A new business is offering landlords a share of tenants’ earnings when they sub-let their rented homes.
Landlords can be approached directly or through agents, and are offered a 20% split.
SharenSplit aims to make sub-letting profitable and transparent.
It has been launched by Robert Sonato, a former student and now a chartered surveyor, and 23-year-old Marcello Pelucchi.
Both were frustrated at renting properties that sometimes stood empty, but which they still had to pay for.
Sonato said: “As a tenant, I found myself spending over half of my wages on rent every month.
“This was hard enough to swallow when I was occupying my property, let alone when I was away and the property was sitting empty, especially as a student, when the property I was renting was typically empty for roughly a third of the year.
“My co-founder Marcello changed houses five times in four years during his time at university, to avoid paying rent over the summer months.
“This is why we decided to create our own solution.”
The platform, available nationally, provides a dashboard where they are able to monitor the tenants’ hosting activities, including guest profiles, and review.
Tenants also have access to the dashboard, where they can create and manage their listing, which is synchronised with platforms such as Airbnb and Homeaway.
Sonato said: “It allows tenants to cover their rent whilst away and provides landlords with a means of ensuring that their tenants are not sub-letting illegally, as well as additional income on top of the passing rent that they typically receive.
“We have a partnership with an insurance provider to cover this specific scenario.”
However, Sonato said that some lenders are not totally happy with the idea.
He said: “The lenders we have spoken to have given us a mixed response so far. However, many have told us that as long as there is a long-term tenant in place and the sub-letting is done on an informal basis (i.e. short term rental guests – not longer term sub-tenants) then they would not have a problem with it.”
The platform is looking to forge relationships with letting agents.
Comments (11)
I only read to line 2. Nonsense!!!
If this were such a great idea for landlords then they would let on AirBnB and HomeAway themselves. If anything goes wrong it will be the landlord who picks up the pieces. Sharensplit Ltd has £10 capital and has filed no accounts.
From SharenSplit’s Terms and Conditions:
“The Company, SHARENSPLIT allows tenants to create a listing across short-term platforms and manage calendar and price from a tailored dashboard. SHARENSPLIT guarantees to the renters a percentage of the income resulting from their short-term real estate rentals on short-term rental platforms. Such a percentage is 70% of the income resulting from their short-term real estate rentals on short-term platforms. Such a percentage is 90% if the tenant agrees to not pay his landlord a 20% share. It is up to the tenant whether or not giving a share to his landlord and SHARENSPLIT cannot be held responsible for such a choice.
Landlords can be given access to The Company’s dashboard in viewing mode; it is up to the tenant whether or not providing his landlord access to the dashboard and SHARENSPLIT cannot be held responsible for such a choice”
SharenSplit offer “complimentary insurance”. No sign of the policy wording on the website but it is unlikely to be “comprehensive” in any meaningful sense. Furthermore, how will this tie in with the landlord’s own policy? If the landlord becomes aware of short term lettings he needs to notify his insurers and he may find they raise the premium and/or exclude certain risks. If there is double insurance, it creates an absolute mess with potentially both insurers saying the other should pay out. If the property gets trashed by a party (not unknown for AirBnB rentals) who does the landlord look to?
Landlords should also look at their mortgage terms which may restrict subletting.
All in all my advice is steer clear.
Just about all tenancies have an exclusion clause (should have if you haven’t people) to sub-let. Does this idea not encourage and facilitate illegal activity!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hi Woodentop,
Unfortunately, people sometimes get the wrong inpression and think that we are trying to help tenants get away with illigitimate subletting. The reason why we exist is that the clause typically states “not to….without the landlord’s written consent”. We are simply trying to give landlords a reason to provide that consent. Rob 🙂
Hi Ian Narbeth, thanks for you comment and for flagging this out. We’re currently in the process of changing SharenSplit’s Terms and Conditions as we’ve made major changes to our platform.
We currently make sure that every tenant puts us in touch with their landlord/lady and that they have written permission to host short term lets. After all, this is why we exist. Our mission as a company is to prevent illegitimate subletting, which is extremely risky for both tenants and landlords.
As of now tenants are unable to get their landlord’s permission to host paying guests. The reason why most landlords withold permission is because it would only represent an added risk.
This is a huge pain for tenants, especially if they are not at home and if they are spending most of their salary to pay rent. The result is that a big portion of tenants go on and sublet without permission. As a result landlords lose control on their property and are not able to know who’s staying there, how many people…etc.
We believe that only collaboration between tenants and landlords can prevent this from happening again. With SharenSplit, landlords are able to make their consent conditonal to certain paramenters and ensure everything is done transparently and above board. Most importantly, landlords are able to maintain control over their tenants’ hosting activities.
I hope this answers some of your concerns.
Mmmm And what about the Local Authority Licencing schemes (where applicable)!
Hi KC54,
As you quite rightly state, where applicable, these apply to tenants the same way that the apply for homeowners. Using our platform is not a way to circumvent this issue and it’s certainly not something that we would encourage 🙂
Has ‘car crash’ written all over it
Hi LetItGo,
I’m sure we’ll get a couple of flat tyres along the way – hopefully no crashes though! 🙂
Oh dear … very worrying. Legal implications are not worth thinking about. I hope these guys have got insurance cover, if they can find it.
Hi Woodentop,
Rob here, one of the Co-founders of SahrenSplit. The main reason why we started this was to try to stop tenants doing this without consent, which carries serious risks for everyone involved – but especially for the landlords. Unfortunately this problem is on the rise and it is particularly difficult for landlords to police.
We see this as a way for landlords and tenants to find a middle ground, but specifically for landlords to ensure that everything is done above board. Of course, we understand that this is not going to work for everyone, which is why we encourage every landlord to ensure that any relevant regulations or agreements are not being contravened.
I hope that answers some of your concerns 🙂