How Can You Prevent Sub-Letting?

Sub-letting is where a landlord rents a property to a tenant, who subsequently lets the property to another occupier- effectively becoming the new landlord. Sub-letting can be legal if agreed by both parties, such as rent-to-rent companies, but illegal sub-letting is where landlords should be wary. Illegal sub-letting can lead to over-crowding as the original tenant tries to make as much cash as possible from as many tenants as they can fit into the property, leading to increased wear and tear or health and safety breaches. So how can you prevent this? The first step is thorough referencing of any tenants, if they refuse or cannot provide details of a previous landlordtread carefully. Next, you’ll need to ensure you’ve covered yourself in the tenancy agreement and worded the clause correctly. You cannot simply state ‘no sub-letting’ but must state that the tenant requires your consent, which can be reasonably withheld. Finally, schedule regular inspections and look out for signs of more occupants- either physically seeing more people than is stated on the tenancy agreement, or noticing there are more belongings than there should be such as extra bedding. Sub-letting doesn’t always need to be a problem, if your tenant needs to move for a short amount of time, it may be in both your interests to allow a sub-let to cover the rent. A watertight tenancy agreement will protect you from unwanted breaches. Upad’s ARLAapproved contracts can be made bespoke to your requirements: