Leases in shared houses - rights?

randomguy

Hi, I have a general question based on a few recent conversations about Irish house shares. There's no dispute or anything (I live in a flat), I am just trying to conceptualise house shares and the rights of house-mates, and thinking of disputes that will arise with the rapidly-increasing vacancy rates we'll be seeing in the next couple of years. So here is what I am thinking:

So it is pretty common in Ireland for a group of people to rent a house, they might or might not sign a lease, and then gradually as people move out new flatmates would move in so that after a few years you have 4 people living in a house, none of whom have signed a lease, who didn't know each other before they moved in, who each moved in at different times, and often they will pay different rent based on the size of the room.

These people haven't signed a lease. They might have answered an ad from an earlier housemate rather than from the owner. So I have 2 questions really. The first is whether each of those people would be considered to be separately renting their own room or if they would be considered to be renting a house as a group? The second is whether the current residents have the rights and obligations of the original lease or if they are renting without a contract?

As I see it, there are going to be loads of examples of this, especially with reluctant btl landlords who are letting houses they can't afford to live in. When someone moved out in boom times there was no problem, since it was easy to find a tenant. But now the remaining tenants won't be able to rent out the empty room, and the landlord won't want to take responsibility either.

Any opinions on who will be hit, the housemates or the landlords?

antoinolachtnai

The people whose names are on the lease, obviously.

randomguy

antoinolachtnai wrote: »

The people whose names are on the lease, obviously.

Maybe I wasn't clear enough: I was wondering about what happens where it was, for example, a one year lease, and it is now 3 years later, no-one who is living in the house signed that original lease, and that original lease is now lapsed anyway.

Maybe that sort of thing doesn't happen anymore. When I was in college and for the few years after that in Dublin it was really common.

The_Conductor

randomguy wrote: »

Maybe I wasn't clear enough: I was wondering about what happens where it was, for example, a one year lease, and it is now 3 years later, no-one who is living in the house signed that original lease, and that original lease is now lapsed anyway.

Maybe that sort of thing doesn't happen anymore. When I was in college and for the few years after that in Dublin it was really common.

Its very uncommon these days- with the increased rights afforded to Part 4 tenancies (i.e. longer than 6 months without a lease) in the 2006 Residential Tenancies Act- landlords are unlikely to allow situations like this to develop in the way they might have been in the past.......

antoinolachtnai

Even if the people who are on the lease are all moved out, the signatories are still liable. Generally, leases don't 'lapse' - they have a clause that allows them to continue in possession if they continue to pay the rent and don't give notice. Even if the original lease did somehow lapse, it's still the original people who are most likely to be considered the lessees.

But it's true what smccarrick says, things are run a bit tighter now.