You sometimes have two people’s names on the short-term lease or longer-term tenancy ownership of a property interest, sometimes even more people.
They’re maybe married husbands and wives or partners living together and with a difficult situation from a relationship breakdown of splitting up with ex-partners and persons leaving.
Or possibly business colleagues with commercial property and dealing with different private or local authority council landlords. And sometimes, they may even be a company rather than an individual name.
Whatever number and types of names you’re dealing with, there may be a request to have one of these removed, often when a lease is renewed or possibly even beforehand if there’s an urgent break-up and split to deal with.
Upon first impressions, this might seem all okay, with them being good payers and possibly no actual changes even to the property's occupation; just a technicality of changing a name on the lease to a sole tenancy or ownership.
However, you need to tread carefully, as things are not always what they seem.
Even in straightforward cases where everyone agrees, legal loose-ends may need to be tied together to stop issues cropping up later.
The Different Joint Tenancy Scenarios
Before we get into some general tips on dealing with this removal of names on tenancies within the UK, it’s essential to understand the different situations.
Of course, each one is different, and you’ll need specific advice on the rights and legalities of your circumstances. There’s a detailed post here online and helpful YouTube videos here and here on the different ownership types.
If you’re looking at property ownership, maybe with married couples, then the alternative to ‘joint tenants’ is ‘tenants in common’.
On a joint basis, everything is shared and falls to the other if one leaves, whereas in common, you will have specific shares that can be more easily transferred to others.
Suppose you’re looking at a shorter-term lease like a residential AST or a lease of a commercial property. In that case, although things can quickly change at the end of the lease, you need everyone’s agreement before then to amend or surrender the lease beforehand.
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Turning to some general pointers on processing, such name removals on tenancies no matter what situation you’re in, here are five top ones:
1. Joint Liabilities
First of all, remember the principle that all the tenants share liabilities based on being joint tenants.
As mentioned above, this relative share of ownership can be changed with different tenants in common situation for long lease ownership, which won’t get ‘transferred’ over to another joint-person when another goes.
With joint tenants, they do. So, when both are there, both are fully responsible. When one goes, the other becomes fully responsible.
More people need to pay the rent and resolve issues if you have other names included.
Because there is a joint liability, one can act on behalf of the other, even if they don’t know or agree. So, one can serve notice to terminate the lease at the end.
This also gets complicated with shorter leases continuing after they expire, maybe through a statutory periodic AST lease for residential properties or through the holding-over under the Landlord & Tenant Act 1954 for commercial properties.
Such extension rights are with both tenants, so take care of who controls things.
In terms of practically on how to do the split within an agreement, you’ll need everyone’s agreement to do this, rather than force the issue. After all, this is a fixed contract between certain parties that can’t suddenly be changed because just one person wants to.
2. Remaining Responsibilities
Even where you remove a named party from the actual lease, remember that behind the scenes in the non-property world, there may still be rights between them that affect the property right.
So if they are a married couple or even partners with civil rights, then the other partner may need to permit things.
Therefore get this clarified, and if you’re changing names and renewing agreements on a new basis, check that the named parties have separately explained this with any other parties.
Also, check other agreements and invoices both to do with the property or not and correctly with or without joint names, such as utility bills, council tax or business rates, and bank accounts.
3. New or Transferred Agreements
An easy way would be to look at a new agreement on a new-name basis and a fresh start rather than transfer an existing contract.
Either way, make sure the legal documentation is completed correctly.
Also, remember that leases tend to provide tenants rights to renew a lease term afterwards on a comparable basis.
So, with a shorter-term AST lease, the landlord will need to agree to an early surrender and maybe a new lease going forward, as often there is no way to transfer the lease otherwise.
However, there may be a legal way to assign or underlet the existing lease with commercial leases as an alternative to an early surrender.
Also, remember that if one party needs to be removed, but the landlord is concerned about them being off the hook with liabilities, they may be able to move to be a guarantor rather than joint-tenant on the lease.
Regarding actual documentation, see if there is a standard letter template available to agree on principles, a Licence to Assign for a commercial property lease, or a formal Declaration of Trust through solicitors for ownership tenancies.
Depending upon their nature and length, such legal documents may also need lodging with Land Registry afterwards.
4. Right to Rent
For residential short term lets, this Right to Rent is an obligation to have vetted adults officially residing at the property, including those not actually on the lease.
Ideally, you have this underway anyway irrespective of lease names, but watch out for older agreements that were not caught under these obligations suddenly falling within it for renewal under a technically different name. So a landlord now needs to complete these checks.
As a rough benchmark, adults who treat this as their home for over three months fall within this duty, so dig into whether any falling-away joint-tenant comes under this category (check out government guidance here).
5. Costs & Taxes Involved
As a final point, watch out for the fees and costs mounting up on something like this and who covers it.
So, make sure tenants have paid up rent and due monies like service charges. If not, then it's the norm to insist they are therefore looking at things like removing joint tenant names.
Letting and managing agents can suddenly demand extra costs if there is a pile of extra work to do, and even if a tenant needs to pay, make sure this is realistic and not a deal-stopper.
Agents do have to watch these levels of fees under the Tenant fees Act 2019 and not necessarily raise for usual requests.
However, if you’re asking for something that other parties are not obliged to process then you still may need to pay an actual administration cost that can mount up.
If it’s more a tenant in common situation, you’ll shape the share ownership based upon individual preferences and financial contributions.
Also, watch out for the taxman taking their share of things, whether that’s a final capital gains tax liability, SDLT stamp duty, or even VAT on commercial and longer-interest residential properties.
This may then require a host of HMRC submission forms and notices to issue through accountants.
In our Property Management Pack, we have the Property Deal Cheat Sheet with 15 key factors to any property transaction to consider (essential for removing any joint tenant). Download your FREE Pack here.
Join up the Joint-Tenant Dots
When you have joint tenant names on a lease or ownership title, removing one of these is possible based on a reduced number of tenants now liable for things.
Of course, this depends on understanding the nature of this joint arrangement and what roles other parties play in this.
Even if you’re okay with this, go through these other above points to see what other issues you need to consider to prevent problems arising later on.
It’s going to be worth seeking advice, whether solicitors or surveyors you’re already involved with or landlord-help services. This is particularly important for any unique situation as the detail can cause you big headaches later on.
Once resolved, though, things can be more plain sailing with hopefully everyone happy agreement.
Need More Help?
In our Property Management Pack, we have 15 key factors to any property deal to consider – essential details for removing any joint tenant. Download your FREE Pack here.
Check out more property-management resources here, or contact us for help and advice.
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