What exactly is a Joint Tenancy?
A joint tenancy is an agreement whereby you can have two or more than two individuals for the same tenancy. In this agreement, all involved individuals have exclusive possession of the complete property and equal rights to the rented property.
A Joint Tenancy agreement is a legal agreement between the landlord and all his tenants. According to this agreement, all the tenants are equally responsible for adhering to all the terms and conditions mentioned in the Tenancy Agreement.
An important point to note here is that a joint tenancy is not similar to a ‘tenants in common’ agreement, although they appear quite similar and often cause a lot of confusion.
What is ‘Tenants in common’?
This is similar to a joint tenancy in the context of two or more tenants living under the same tenancy. However, each tenant has exclusive ownership of their specific bedroom within the property. He can also make use of their communal areas.
Essential Requirements for Obtaining Joint Tenancy
- Each tenant must be 16 16yrs of age or older
- A single legal document is used to hold the tenancy of all the tenants.
- The starting and ending dates for all the tenants must be the same
- All the tenants must exercise equal rights to the whole property
- All Tenants must be entitled to possess the entire property with equal rights
Liability for Joint Tenants
All the tenants involved in a Joint Tenancy are usually liable in a joint manner for any damages to the property or rent arrears. This means that if any joint tenants violate any of the terms and conditions of the cooperative tenancy agreement, the landowner has all the rights to claim all of them or even against the individual tenant. This is considered a great advantage for the landowner in this regard.
Joint Tenancy Guarantor
Each tenant will have a different Guarantor that will provide additional security to the landowner.
How to Change the Joint Tenants
If you want any of the joint tenants to leave your property and rent out your property to new tenants in place of any of the older joint tenants, you need to include a new tenancy agreement. This can be quickly done by Deed of Variation, which can be attached to your Tenancy Agreement, or you can prepare an entirely new one for this purpose.
How to end a Joint Tenancy
To end a joint tenancy, you must give written notice to every individual joint tenant, assuming that this notice complies with the tenancy agreement about the termination date of the tenancy period.
What to do in case of arrears at the time of ending the joint tenancy
As mentioned, tenancy liability will be shared evenly between all tenants in joint tenancy. If there are any types of arrears, each one of the tenants in joint tenancy will be considered responsible for the amount overdue. This is precisely why it is often recommended that you be extra careful when you opt for joint tenancy.
ABOUT US – TESTIMONIALS – PRIVACY POLICY – TERMS AND CONDITIONS – CONTACT US
© 2023 Tenancy Agreement UK. All Rights Reserved.