sub-letting
-
Features
Troublesome tenants
You’ve met the prospective tenant and they seemed polite. They passed the credit check and are in gainful employment. Most importantly, their references came back with the green light, so it comes as a shock to find a trashed property during the mid-term inspection or receive complaints about heavy metal music being played beyond midnight, every night. Tenants can be the master of disguise, they may lose their way during a let or invite cohabitants with less than desirable characteristics, jeopardising the property and exposing the agent to unsavoury situations. Here, we discuss the most common bad tenant behaviours and offer advice on the courses of action that can be taken. Sub-letting behind closed doors Sub-letting is a real scourge. From the trivial, such as a tenant allowing a friend to crash on their sofa and using spareroom.com to fill a bed, to ‘professional’ sub-letters and sophisticated holiday lets via Airbnb – all sub letting is illegal unless a landlord has granted permission and the tenancy agreement reflects this. An agent working on behalf of a landlord can start legal proceedings as soon as sub letting has been identified – often when an inspection is carried out or when a…
Read More » -
Supplier News
Rowdy airbnb lettings ‘causing trouble’
Airbnb and other short term lets websites are causing increasing irritation for owners in residential blocks, says Ian Smallman, a Director of Principle Estate Management.
Read More » -
Latest property news
Half of tenant subletting occurs without consent
Landlords and managing agents should regularly check their rental properties to ensure that their tenants are not subletting without consent after new research found that almost half of tenants who sublet their property do so without their landlord’s permission. The findings from the NLA found that of the 11 per cent of tenants who say they have sublet all or part of their property before, just 5 per cent did so with their landlord’s authorisation. The NLA is now urging all landlords to insert a clause into new tenancy agreements that makes clear sub-letting is only permitted with the landlord’s consent, which should not be unreasonably withheld. “This would reduce their exposure to a whole host of unnecessary risks, including hefty fines and even a prison sentence,” said Carolyn Uphill (left), Chairman of the NLA. Some 26 per cent of tenants say they have approached their landlord about sub-letting but have had the request declined, and 63 per cent say they have never asked their landlord about subletting their property. Overall, the findings show that 32 per cent of tenants have approached their landlord about sub-letting their property, with 22 per cent of requests being permitted by the landlord. “These…
Read More » -
Latest property news
Landlords’ body voice concerns over sub-letting
The Residential Landlords Association (RLA) has expressed concern over controversial plans to allow private tenants to sub-let their tenancies in England, announced by the Chancellor in the Budget last month. The Chairman of the RLA, Alan Ward (left), has written to DCLG Director General, Peter Schofield, seeking greater clarification over the detail of the proposals and has raised various questions as to how this would affect landlords with leases, licensing, and mortgage conditions, and why it is that this proposal has been put forward with no consultation. You can read Alan Ward’s letter in full below. Last month, tenant eviction firm, Landlord Action, also expressed grave concern over Government plans to allow private tenants to sub-let from their tenancies, claiming that it would be “catastrophic” for the rental market. “This appears to have slipped in under the radar which, if it goes ahead, will throw up a magnitude of problems in the buy-to-let industry,” said Paul Shamplina (right), Founder of Landlord Action. “We have never seen so many sub-letting cases going to court because of unscrupulous tenants trying to cream a profit from a property they have rented,” he added. Shamplina believes that “the risk of nightmare sub-tenants” and subsequently…
Read More » -
Latest property news
Plans to allow sub-letting would be “catastrophic”
Concerns are growing over “catastrophic”plans to permit private tenants to sub-let their tenancies in England, while a Scottish housing organisation is calling on the Scottish Government to introduce a new law banning retaliatory evictions in the private rental housing sector north of the border. Following the Chancellor’s Budget last week, tenant eviction firm, Landlord Action, has expressed grave concern over Government plans to allow private tenants to sub-let their tenancies by preventing landlords from using clauses in residential tenancy agreements that expressly rule out sub-letting. “This appears to have slipped in under the radar which, if it goes ahead, will throw up a multitude of problems in the buy-to-let industry,” said Paul Shamplina (left), Founder of Landlord Action. “We have seen so many sub-letting cases going to court because of unscrupulous tenants trying to cream a profit from a property they have rented,” he added. Landlord Action, which is currently exposing the level of the sub-letting problem in a Channel 5 documentary due to air in a few months, reports that it continues to experience problems with tenants taking out tenancy agreements and then, in some instances, not even moving into the property themselves, but putting up partitions and sub-letting…
Read More »
