Housemate(s) moving out

Guest2 · 21 Apr 2015 at 18:47

Previously when housemates have moved out we have had other friends that have moved into the same house. Either that or we have all moved out at the same time.

If there is only a 1 month rolling contract and a person in the shared house decides to move out, what happens? I.e if they cannot find a friend to move in in their place can the landlord advertise for 1 person to move in or is the easiest thing just for all tennants to move out?

We have things such as council tax that will need sorting out etc where we (3 of us) are named

ci_newman · 21 Apr 2015 at 18:54

Do you have a joint tenancy agreement or all seperate individual agreements?

Guest2 · 21 Apr 2015 at 19:01

We have a joint tenancy agreement (but it expired a couple of years ago) since then we have just been on a 1 month rolling contract

Glaucus · 21 Apr 2015 at 19:04

Guest2 said:
We have a joint tenancy agreement (but it expired a couple of years ago) since then we have just been on a 1 month rolling contract

It hasn't expired that's still your contract your just on a rolling month automatic renewal.
So upto you what happens. You can pay the extra or move out.
Or talk to the landlord and see if he's willing to fond someone else and move you over to separate contracts.

Abraham · 21 Apr 2015 at 19:11

You could try and find someone yourself, although if it's not someone you know you might still want separate contracts

dowie · 21 Apr 2015 at 19:45

Guest2 said:
If there is only a 1 month rolling contract and a person in the shared house decides to move out, what happens? I.e if they cannot find a friend to move in in their place can the landlord advertise for 1 person to move in or is the easiest thing just for all tennants to move out?

if it is a joint tenancy 1 month rolling contract then it is down to the remaining housemates really... obviously the outgoing flatmate should help find someone but if no one is found and the remaining flatmates want to stay then you're going to be paying a higher level of rent until you find someone to fill the spare room... shouldn't usually happen in places like London - I was flat sharing for a few years and whenever someone wanted to move out of the small room in the flat we'd find someone else on gumtree within days... usually 40 or so e-mails from the day the advert went up

We have things such as council tax that will need sorting out etc where we (3 of us) are named

that isn't hard to sort out - get bill/monthly charge divide by 3 :confused:

if room empty going forward then divide by 2 until new flatmate found

Guest2 · 21 Apr 2015 at 19:55

We can't afford to pay the rent of the outgoing housemate between the 2 of us - it would mean ~£800 month each inc bills instead of £550.

If we all move out then is it just a case of contacting the council to stop payments? Luckily we are not tied in to anything like Sky

Glaucus · 21 Apr 2015 at 19:59

If you go on your council webpage. There should be a change if address council tax form. Which will cancel the old one and start a new one. Or if moving in with other people who are already paying, just cancels the old one.

Bit like this http://m.bristol.gov.uk/page/council-tax/tell-us-youre-moving-home-council-tax

colzboppo · 21 Apr 2015 at 20:16

When that happened to me, I talked to my landlord about it and they agreed to a reduced rate of rent (not by much though) until I found someone else, they were a really nice private landlord though, probably just wanted to keep the place occupied by a good tenant.

Talk to them about your situation first before you decide what you want to do. Look at interviewing a couple of people for the house shares who have ads for house share wanted, and look for some nearby more affordable properties too, just in case.