Algy
designer
Deal. And since we're being honest about the lease — Diane's spare key and mine are both on that hook, so at some point one of us has to say whose name is actually on it.
Chapter 23 · Month 11 · Moving In
The Bad Day
Whose name goes on the lease
Oldest line first — the newest line is at the bottom.
Penny
teacher
The lease form's on the table with a box for one name, and the agency's already got mine from last time. I can put mine down again — but that means the flat is legally mine and you're the lodger with a hammer.
Algy
designer
I'll sign as joint tenant or not at all, Penny — I'm not being the lodger in my own kitchen. And stop calling it a hammer, it's adjustable.
Penny
teacher
Put it down then — joint, both names, and the agency'll want your last three payslips and a reference by Friday, the way they wanted my deposit. That's the bit you should be agreeing to, not the tenancy itself.
Algy
designer
Because three payslips from me look like two months on and one month off, and I'm scared they'll read that and decide I can't hold a flat. My reference's my old landlord, who may mention the damp I never told you about.
Penny
teacher
Then we hand it in honestly, because a joint form with gaps in it is a truer picture than a neat one that collapses in March. I've been the only name on a flat before, Algy — I paid the whole $1,150 rent for eight months and nobody ever asked me a thing about it.
Algy
designer
That's the fair point — eight months of $1,150 and no one asking you anything is why you'd rather have the mess on paper than lean on one name again. I'll write that email, gaps included, and I'll owe you the honesty about the damp first.
Penny
teacher
I'll do the email tonight at nine, and before I do — is there anything in the flat we're moving from that I'll find with a torch?
Algy
designer
The damp's behind the wardrobe, about a metre square, and the boiler man once called it "character." Be honest about needing one thing too — a Sunday where the house isn't a site office, because that's the version of me I can actually keep.
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