Non paying tenant & court

[Doris66]

I signed a joint tenancy agreement with 3 other students. 1 of them dropped out after paying the 1st months rent. The contract was joint & severally liable. After a few months of us trying to find a replacement, with no chance! The letting agents called us for a meeting as to how we could pay the arrears. The 3 of us left had to turn to our guarantors for help. We were advised by the letting agents that we should take the non- paying tenant to court.
Do we stand a chance of winning or could we go after the tenants guarantor?
Thanks

[theartfullodger]

Ask agent why they are not pursuing drop-out's guarantor.

I don't thing you can have a case against drop-out. The landlord/agent will have a case against "the tenant" which is all of you (all 4..) and if they win will collect from whoever is easiest to recover from (likely the best paid student in their new job). You don;t want this to happen.

[Doris66]

The agent tried contacting the guarantor at least a dozen times. No reply. A solicitors letter was sent, no reply. The rent has now all been paid.
But do we stand a chance of getting our money back if we go to court?

[leaseholder64]

I don't think you have any contract with the guarantor.

[jpkeates]

You have every right to sue the missing tenant.
All three of you would have to take the action (which could be done using the small claims court).

The tenant agreed to share the cost of the property with you and then reneged on the deal.
You should sue them for a quarter (or whatever proportion of the rent they agreed to pay) of the whole rental period.

You can't do that until the rental period has ended, though.
If you want to claim for the rent up to now, you can do that (and the rest later).

You can't sue the guarantor.

[theartfullodger]

...............
The tenant agreed to share the cost of the property with you and then reneged on the deal.
You should sue them for a quarter (or whatever proportion of the rent they agreed to pay) of the whole rental period.

...............

Clearly morally that's correct.

But, please, where in any document has the drop-out agreed to any particular proportion of the rent?

Surely the whole point of joint & several tenancies is that each tenant is sue-able for the whole lot? And if the split is defined in AST then I've always thought that's separate ASTs. But, IANAL ...

Regards all

[jpkeates]

The arrangement between the tenants is nothing to do with the tenancy agreement or the document.
It's to do with the agreement that they must have made to somehow share the costs, for which the tenancy agreement is simply evidence.

What the split was and how it was agreed will be for the claimants to show.