Problem with sub lease renters

hasitbeen

Hello Folks,

This is for a friend so if any information is missing i will try and find out for you.

My friend is renting a property. The landlord is aware my friend has subleased the property out (as he moved to a new area) the landlord still holds a £2.5k deposit.
The new guys in the property have signed no agreement and have now stopped paying rent.

Can anyone advise what my friends position is?

How does he get rid of these guys, can he start legal proceedings? or is it that landlords responsibility to start proceedings?

Thank you

pinkshoes

When you say the landlord is aware, do you have this in writing that the LL agreed that he could sub-let it?

Has he ever remained in the property whilst these other people moved in? e.g. could they be lodgers rather than tenants?

Are they paying the LL directly, or is he paying the LL and they are paying him?

Does he still have a key?

When did the tenancy start? Is it in a fixed period or on a rolling contract? If the latter, he would be best just to give notice to the agent.

HampshireH

I can never understand why someone who retain a tenancy to move elsewhere and sublet. Why?

I also cannot understand a landlord stupid enough to allow it. Very risky decision to make.

£2500 deposit is steep though, how big is the house and how many people in there?

Usually all and any costs associated with eviction and damage will be your friends responsibility.

Sounds like he is going to have a very big bill at the end of it.

00ec25

hasitbeen wrote: »

Hello Folks,

This is for a friend so if any information is missing i will try and find out for you.

noted, so this will be death by 1,000 cuts

hasitbeen wrote: »

My friend is renting a property. The landlord is aware my friend has subleased the property out (as he moved to a new area) the landlord still holds a £2.5k deposit.
The new guys in the property have signed no agreement and have now stopped paying rent.

your friend is a fool. Who did he think he was letting to and who did he think would be the LL in the situation where he sub lets?

hasitbeen wrote: »

Can anyone advise what my friends position is?

How does he get rid of these guys, can he start legal proceedings? or is it that landlords responsibility to start proceedings?

Thank you

your friend appears to be the LL of the people he sub let to. The fact his LL allowed him to sub let does not alter the fact they are your friend's tenants, not the tenants of your friend's LL.

Your friend needs to prove in court that a tenancy exists between him and the sub tenants. Since no agreement is in writing that will come down to whether the sub tenants ever paid any rent to your friend and thus there is evidence a LL - T relationship and thus implied contract.

Your friend can hope that his sub tenants are as ignorant as he is and serve a S21 on them and hope they move out as a result of that, but doubtless they won't and your friend will get the S21 wrong and they will stay on, so your friend will need to go to court and spend a lot of money to get them out.

your friend's LL will ultimately charge your friend for any damage his sub tenants did

[Deleted User]

Did your friend take a deposit himself? If he did and its not protected, he will have to return it before he can even issue a S21.

Does he know what the state of the place is?

Does he know what a LL's responsibilities are (as already said, he is a LL)?

How far behind in the rent are they? I don't know the details but if they owe two months rent he might be able to evict them on the basis of rent arrears. But not having any paperwork will be a slight problem - but he might be able to prove they are tenants if he has received rent at some point.