University house share broken down financial implications

[alldone]

My daughter is in her final year and sharing a house with two others. They have an assured short hold tenancy agreement which names all three of them on the document.
The friendship between the three of them was put under strain by differences in opinions on boyfriends staying almost full time, shared cleaning responsibilities and noise levels. During a stressful house meeting one of the flatmates left and over the course of the next few days came back to the house late in the evening , packed their stuff and it looks as though they have moved out.
There is still nearly £2000 rent due by this person until the contract is up.
They will be contacting the university for some advice but anyone with any other advice?
If we end up having to pay for them I would like to know if we can go through the small claims court to get our money back.

Did you buy guarantors insurance? They usually deal with this.

If not smalls claim court.

This happened to my daughter, but they immediately advertised the room (actually on the university accommodation boards) and ended up filling it with an exchange student. They had to re-do the tenancy agreements, and write off a couple of utility bill contributions that the leaver should have made, but apart from that there was no financial shortfall.

There are lots of people needing a room mid-year, so that would be a pragmatic solution, because (if I remember correctly) the remaining tenants will remain liable for the whole rent. I've no idea if you could claim the money back from the person who left but I wouldn't count on it.

DD had a friend whose living arrangements fell through part-way into the year (broke up with bf). It got sorted in the end.
There will be others needing a space. The trouble is finding them!

Don't forget that you need to fill the space with another student or you mess up the Council Tax exemption.

Fill the room quickly.

Both of mine are at university and we guarantee the rent only of our kids. They are not responsible for the rent of the others.

So check the terms of your guarantee and the terms of the tenancy agreement.

I'd also be staggered if the leaver didn't have a gurantor. The landlord is likely to require them to pay the £2,000. Also they will have paid a deposit, that the landlord can have recourse to.

Thank you all. Good advice. I will remind them to find out about reposting the room and getting permission from the landlord.
Their flatmate has ignored all attempts to contact them and they are not sure what their intentions are but it looks unlikely they will pay the third rent payment due in April. They still have the house key and I assume are still a tennant until they miss the next payment.

Deposit was only a weeks rent and unlike last years rental we were not asked to guarantee rent.
We had insurance last year to cover any problems.

The agreement is one document with all three students listed as an assured short hold tenancy agreement. As I understand it from googling they are all jointly liable for the rent. There are no guarantors.

Have they stated they won't pay? One of ds housemates effectively moved out to live with bf but still paid up.

No they haven’t said anything at all. Stormed out of house, ignored all messages to try and resolve things and came late at night (11pm) to pack stuff.
It would be nice to think they would pay but nothing to date about their behaviour makes me think they would.

Can you contact her parents? Are her parents primarily paying or is she paying rental expenses? I would start with the landlord. Most uni rental landlords know this is always a possible scenario….student exiting rental housing for many variable
reasons. Just like in adult life you can’t just leave your bills. I would not pay her part of the lease/rent. Call her parents. She’s acted immaturely and irresponsibly and they need to be a part of the solution.

You are right that each tenant is liable for the full amount of the rent. Worst case scenario Is the remaining tenants each have to cover half the rent. This is a scenario in which having guarantors will have been useful. But they are where they are.

If the leaving tenant does not in fact pay and the remaining tenants only pay what they usually do the landlord can start eviction proceedings based on rent arrears. Given they are in their final year a court order for possession is highly unlikely to be issued prior to graduation so on that basis they shouldn’t panic, they should just sit tight and pay the rent.

However they do not want to have a debt hanging over them. So they either fill the room PDQ and/or threaten the leaving tenant with suing for their share of the remaining rent for the term.

They should contact their local CAB who will go through it all with them

Their student union should be able to help with this.

Easy enough matter if they don't pay for the remaining tenants to recover the debt in the small claims court (if they have to pay up).

Having an argument and storming out does not absolve her of paying her bills. Unless she's left the Uni completely, they'll bump into her at some point at which point and be prepared for a firm conversation.
In the meantime, try and find a replacement flatmate

@Collaborate you need to check your tenancy agreement. You may indeed only be a guarantor for your own kids, but the tenancies are very likely to be "joint & several liability". From the Citizen's Advice Bureau:

"If you have a joint tenancy, you are liable for the rent both jointly and individually. This means that one or all of you can be held responsible for the whole rent. It’s not possible to argue that each tenant is liable for their particular share.
So, if someone you live with doesn’t pay their share of the rent, the rest of you are responsible for making up the shortfall. If you don’t make up the shortfall, you are all jointly and individually responsible for any rent arrears that build up. Your landlord could deduct money from the deposit, take action to evict you all or recover the debt from any one of you or a guarantor."

So you, as guarantor for your children, would be liable for a share of the shortfall, regardless of which person hadn't paid.

So you, as guarantor for your children, would be liable for a share of the shortfall, regardless of which person hadn't paid.

we aren’t guarantors as explained above. As I understand it they are liable for the full rent if she doesn’t pay her share.
The rent is paid until April but they have no idea what her intentions are. As suggested they have emailed the landlord to explain and are getting some support from the university.

Yes easy enough to obtain a court judgement against the other tenant, but a very different matter to enforce it against someone who is presumably a non-employed student with no assets. It will be the individual named tenant who has the responsibility in law, not their parents (although I agree pragmatically it would be very sensible to get in touch with the parents if you have any contact details)

The paragraphs quoted about joint liability apply as regards their duty to pay the landlord. As between the tenants themselves, a different part of the law applies, they would be able to claim contribution against each other.

Yes easy enough to obtain a court judgement against the other tenant, but a very different matter to enforce it against someone who is presumably a non-employed student with no assets.

They are all in their third year and will be graduating soon. The one who has caused all the problems is doing a business and economics degree. If it goes to court she may find it impacts her career chances, hopefully she will think that through before we get there.

Brilliant message from landlord who has assured them they will not be held liable for the flatmates rent. Asking them to lock the room and not let anyone in without his permission. A fantastically reassuring outcome as they try to finish their degrees.

Not all landlords are heartless bastards 😊

Great result!!

Maybe ask the boyfriends who are staying practically all the time to chip on for their share of the bills!

Sorry if it wasn’t clear, one boyfriend who was with the stormed out flatmate.

Great outcome