who is liable for joint tenancy??

[Im a BusyBee]

sorry if this is a long one......my daughter lived with b/f and small baby for 8 months-he walked out early april.Then debts that he had run up piled in...it transpired he had paid for VERY VERY little since living there. Including the rent and council tax which he had earlier been taken to court for and still defaulted on court agreements re payments.As he had initially insisted upon a joint tenancy(even tho council allocated property to mother and baby)we are now told by council that she is liable to arrears of council tax and rent .Not been threatened for council tax yet but for the rent they have threatened court unless small amount paid each week. I have made her pay this cos we never been black listed financially and didnt want it to happen.We now know where b/f is and that hes working again and wont contribute a penny towards this debt. I dont think its fair she has to pay it all as she has very little(all benefits) anyway. Her father now says maybe best if she stops paying and let them go to court, why should she pay it all.Is this a good move or would we regret it later on??will increase debt with costs apart from anything else. Also council told me we needed solicitor to get him removed from tenancy agreement, hes received letter as a result of her speaking with solicitor and rung council and they tell him they wont remove him anyway GRRRRRR. Dont know what i need to do please can someone help!

[yummymummy]

From a Council Tax point of view (thinking rent would be similar but can't be sure), they are just as liable as each other to pay the full amount, no requirement for it to be half each. That is one of the problems with joint accounts as problems can occur.

Can't offer any advice on the tenancy names issue i'm afraid.

[sam82]

i would suggest speaking to teh citizens adivce, i have had help from them on a couple of matters and they really are helpful and point you in teh right direction.

goodluck

[themas]

As the last post said, if your daughter & baby want somewhere to live they must NOT stop paying off the rent arrears. If they do, they will be evicted & the Council will not have any duty to rehouse them. It is even possible the baby would be taken into care.
So long as the joint tenancy remains, the ex b/f could return to the property and your daughter could not legally prevent him living there again unless she gets a Court order. If he won't agree to have his name removed from the tenancy agreement the only way of dealing with it is:-

1. Your daughter approaches the landlord, tells them the situation and asks them to confirm in writing that - if she gives notice to quit under the present tenancy agreement - they will then give her a new tenancy in her sole name.
2. Once she has the written agreement, she gives notice to quit. This is binding on the ex as well as on her.
3. The landlord then gives her a new tenancy.
IMPORTANT Be very careful about doing this - you have to get the landlord's agreement in writing, it must be unqualified and you must be able to trust the landlord to carry it out.

[Eveiekins]

I think the best thing you can do is go to a Citizens Advice Bureau. I work for a local authority not in the housing department and this is what they advise and are usually quite good... hope this helps!!!