Hello, if you have a group of tenants living in a house and they are jointly the tenant - if one of them says they don’t want to renew, does this mean that the tenancy automatically ends on the date of expiry in the agreement?
They are saying I needed to give them two months notice or that tenant needed to give two months notice. He only gave 7 weeks notice.
Thanks
Maya
It depends on the type of tenancy. If its a contractual periodic tenancy then the arrangements for the tenant giving notice should be in the agreement. Unless it says otherwise, any one tenant can serve notice which ends it for everyone.
If its a regular fixed term tenancy then unless the agreement allows it, the Tenant cannot serve a valid notice during the fixed term. Once the term expires, a Statutory Periodic Tenancy arises automatically, and any one or more tenant can serve a valid notice to end it for everyone from day 2 of this periodic tenancy. The earliest the tenancy can end is therefore the end of the second month of the SPT.
If the tenant that wants to go doesnt follow the relevant procedure above, the tenancy continues and so does his liability. If that tenant does follow the above procedure, then the other tenants must also go or agree a new tenancy with you. If they dont, they become tresspassers.
Agreements do not automatically end. Just because one of your tenants doesn’t want to renew, does not mean that the agreement will not roll on. Notice must be served by either party to end a tenancy.