Your rights and responsibilities in a share
household depend on your legal status, that is, whether you
are a tenant, subtenant, boarder or lodger. If a dispute arises
and you are not sure what your status is and therefore what
your rights are you can apply to the Consumer, Trader and Tenancy
Tribunal for a decision on the matter. However, it will help
to avoid problems if you have a clear understanding of the relationships
in the house from the beginning. Below are some suggestions
for ensuring that you have the legal standing you want in the
household:
• If you want to be co-tenants and share all legal responsibilities
of the household, make sure all tenants sign the lease. When
one tenant moves out and a new tenant wants to move in, make
arrangements with your landlord/agent for assignment of the
lease
• If you sign the lease and then get flatmates in to share
the rent but want to keep control of the house (which would
include looking for new flatmates when someone moves out, dealing
with the landlord, organising the rent to be paid on time),
you should make it clear to your flatmates from the beginning
that you are the head tenant. You should give your flatmates
rent receipts when they pay you their rent.
• If you are a head tenant taking a person into an existing
household, it can be dangerous to assume they are a boarder/lodger
without rights under the Residential Tenancies Act. The new
flatmate may be able to prove that they are in fact a subtenant,
and take you to the Tribunal if you have not treated them according
to the law. Anyway, it is a much fairer arrangement to treat
a flatmate as a subtenant, which gives them some legal rights
in relation to their housing.
• If you are interested in living in a share house where
every flatmate has equal rights and equal power, you may prefer
to treat your flatmates as co-tenants. Remember, however, that
unless everyone has their name on the tenancy agreement, it
may be difficult to prove you are all co-tenants if it comes
to a question of liability for rent or damage, or the right
to terminate the agreement.
• If you're moving into a house or flat, ask who is on
the lease, suss out the sorts of expectations your potential
flatmates have of you, and find out whether you are to be a
co-tenant, a subtenant or a boarder/lodger. If you particularly
want to be a co-tenant, you should ask to have your name added
to the lease; if you want to confirm that you are a subtenant,
ask for a written agreement with the head tenant confirming
your status. This might sound like a lot of trouble, but if
things start to go wrong in the share house or you're suddenly
given two weeks notice to leave, you'll be glad you did it. |
