A new sub-letting scam has been identified by housing lawyer Ben Reeve Lewis.
He says it is rife in a west London borough, where he is a consultant.
However, it would appear that the scam could be operating anywhere where rents are high in relation to household income.
Reeve Lewis says that in the unnamed west London borough, families unable to afford the rent of a three or four-bed house are told by the landlord that they can sub-let in order to meet the rent.
There is rarely any written tenancy agreement confirming this and no written agreement with the sub-tenants.
Typically, the family lets out rooms to other people, with the rent collected by the landlord in cash.
Receipts for rent are “mysteriously absent”, says Reeve Lewis
When the local council’s licensing and enforcement team cottons on to the over-crowding and the creation of an HMO – generally after complaints from neighbours – the landlord denies all knowledge and points the finger of accusation at the tenants named on the agreement.
The monetary benefit to the landlord is huge, says Reeve Lewis, who also says that if the named tenants try to blame the landlord, they are often evicted.
He says the scam is a growing trend because of the desperate shortage of affordable homes.
“One tenant we came across is a civil engineer whilst another is the manager of a supermarket, but they don’t get paid enough to be able to afford a single home for their families,” she said.
Comments (2)
Oh there is a surprise! Landlords again are at fault. Nothing to do with the fact that Councils and Government have failed to provide social housing and have caused the very conditions whereby people have nowhere to live. They have facilitated such scams (although strongly I do not support such scams) by their own inaction. Successive Governments have been asset stripping and plundering the country’s silver for years. As they say when its gone its gone!! The major factor in all this is that Government’s major failure to plan for the necessary housing and other infrastructure (including health facilities) for the increased population. The UK Government & councils should stop blaming everyone else for its own failures.
Will,
No question everything you say is correct. I hate the whole landlord bashing thing but I am guessing the borough in question in west London and have no hesitation in believing anything I read about rogue landlords in that area. These guys have tenants in garden sheds.