Names on any Tenancy Agreement should ‘always’ match the occupiers where possible (not under 18s though). Otherwise there can be complications. Consider if you only put one tenant’s name on the Tenancy Agreement and he/she leaves and the other remains? What is the remaining occupiers legal status? Is he/she a tenant or trespasser? If one of the occupiers is not on the Tenancy Agreement he/she is not a tenant and therefore you cannot legally serve him/her notice. If both occupiers are named on the Tenancy Agreement, the position is clear – they are both tenants and so we know what we need to do (serve notice, court order etc.) and it all becomes much easier. Also, having both occupiers on the Tenancy Agreement is advantageous because if one fails to pay you can pursue the other! Finally if one of the occupiers is not a tenant how do you manage things like the reporting of repairs or periodic inspections?
