Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016

CHAPTER 5 JOINT CONTRACT-HOLDERS AND JOINT LANDLORDS

Joint contract-holders

48 Joint contract-holders: joint liability etc.

(1) If there are two or more joint contract-holders under an occupation contract, each joint contract-holder is fully liable to the landlord for the performance of every obligation owed to the landlord under the contract.

(2) References in this Act to the contract-holder, except where otherwise provided, are to the joint contract-holders.

(3) Subsection (2) applies even if the occupation contract is a tenancy and the leasehold estate is vested in one or more, but not all, of the joint contract-holders.

49 Adding a joint contract-holder

(1) The contract-holder under an occupation contract and another person may, with the consent of the landlord, make that person a joint contract-holder under the contract.

(2) If a person is made a joint contract-holder under this section he or she becomes entitled to all the rights and subject to all the obligations of a contract-holder under the contract from the day on which he or she becomes a joint contract-holder.

(3) This section is a fundamental provision which is incorporated as a term of all occupation contracts.

50 Adding a joint contract-holder: landlord’s consent

Where a landlord refuses consent or consents subject to conditions to adding a joint contract-holder under section 49, what is reasonable for the purposes of section 84 (landlord’s consent) is to be determined having regard to Schedule 6.

51 Adding a joint contract-holder: formalities

(1) The addition of a joint contract-holder under an occupation contract may be effected only by a document signed or executed by each of the parties to the transaction.

(2) If the contract requires the landlord’s consent to the addition, the document must also be signed or executed by the landlord.

(3) But subsection (2) does not apply if the landlord is treated as having consented under section 84(6), (8) or (10).

Joint contract-holders: survivorship

52 Joint contract-holder ceasing to be a party to the occupation contract

(1) If a joint contract-holder under an occupation contract dies, or ceases to be a party to the contract for some other reason, from the time he or she ceases to be a party the remaining joint contract-holders are—

(a) fully entitled to all the rights under the contract, and

(b) liable to perform fully every obligation owed to the landlord under the contract.

(2) The joint contract-holder is not entitled to any right or liable to any obligation in respect of the period after he or she ceases to be a party to the contract.

(3) Nothing in subsection (1) or (2) removes any right or waives any liability of the joint contract-holder accruing before he or she ceases to be a party to the contract.

(4) This section does not apply where a joint contract-holder ceases to be a party to the contract because his or her rights and obligations under the contract are transferred in accordance with the contract.

(5) This section is a fundamental provision which is incorporated as a term of all occupation contracts; section 20 provides that this section—

(a) must be incorporated, and

(b) must not be incorporated with modifications.

Joint landlords

53 Joint landlords

(1) This section applies if two or more persons jointly constitute the landlord under an occupation contract.

(2) Each of them is fully liable to the contract-holder for the performance of every obligation owed to the contract-holder under the contract.

(3) References in this Act to the landlord are to the persons who jointly constitute the landlord.