Illegal Subletting

What is illegal subletting?

Illegal subletting is the subletting of the property without getting the owner/landlord's permission. 

 

Have you sublet illegally, or do you merely have a temporary lodger?

It is essential to understand the difference between subletting without permission (which could be potentially illegal) and merely giving permission for your lodger to have a guest stay in the property. Essentially the difference depends on whether your tenant is paying you rent or not, also, having a lodger under a licence agreement is not subletting because the lodger only has permission to occupy a room, they do not have exclusive possession.

 

What does illegal subletting mean for you?

This could be a breach of the tenancy agreement and result in the repossession of the property.

 

Subletting to a tenant

Subletting is prohibited in tenancy agreements, as such if you take on a paying tenant your landlord could start possession proceedings. You can consider visiting the GOV.UK website (https://www.gov.uk/check-tenant-right-to-rent-documents/agents-and-subletting)

 

How we can help

If you believe that the tenant is subletting then you should investigate the matter without delay, the easiest way is to simply speak with them, the situation may be fair, for instance, they may simply have a guest, another situation is that they are not there at all and are subletting to someone else, claiming their rent as if they were the landlord. The residents are paying rent to someone they believe is their landlord who is not passing it onto you.

 

At Lestons we feel that early intervention can work wonders, if you are unable to attend the property then we would suggest you contact us. Our normal approach would be to simply visit the property and speak to the occupants to investigate the matter, we would explain at the visit that we are there simply to discuss the matter (their instant reaction would be to think repossession or bailiff so we will reassure them this is not the case). We would report their situation to yourself and take instruction (we usually try and do his whilst in the property with the tenants via video chat, that way everyone can understand the situation).

 

We would inform them that should the matter go to court then the results of our visit would be noted. Should the matter ultimately end up in court for repossession then before an application is made to the court they would usually insist on ADR (Advanced Dispute Resolution), this would be via our visitation report.

 

To gain our assistance you need to open a case, this is done by taking advantage of our free consultation service, activated by the link at the top of the page, should you wish to start a case the caseworker will send you the suitable payment link. Please note your caseworker can only give generic advice, their role is to prepare your details for handling by our appointed legal team and to act as your point of contact, they will also issue you with your Password and PIN, these will be needed to log onto your client dashboard. From your dashboard you will be able to manage and view every aspect of your case, upload documents, images, files etc.