Our tenancy agreement is a joint and several agreement between all tenants and guarantors (if there are any guarantors).
So, what does joint and several actually mean?
This is where a contract is issued to more than one tenant/guarantor, and all parties must sign the same agreement which states they are joint and severally liable to uphold the conditions of the contract. Areas that this affects will include:
- Rent
- Damages to the property
- Any other tenant obligation that is laid out in the tenancy agreement (Section 8 of our AST)
All tenants/guarantors are jointly liable to ensure the contract is upheld from their side, but also individually (severally) liable.
For example, if one person on the contract fails to pay their share of rent they are of course liable for this, but so is the rest of the group as a group and also as individuals.
So if one person fails to pay and there are two people on the tenancy agreement, the remaining tenant will be expected to cover the full rent still.
More information on joint and several liability can be seen in our blog post.