Tenant Insurance Series: Joint Tenancy

Sharing an apartment with one or more persons has its advantages. Joint tenancy provides the opportunity to share expenses and divide household tasks, thus reducing daily responsibilities.

A joint tenant is a tenant with a written or verbal lease who rents the same dwelling with one or more other tenants. Having the same obligations as a sole tenant, joint tenants have the contractual obligation to:

pay the rent
act in a reasonable way in using the dwelling
not to change the original destination of the dwelling
not to disturb the peaceful enjoyment of other tenants of the premises

There is a distinction between joint tenants and occupants, the latter having no rights or obligations with respect to the landlord because they have no lease.

Payment of the rent
Each joint tenant has the obligation to pay the rent. But what happens if one of the tenants does not pay his share?

Theoretically, when a lease is signed by several persons, each joint tenant is responsible for his share of the rent. This is what we call shared responsibility. If a joint tenant fails to pay his share, the other joint tenants are not required to pay in his place. However, since the landlord is entitled to demand full payment for his rent, he could apply to the Régie to cancel the lease and evict all the tenants if one of them is more than three weeks late.

The lease could also contain a clause stipulating solidarity. Such a clause provides that one of the joint tenants can be required to pay the full rent. To be effective, solidarity must be clearly mentioned in the lease. Note that solidarity takes effect automatically in the case of married joint tenants.

Renewal of the lease
Each joint tenant can decide whether or not he wishes to renew the lease or accept or refuse an increase in rent or any other modification of the lease. Upon deciding not to renew the lease, a joint tenant must send a notice to the landlord. If the other joint tenant agrees to renew, he will thereby assume all the lease responsibilities on his own – particularly paying the rent.

When the going gets tough
A joint tenant has legal recourses against another joint tenant who does not respect his obligations. However, for better protection, joint tenants are advised to work out and sign a written joint tenant agreement dealing with certain aspects of living together. These could include ownership of the furniture, distribution of expenses such as heating, cable, electricity, liability insurance, groceries, etc. Furthermore, nothing in the law prevents a joint tenant from assigning or subletting his share of the lease. However, you should know that the landlord and remaining tenant have the right to refuse, providing they are acting in good faith and not abusing their rights in order to cause harm to the departing tenant.

Joint tenancy has many advantages but as the saying goes "good accounts make good friends”. Setting clear rules and writing them down is the foundation of a successful joint tenancy.