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Research carried out by Direct Line insurance has revealed that one in six tenants admits to letting some or all of their property to someone else unknown to the landlord. So do you really know who is living in your property?
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No Subletting Clause
A quarter of tenants sublet without realising it wasn’t in the lease and a third admitted to deliberately not telling their landlord. Of those that were caught out (23%), 11% of them were evicted by the landlord with a further 6% losing their deposit. Other landlords were a little bit more lenient, but increased rents, fines and formal warnings were not uncommon repercussions of illegal subletting.
“The average monthly rent across the UK currently stands at £7392,” says Nick Breton from Direct Line. “This means on average, approximately a third of people’s income goes towards accommodation. With the market having seen a 5% increase in average rents in the last year, it seems that a larger number of renters are tempted to offset this expense by subletting their properties.”
Rise in Eviction Cases
Paul Shamplina from Landlord Action is in agreement – they have seen an 18% rise in the number of landlords seeking to evict tenants who have sublet.
“Subletting is fast becoming one of the leading grounds for eviction, alongside rent arrears and Section 21 for possession only. This has been fuelled by sky high rents preventing some tenants from being able to afford even single-unit accommodation, forcing many to resort to bedsits or shared accommodation.
“Organised subletting scams are also becoming more prevalent, where tenants, or sometimes even fake tenants, advertise properties and rooms on holiday/accommodation websites in order to cream a profit without the landlords’ consent.”
