Assignment of a Lease
Assignment occurs when a lease already exists, and someone agrees to step into the place of the tenant. The lease is assigned completely with no change in terms and conditions.
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For example, John rents a place from you. John is the tenant and you are the landlord. John then assigns the lease to Bob. John moves out and Bob moves in. Bob is now the tenant and pays rent straight to you. This is different from a sub-lease where John would be Bob’s landlord. |
However, unless the original tenant (John) obtains a release from you, he remains responsible for the rent. A release will be a new agreement, which releases John from all his obligations as a tenant to you. If there is no release and Bob does not pay the rent for some reason, you can still ask John to pay the rent.
It is therefore important for the original tenant to have a release in the form of a written agreement to say that you accept someone new as the tenant. In the above example, John would ask you to sign an agreement that acknowledges that Bob is the new tenant. This agreement will acknowledge that John is no longer responsible for the premises.
If you have agreed to the assignment, Bob is considered to be a tenant within the meaning of the Residential Tenancies Act. The Act states specifically that a tenant for the purposes of the Act, is also a person who is living in the premises under an assignment that has been consented to by the landlord.
A tenant needs the written permission of a landlord to assign the property. If he makes a request to assign, you can only refuse on reasonable grounds and cannot charge a fee or ask for anything else for giving consent. If you do not answer the request within 14 days, you are taken to have agreed to your request.
January 2006