So, why is the government adopting the joint tenancy approach? The government says that this enables “landlords to evict households of full-time students only” as a single group. They are avoiding the circumstance where a landlord may wish to evict one or more tenants but not all of them. For example, if one of joint tenants was causing problems through their anti-social behaviour (which elsewhere the Bill is keen to respond to) the only lawful way to evict them would be for the landlord to take possession proceedings against the entire household. If successful, the (joint) tenant would be liable to pay the landlord’s costs. As a result of joint and several liability, it is not necessarily the “problem” tenant who would end up footing the bill. The government is also avoiding the circumstance where one student, unbeknown to the rest of the group, terminates the joint tenancy by giving notice to quit. Both are interesting examples of a government trying to come up with selective reasons for taking a particular approach whilst taking no notice of other consequences.
The government’s view is that“we understand most students living in HMOs will do so under joint tenancies”. Whilst it is true that the majority of students in the private off-street sector do rent on a form of joint contract, over the last few years, many of the better off-street student accommodation providers have been moving towards individual contracts and there is now a sizeable minority of students who rent on individual contracts. Like students in purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA), where individual contracts are the norm, students on individual off-street property contracts are solely liable for the study-bedroom they occupy and have joint liability for the shared areas within their houses or flats. Providers of PBSA hardly ever use joint contracts. The exception is family accommodation, where joint contracts for couples are sometimes used.
Legal complexities aside, the government should not be promoting, indeed insisting on the use of, joint tenancies under the guise of improving students’ rights.
