This is day 6 of my 31 days of tips on tenancy agreements series. To see the rest of the series click here.
The Parties to the tenancy agreement
These are the landlord and the tenant. And perhaps in some cases, the guarantor (although guarantors are looked at on day 8).
Perhaps the most important thing to say is that when you are writing the names of the parties on your tenancy agreement, you need to get them right. Make sure that all spellings are correct, and put the full name – Mr Andrew Smith rather than just A Smith.
Tenants
You should ideally include all adults living in the property on the tenancy agreement. If their name is not on the tenancy agreement then you cannot sue them for rent if they don’t pay, and their status will be that of guest or lodger of the tenant.
People often ask about adult children. Should they go on? The answer is that it depends. if they are about to move on to college or a flat of their own in a few weeks or months, probably not. However if they are going to be living at the property permanently and contributing to the rent, probably yes.
What about minors (people under 18) wanting to rent a property? Sometimes 16 and 17 year olds will want to rent their own place. The main problem here is that people under 18 are legally incapable of owning an interest in land. The grant of a legal tenancy to a minor will take effect as a contract by the landlord to hold the property in trust for the minor. This is not a really good idea so you should add an adult as a joint tenant (who can also act as a guarantor). Once the minor reaches 18, a new tenancy agreement can be signed in his or her sole name. Note though, that although they cannot be a legal tenant, a minor can be responsible legally for the rent. So put them on the tenancy agreement but have someone else there as well.
The final tenant type to consider is limited companies. As discussed on Day 4, if the tenant is a limited company the tenancy will be a ‘common law’ one and not an AST. You need to be sure though that it really is a company. You can check them out at the Companies House online services.
The Landlord
Agents name given as landlord – this is sometimes done by agents, but is generally not a good idea. Certainly not from the agents point of view as under agency law, if they are acting for an undisclosed principal they will have personal liability to the tenant under the tenancy. Not something, I am sure, that they will want. There is nothing wrong with having the agents name on the agreement, but it should be as agent and not as landlord.
People sometimes get very concerned where the freehold ownership of land is in joint names and only one of the owners is listed as landlord. However one of joint owners has the power to rent out the property on behalf of both owners. So this is not a problem and does not (as some tenants hopefully suggest) mean that the tenancy is illegal and they don’t have to pay any rent!
Also, once the tenancy agreement has been signed a tenant is not entitled to challenge his landlords title. So even if it were illegal, there would be nothing the tenant could do about it.
This leads on to the rather odd rule that a tenancy granted by a squatter can be perfectly valid – as between the squatter and his tenant that is – while it lasts. However the owner of the land will be entitled to evict the squatter at any time in the normal way, which will also end the tenancy (and when the bailiff comes he has the power to evict whoever he finds at the property). Note that anyone having problems with squatters should visit my site www.evictingsquatters.co.uk.
Do you have any comments on this section? Do you put adult children on the tenancy agreement? Have you had problems with tenants who are minors? What is your experience with the matters discussed here?
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Tomorrow we look at matters relating to the landlords’ and tenants’ address.
NB Read about my tenancy agreements service here.
Related posts:
Can employees of a Landlord (or friends or relations) sign on behalf of the Landlord? What are the issues?
Thanks for your comment, Nick. Technically there may be issues. However in the real world they can and do sign on behalf of their landlord employer, and the landlord will normally be bound by this.
However a landlord will want to give stringent guidelines to his staff if this is allowed, as it may not be easy to get the tenant out if the member of staff has made a mistake and let someone in who is unsuitable.
I put in (Friends & Relations) because I wondered what had to be in place to define to proxy. e.g. – if a neighbour signed on behalf of the LL. Is the presumption that if the LL gives someone else a tenancy agreement for signature & the keys, then they must be happy with the arrangements being made on their behalf?
If the person signing does not have the authority of the landlord, the tenancy may not be binding against the landlord, although it will be a valid tenancy vis a vis the person who signed as landlord. See the comments above on squatters granting tenancies.
I cannot give precise definitions here I am afraid, often cases turn on their individual facts.
Hi Tessa, useful info. here. Could I ask what if someone wants a short let, i.e. less than 6 months, I believe an AST agreement is for a minimum of 6 months, so what agreement would be appropriate.
Thank you.
Clare
Hi Clare. I am going to look at the tenancy agreement term on Day 12, however it will be an AST. See this Urban Myth post here, which covers this particular point.