 6th December 2022, About A year ago

Are you sure that the remaining tenant can afford the rent on their own? You may need to re-reference them to check affordability. If they can, then I would go down the deed of surrender/new tenancy route as you suggest. A deed of assignment may be possible, but it doesn't get around the deposit issue if there is one.

Richie

13:12 PM, 6th December 2022, About A year ago

David, the deed of assignment covers the deposit issues as agreed other wis they don't sign. The DPS were okay with it.

Reluctant Landlord

15:52 PM, 6th December 2022, About A year ago

end current tenancy with both signing something to that effect. You can then offer the single tenancy directly

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