Question

Succession Rights and Rights of Survivorship (England)

Tenancy rights when not named in the tenancy agreement

2 Jul 2018 | 1 comment

My client lives in a rented property. The tenancy is in her husband’s name and she lived there with him. The relationship broke down and the husband has now left but my client has remained in occupation. Since the husband has left the landlord has refused to accept any rent directly from our client and the landlord has now sought to evict her. What tenancy rights does my client have and does she have a defence to eviction?

Answer

1 Comment

  1. guildy

    We had a full reply written but then dug a little and deleted the whole thing!

    We’re not experts in family law at all but we think this may be covered by section 30 Family Law Act 1996.

    From what we can see (using your case as the example), the occupation by the wife is to be treated as though the husband is occupying as his only or principal home. As such, presumably, the landlord must give a section 21 notice against the husband (because he’s deemed to still be occupying) and then usual court order.

    From other reading, the wife must be added as a defendant at the court order stage.

    Please ensure you research yourself further because as said earlier we’re not experts in family law. That being said, this could be a useful article so will look into it further and produce an article at some point.

    We found Residential Possession Proceedings by Gary Webber particularly useful.

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