If so, there is a superb article you should read on the Nearly Legal website and blog.
I won’t repeat the article here, other than to say that it points out the massive problems that can result from rent to rent.
Landlords are often completely unaware of the technical legal issues involved in renting to tenants. For example:
- You cannot create a license just by getting the tenant to sign a ‘license agreement’. Many so called licenses are actually tenancies
- Even if you do create a valid license, this does NOT mean you can evict the tenants on two weeks notice without getting a court order! (As many seem to think).
The sort of problems which can arise are:
- Landlords being liable under so called ‘agency agreements’ for what the agent does when letting the property – for example breaches of the tenancy deposit regulations
- Properties being used as HMOs without proper licensing – this is a criminal offence and carries a heavy fine
- Rent to rent tenants disappearing leaving the rent to renter landlord to deal with the subtenants
I would therefore urge ALL landlords involved in rent to rent to read the article which you will find >> here.
Note that I wrote a similar sort of article last year on the problems involved with Property Guardians.
This is certainly a growing phenomenon that is being felt in tenancy relations land that in my area comes with severe overcrowding as a result.
Just before Xmas I met a landlord who rented to two blokes @ £1,600 a month. Two years in and not a penny in arrears the guy decided to drop by whilst in the area to meet his model tenants and found 11 people living there who he didn’t know from Adam.
It transpired that several were illegal immigrants and the electricity meter had been by-passed.
He remonstrated with the official tenants, who turned out to be a high street letting agent and they chucked in the towel, leaving the landlord with 11 people that eh doesn’t know what to do with, several of whom are complaining because they have no electricity supply, EDF Revenue having disconnected it.
Rent to Rent isn’t illegal but it can bring with it a host of problems
> Properties being used as HMOs without proper licensing – this is a criminal offence and carries a heavy fine
I don’t believe that statement is true. Most HMOs do NOT need a license. Only licensable HMOs need a license, which is a small subset.
@Poppy thats right, not all HMOs need a license (although they ALL need to comply with the management regs). But when they do – its a criminal offence.
More and more properties are starting to need licensing with local authorities bringing in new schemes, so landlords do need to check this. Even if their properties are the smaller type which don’t fall with in the mandatory HMO licensing definition.
Different councils operate different systems. For those that run selective and additional licensing alongside mandatory everyone gets caught out.
The Newham model is becoming more and more attractive to local authorities and is being pushed subtly by the CLG