Joint Tenants Less Protected In Evictions

'This ruling is positive for landlords, who often have difficulty identifying who their tenants live with, but it leaves unmarried tenants very much unprotected,' says Regina Santos Pereira, a lawyer specialising in tenancy. At the end of the day, if the person living with the tenant doesn't know what's going on, they risk becoming homeless because they haven't even used the notice period to find new accommodation, she explains.

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The obligation for landlords to send notices to tenants to both spouses when a couple lives in the house has been in the law since 2012 and was reinforced in 2017, with an amendment that included in the initial rule the indication that this must be the case 'under penalty of ineffectiveness'. However, it was debated whether this meant sending two separate letters, one to each person, or whether it was enough to address the same letter to the couple. Many cases reached the courts and case law today is that two letters must be sent,