Your partner has moved in, or is about to, and you want them on the tenancy so the home is properly both of yours. It can feel like a formality. In reality there is no right to add someone to a private tenancy, so it comes down to whether your landlord agrees, and how they do it.
This is for private renters in England. Council and housing association tenants, and renters in Wales, have different rules, and there is an FAQ on each below.
Can a landlord refuse to add a partner to a tenancy?
Yes, and for more or less any reason. When you took on your tenancy you agreed, whether you noticed it or not, not to pass it on or share it without the landlord's consent. For assured tenancies that term is written in by section 15 of the Housing Act 1988, and the same section switches off the usual rule that a landlord has to be reasonable about refusing. So your landlord can say no to adding your partner and does not have to give a reason.
That does not make it a waste of time to ask. Put the request in writing. Name your partner, say when they moved in or plan to, and ask whether the landlord will add them and by which route. A written request also fixes the date you asked, which matters for the fee rules below, and gives you a record if the landlord later tries to charge something they should not.
Do I have to tell my landlord if my partner moves in?
Check your agreement first. Many say you have to tell the landlord about anyone else living in the property, and some limit who can move in without permission. Even where the agreement says nothing, a landlord will usually expect to be told.
The situations split in two. If your partner simply moves in and the agreement is not changing, the law does not clearly require the landlord to do anything, though a landlord who knows someone has moved in risks a penalty for not checking, so expect to be asked. If your partner is being added to the tenancy, the landlord has to run right to rent checks on every adult who will be named, you included, before anyone signs. That comes from the Immigration Act 2014 and applies in England. What those checks can and cannot involve is in right to rent checks and your rights.
One thing to watch if you already share. A couple counts as a single household, so a partner moving into a place you rent on your own will not turn it into a house in multiple occupation. But if you live with other people too, one extra person can tip the property into HMO territory or take it over the occupant limit on its licence. That is a common reason a landlord refuses, so it is worth knowing before you ask.
How much can a landlord charge to add someone to a tenancy?
They can charge, but not much. Under the Tenant Fees Act 2019 the fee for changing a tenancy at your request is capped at £50, or the landlord's reasonable costs if those come to more, and they should be able to show invoices for anything above £50. That cap applies because you asked for the change, and adding a partner counts as one.
There is no separate referencing fee or right to rent check fee for your partner stacked on top. If a landlord or agent quotes you a few hundred pounds to add someone, treat it as a red flag and ask them to justify it against the cap. The full picture of what a landlord can and cannot charge is in what a landlord can charge and what is banned.
Does adding a tenant mean a new joint tenancy agreement?
Usually, yes. The common route is for the landlord to end your current tenancy and grant a new joint tenancy to both of you. Some use an assignment or a written variation instead, so ask which one yours means to use. A brand new tenancy resets three things worth checking before you sign.
Start with the rent. A new tenancy can be set at whatever you all agree, so make sure the figure has not quietly gone up. If it starts above the market rate, you have six months from its start to ask the First-tier Tribunal to look at it, and the tribunal can only hold the rent or bring it down. We walk through that in challenging a rent increase at the tribunal.
Then the deposit. Because the new tenancy is in different names, the protection does not carry across on its own, even where the same money never leaves the scheme. Your landlord has to protect it again and give you both the prescribed information within 30 days, and missing that deadline can cost them up to three times the deposit. Check it lands in both your names with how to check if your deposit is protected. Last, the terms: a new assured tenancy comes with a written statement of its terms before you sign, not after.
Should my partner be on the tenancy agreement?
Being named gives your partner real security. Their right to live there stops depending on you, and they get a proper say in decisions about the home. There are trade-offs worth weighing before you both ask for it.
Joint tenants are each liable for the whole rent, not half each. If one of you stops paying, the landlord can chase the other for all of it. A notice to quit from one joint tenant also ends the tenancy for both, which is a genuine risk if a relationship later breaks down. That mechanism is covered in how one person's notice can end a joint tenancy.
There is a quieter point about what happens if one of you dies. If you are the sole tenant, did not take the tenancy over from someone else (including as the surviving joint tenant), and your partner lives with you as a couple in what is their only or main home, they can usually take over the tenancy on your death even without being named, under section 17 of the Housing Act 1988. If your partner becomes a joint tenant instead, they keep the tenancy automatically as the survivor, but that uses up the one statutory succession the tenancy allows. For most couples the security of being named is worth more than a future succession, but it helps to know which you are choosing.
If your landlord agrees to add your partner, Remedy can read the new joint agreement before you sign it and flag a rent that has crept up, deposit paperwork that needs redoing, or a fee over the £50 cap.
