9 months into a 12 month AST, and I’ve just learnt that my “tenant” has never lived in the house, but has been illegally subletting it all of this time through Airbnb and Booking.com. Given its high demand location, and what I’ve seen online about its availability dates for holiday bookings, I’m guessing its pulled in nearly £40,000 for this scammer. Requests for property inspections (which would have tipped me off to the situation sooner) have never been convenient for the tenant. And if the rent payments hadn’t fallen late, I’d have never have been the wiser on the reality of this fraud.
Both section 8 and 21 notices have been served and with the local county court overwhelmed with cases, my legal team have advised it will be at least 10 months to be able to legally evict the “tenant”. Sigh.
Today I experimented on both booking.com and Airbnb. I was able to create and publish a listing on both, using a house address that doesn’t exist, and random photos of a house I saved from a real estate ad, without needing to provide any proof that I was the owner or authorised tenant of the house! This experiment has shown how any fraudulent “tenant” could very easily turn your property into a high volume holiday let as well.
There is a very similar post on another forum. The conclusion in that case was that if you can prove that he is living elsewhere, (has never lived there) and you have a forfeiture clause and a prohibition on subletting and business use in your tenancy agreement, (most will have this), then you can book a night at the place on Airbnb and then refuse to move. This is not a solution I have any experience of, but some very experienced people were recommending it and I can see its merits.
Yes, I did query that with 6 different eviction specialist legal teams. Each advised that even though multiple conditions of the AST have been breached and the “tenant” isn’t living in the house, the Act still applies until such time as 1. a successful legal eviction has been done or 2. I can prove all the conditions of the property being “abandoned” or 3. the “tenant” volunteers the keys/right of entry to me. In the meantime, the AST has legal validity so no way I can get legal access. Sigh.
Just to add, it’s for this reason that I run periodic checks on Airbnb for the postcodes our properties are in just to see what pops up. I do it within a month of newly letting a property.
The point being made on the other forum, was that a tenant is very unlikely to try to take legal action against you for booking the property and refusing to leave if they are in breach of contract themselves. They probably wouldnt win and could be ordered to pay you compensation. It might just prompt them to agree an immediate surrender. Given how long it takes to evict someone through notice, I’d consider it.