Although the tenants may have chosen to make individual contributions towards the total deposit due for the household, as the tenancy is joint and several the deposit would be considered as a whole. The balance of the deposit would be returned to the nominated lead tenant and then it is down to the tenants to discuss how the monies should be allocated and split between the group at the end of the tenancy. The lead tenant is nominated at the start of the tenancy by all members of the group.
All tenants within the group nominate a lead tenant at the start of the tenancy who will be the main point of contract throughout the tenancy for maintenance and general household queries. The deposit will also be returned to the lead tenant at the end of the tenancy. It is the responsibility of the group to discuss and agree how the monies should be apportioned.
The deposit is namely for dilapidations, recovery of rent arrears, agency fees due or to cover any breach of contract. If this is exceeded and remains unpaid, the tenants will be contracted to ensure payment is received. If this is not rectified by the tenants, then all named guarantors will be alerted to the issue and given a fair opportunity to rectify. The landlord can seek a court order if required.
The landlords insurance would not cover any damage caused by the tenant. It is recommended that tenants take out insurance cover for accidental damage to landlords goods before the tenancy commences. In effect, the accidental damage policy insures their deposit. Should the damage be deemed as malicious, then the landlord also has the right to pursue the tenants through the small claims court for the rectification of the issues.
In the first instance we/the landlord would contact the guarantor who is standing for the tenant that is in rent arrears. Should this be unsuccessful, then we would notify and pursue all of the remaining guarantors. In the unlikely event payment is still not received, the landlord may submit a claim to the court to recover the monies due. In our experience, in the vast majority of cases, if (and this is extremely rare) there are any arrears at the end of the tenancy and the landlord chooses to go to court to recover the arrears, a judge will determine which party has not paid the outstanding rent and will hold them responsible for payment. A judgement can be made proportionally at this stage as the tenancy will have come to an end and so the principle of “single entity” is not prejudiced.
We have to do this because the group that are taking the property will be signing a single tenancy agreement and so will form a single legal entity. The property is only available to be let to a single household and we cannot do anything that potentially undermines the principle of the group forming a single legal entity. If we start splitting the rent into percentages of the total rent we are doing just that and this has all sort of adverse implications, including potentially invalidating the buildings insurance just to name one. As the tenancy is joint and several, all tenants must be named on the guarantor contract. Every guarantor who is associated with the tenancy will be signing the same deed guaranteeing the whole rent and, therefore, will be in the same position as you.
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