With reference to the new renters rights act I was told by an estate agent that I should beware of ending up with a sitting tenant when a tenant is periodically subletting a room. The agent said that both names should be on the (now rolling) contract and be ‘joint and severally liable’. How do the new laws affect the subletting situation?
not joined a landlord association yet then? 
There is no specific change to the law on subletting in the Renters Rights Act, so it continues to depend on whether you have a prohibition on subletting in your tenancy agreement and you regularly inspect to ensure its not breached.
The loss of s21 means its not easy to evict a tenant for unlawfully subletting, but you would need to use one of the discretionary s8 grounds and may not get possession.
Olivera, there are literally hundreds of laws and regulations governing property letting and the penalties for mistakes are about to become eye-watering. If you dont have the time to learn the business, then I strongly suggest you hand over the property to someone who does.
David122 that is a very arrogant comment, no one knows everything. This forum is for advice thats why we all contribute.
I absolutely agree with you. Sometimes I think someone’s talking as if they’re a letting agent touting for business. So far, I haven’t met an honest one of those.
I don’t accept that its rude or arrogant to advise people of the potential consequences of ignorance of the law. Quite apart from the damage to their bank balance, there is also the potential for damage to their tenants to consider. Whilst no-one knows everything, there is a minimum level at which its safe to operate in this business and I make no apology for highlighting that to other forum users.
3 Likes
Leslie There are more than a million landlords in the uk. . How many of those contribute here? 20 ? No need to be unkind in comments . We all contribute to the best of our abilities and there ARE some landlords who are not up to date with all the regs
I agree with you and your comment on kindness.. Whilst
“"there are literally hundreds of laws and regulations governing property letting and the penalties for mistakes are about to become eye-watering. If you dont have the time to learn the business, then I strongly suggest you hand over the property to someone who does.”
might come across as rather strongly worded, I don’t think it’s arrogant but could be read as condescending. Last sentence could have been more constructively put eg ‘worth getting training in the basics of RRA which we are all learning about’ and other folk here have been advocating the value of training.
However I don’t think @David122 had any ill intent and he’ll be like the rest of us - we all make mistakes when drafting on fora even when we have the very best intentions
We should all always try to be kind and see advice given here as what it is- the giving of expertise and experience.
Have a lovely weekend all
Good for you ………………..
1 Like