This is a blog clinic question from Deb who is a landlord.
Regarding inventories of a shared house let on a ‘joint & several liability’ basis where some tenants stay & some tenants are replaced with new ones, how should the house inventory be dealt with?
Eg: if there is a shared house with 4 people (let on a joint & several liability basis) and at the end of the tenancy, 2 tenants stay and 2 new tenants move in, the 4 tenants signing a new tenancy with the landlord, what do you recommend doing about the inventory?
Should the whole property be ‘inventoried’ out when the 2 tenants move out, & ‘inventoried in’ again with a new inventory with the 2 existing tenants + 2 new tenants, or is there a way of saving time – and paperwork – on this one, as 2 tenants are continuing in the property?
If this happened every 6 months, or even every year, it could be quite onerous.
A tricky question and it would be interesting to hear what others do in this situation. My view is that if there is any damage, it is only fair to the incoming tenants that the condition of the property is recorded so they don’t get blamed for something which is not their responsibility.
If the property is not to be re-inventoried, then this should be in agreement with them.
But what do you think?
We always include an addendum document signed by the in/going and outgoing’ tenant and attach it to the original inventory to state they accept the property in the condition stated in the originial inventory and any potential deposit deductions should be arranged between the tenants themselves. Any partial deposit paid originally by the out-going tenant will have their fund re-immbursed by the ingoing tenant.
That way they all have a vested interest in ensuring the property is kept in good order and are able to retain a sum from the out going tenant to cover any potential future deductions.
That sounds sensible. Does anyone else do something similar?
The main thing is that the arrangement is fair to all parties and the incoming tenants are not held responsible for something which happened before they moved in.
This issue came up at our regional ARLA meeting recently during a presentation from the TDS.
Whilst they didn’t give a set procedure for what Agents or Landlords should do to solve the probelem of new tenants/deposits/inventories, what they did say was that however you go about making the changes, make sure you update the Tenancy details lodged with the TDS as they can only repay deposits to the tenants that are shown on their records. If you don’t update the records you may find the deposit being awarded and repaid to the original tenants whereas it should go to teh replacement tenants.
It’s also worth noting that the TDS require written consent of the original tenant before you can amend the details of the registered tenancy.
If it was me, I’d do a new agreement, provided the Landlord doesn’t mind potentially extending the term. It’s a lot safe than any of the alternatives.
Thanks for that Jamie, very good advice – it’s interesting ARLA dont have a set view on it, I wonder whether it is something they are working on?
Just to clarify, it was the TDS representative who didn’t have a set view on it – he rightly said that dealing with inventories/deposits in these circumstances was an agency (or landlord) issue and that the TDS could not comment on the legality of the different options, only how it affects the deposit under TDS rules.