Some tenants occupy rented property as individuals but many more occupy as joint tenants, tenants in common or licensees.
Married or cohabiting couples are frequently joint tenants, but so, also, are groups of friends. Whether they occupy as tenants or licensees, it is important to understand the differences between them, since each has its own set of characteristics and rules which will apply when it comes to granting renewal or termination.
Contents
Types of co-tenancy
There are only two types of co-tenancy, or tenancies where there are occupiers who share the tenancy of a property. These are:
- Tenancy in common
- Joint tenancy
Tenants in common
Tenants in common simply hold separate tenancies for their particular parts of the property that they occupy, but often share other parts – the common areas. The tenancies may frequently be granted at different times, or different rents and for different terms of occupation.
An example of tenants in common might be a student house in which the individual rooms have been let to different students on separate tenancy agreements.
Joint tenancy
A joint tenancy is the more common form of co-tenancy where the tenancy is granted to a group of sharers as a single transaction. The principle behind the joint tenancy is that, although the rights granted by the landlord are, in fact, granted to a group of people, this group is treated by the law in many respects as if it was a single person. For a sharing arrangement to be considered a joint tenancy, it is necessary that the individuals who make up the group are associated, such that it must be possible to demonstrate or satisfy four unities [AG Securities v Vaughan,1990 1 AC 417].
The four unities are:
- Unity of possession
- Unity of title
- Unity of time
- Unity of interest
As usual the information you deliver is clear and easy to read. Thank you for the CPD.
Joint tenancies, whilst on the surface may offer a “simple” solution legally, are a massive hassle to manage in the young professional and postgraduate student market where (unlike undergraduate goups) most of the tenants start and end their tenancies at different times. I now have houses which have been permanently occupied for over a 15 years with tenants constantly changing throughout the year – very difficult for a joint tenancy to accomodate!
In addition, the concept of making an individual somehow liable for the share of rent of another housemate jars with me now as a landlord and most certainly did when I was a student myself. Further, the notion that every tenant on a joint tenancy can have possession of or access to any room in the house is completely absurd. Everyone who’s ever lived in a shared house understands that it’s not acceptable to enter a housemates bedroom yet joint tenancies technically appear to allow this. This weird notion is perpetated by the LACORS definition of a shared house which requires that it be on a joint tenancy and “All the tenants will have exclusive legal possession and control of all parts of the house, including all the bedrooms”.
You’d be hard pressed to find any houseshare tenant who actually wants to be on a joint tenancy. I was strongly against them as a tenant myself in houseshare and remain firmly opposed to them as a landlord in the young professional and postgraduate market. I run a successful houseshare business with 44 tenants across 8 properties. I’ve been doing this for 16 years. In a house of 5 or 6 a tenant will change every few months so joint tenancies are a massive administrative hassle. I stopped using joint tenancies many years ago (apart from for a couple of family homes) and have never seen the need for them since – apart from to satisy mortgage company requirements which I’ve chosen to ignore for the sake of my administrative sanity. For the undergraduate market it’s a different story and probably makes sense to use them as you can start and stop the tenancy for all tenants at the same time.
Unless I am misunderstanding it some sources seem to suggest that by virtue of Leek & Moorlands Building Society v. Clark you would need the consent of all the tenants to end the tenancy? Shelter website has reference to this.
To end during the term needs the consent of all parties (all tenants and landlord) but once periodic, one tenant can give notice which ends the tenancy for them all. This article has all the details.