Tenancy & deposits
What is a joint tenancy?
A joint tenancy is one tenancy held by two or more tenants together. They are jointly and severally liable, meaning each is liable for the whole of the rent rather than a share of it.
Joint and several liability is the feature tenants least expect. If one sharer leaves without paying, the others are liable for the whole rent, not for their own portions.
Changing one tenant is not a simple substitution. It usually requires ending the existing tenancy and creating a new one, which restarts deposit protection, the prescribed information and the document service obligations.
Notices from one joint tenant can affect all of them, which is why what a single tenant can do unilaterally is worth understanding before it happens.
What goes wrong in practice
- A tenant swapped by side agreement, leaving the paperwork describing the wrong parties.
- Deposit and documents not re-served when a new tenancy was in fact created.
- Joint and several liability never explained, so a departure becomes a dispute.