Family Subletting to unrelated couple?

Family Subletting to unrelated couple?

13:24 PM, 8th October 2020, About 4 years ago 13

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Hello, I have a property where 5 tenants are staying (not as an HMO – They are a family), each of whom has signed the contract. The contract is expiring early December 2020, they also have 2 part payments in arrears.

I went to visit the property and on entering, I noticed that 2 family members are not staying at the property any more (2 of whom have signed the contract) and 2 other people have taken their place (a couple), who are staying one of the rooms in the property, which has been sublet to the couple by the current tenants.

What should I do in this situation?

Many thanks in advance!

Arjun


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Comments

Landlord Phil

14:40 PM, 11th October 2020, About 4 years ago

Surely a local council will see sense from a) a no sublet tenancy agreement, b) a letter warning the tenant to become compliant & c) formal eviction proceedings. If not, I can't believe a court would be so unreasonable to return a verdict in favour of council action. It's not an intentional breach on the part of the landlord. Its not being ignored either. The landlord surely has 2 options to remedy the problem. Make it an HMO or kick out the offenders. I'm no lawyer but there has to be case law somewhere that supports taking the latter option as reasonable grounds of action.

Chris @ Possession Friend

16:06 PM, 11th October 2020, About 4 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Phil Robinson at 11/10/2020 - 14:40
Ah Phil, thanks a million for making my Sunday, I nearly fell off my chair laughing, and couldn't get past those words, ....
" Surely a local council will see sense... "
;-))))

David

17:38 PM, 12th October 2020, About 4 years ago

Provided that the landlord follows the advice in Smartermind's first response to this post, then I think there is an arguement to be made that it is the tenants who have created the HMO and become the HMO Manager and that they are liable for obtaining/failing to obtain the licence. That won't help with things like voided insurance or lenders threats to call in the mortgage, but its a start

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