Is Sub Letting Your Rental Property Ever A Good Idea?

Subletting is when you are renting a flat or a room and you enter into a contract with another person to allow them to stay in your room or flat for a period of time. The law says that you can only sublet your property or a room in your property with the permission of the landlord. If you have permission from the landlord, you know and trust the person and the contract is water tight then you’re golden, but there are many ways it could go wrong.

If You Don’t Have Permission

By subletting a room in your flat, your own room, or the whole flat without the permission of the landlord you are walking into a legal minefield.

Terminated – The most likely scenario if you were caught would be the immediate termination of your contract. It is written into most leases so you wouldn’t have a legal leg to stand on.

Finances – If you had been relying on your sub letters’ rent to cover part of your own, and they leave all of a sudden, there’s nothing you can do to get money from them.

Damage – If your sub-tenant causes damage then you are legally liable for it.

Legal proceeding – You may even get taken to court and be forced to pay damages to your landlord, particularly if your sub-tenant causes trouble for your landlord.

If You Do Have Permission

Even if you do have permission from your landlord to some degree of subletting, then you can still have some problems.

They won’t leave – If your life changes and you want to move a relative into your flat or you are expecting a baby, you won’t necessarily be able to get the person to leave. They have a contract and rights too so you may be stuck with them until the end of their contract.

They can’t pay – Normally you will remain responsible and liable for the full rent, meaning that should your sub-tenant fail to pay their rent, you still have to pay the landlord in full.

They might rip you off – If you don’t know your sub-tenant that well, they may turn out to be bad news. Horror stories of entire contents of flats being removed by supposed sub-letters have been well documented. Be careful who you invite into your home and give keys to.

At the end of the day it’s up to you and your landlord. It may all work out fine but there are a lot of things that can go wrong so be really careful and make sure you are legally safe.

Have you had a good or bad subletting experience?