sub letting common amongst some eastern europeans ?

jonny0

a good friend of mine owns a string of houses across london.....in the past couple of years 90& of his tenants have been eastern european. He told me most have been paying rent on time, kept house in good condition ETC

But he said recently what has been happening is that he instead of a whole group of them moving in and paying rent he usually gets just 1 or 2 persons who comes to view....then eventually becomes the tenant.

what they go on to do is then rent out each room to a totally different person and most probably makes a profit of around a couple of hundred quid each week.

Now some of them have told him before hand they will be sub letting and reluctantly he has agreed since he doesnt see a problem with that....but others have done that after they supposedly moved in.

Is this right ?....and is there any dangers with sub letting ?

HenryWeston

I dont see the problem if the landlord is getting his rent ok the tenant makes money and the landlord makes money, everyones happy!!

olly300

Actually it's not only Eastern Europeans who sublet other foriegn nations from particularly those from the commonwealth (South Africa, Australia, India, Canada, New Zealand) do as it's the only way they can afford to live in the capital.

The disadvantages of letting people sublet is if the people cause problems i.e. overcrowding and annoying the neighbours/fire in the property then in theory the council can prosecute you, also they could decide not to move out if you give notice to the tenant. I suggest you go to a landlord specific website i.e. landlordzone and ask the problems with allowing people sublet.

PasturesNew

Once a house has more than a certain number of people not related, the house has to officially become a House of Multiple Occupation.
And the house needs a license. As well as a whole raft of additional changes.
e.g. number of loos, number of showers, number of cookers etc.
Also fire regs etc change.

So it would be illegal for them to do this.

Where the landlord knows it is going on he is responsible - up to £20k fine

I think also the house might need a planning permission for a Change of Use