Mislead by tenants subletting?

A very tricky situation in multiple ways under current circumstances and I would definitely seek professional assistance from experts such as Landlord Action >> https://www.property118.com/evicting-tenants/

If you are aware of or have reasonable suspicion of Money Laundering you must report it to the Serious Organised Crimes agency or at least the police. Failure to do so can be a criminal offence of its own.

Thanks for the response Neil. We have no evidence of the money laundering, it's only an allegation by the subtenant and she has no evidence either.

Thankfully, the tenants and their subtenants have mutually agreed to vacate the premises in one month's time or as soon as flights resume.

Perhaps ask the tenants & subtenants to put their notice in writing. Have a specific final date rather than the vague 'whenever flights resume'. Eg 1 month or at the latest, in 3 months if flights have not resumed'.

And ask the sub-tenants to pay all the rent direct to you rather than via the tenants. Just in case the original tenants are making a profit off of the subtenants.

In the days before we were obliged to carry out right-to-rent checks I used to let to a single mum. She was probably my best ever tenant, she looked after the property, paid the rent on time and got on with the neighbours. After she left I found out that somebody was obtaining credit from the property under false pretences whilst she was in it. I also found out after she left that she was claiming housing benefit and other benefits whilst working. None of this was any of my business as she was paying me directly. I only found out after she left.

My tenant was from Ghana, polite, presentable and she spoke good English. Naturally at no time did she ever tell me what she was up to, she was a model tenant.

She finally left at high speed. I got a note from her after she'd left thanking me for being a good landlord, telling me what a nice house it was and that she'd enjoyed living there. She had no reason to send me the note and she gave me no reasons for leaving.

When I visited the property to find it empty (but clean and tidy), still not knowing why she'd left at high speed I happened to bump into one of the neighbours who got on with my tenant. The neighbour told me that the tenant had left because the immigration people had come knocking on the door.

Reply to the comment left by Darren Peters at 30/04/2020 - 10:47
Thanks for the response. What you suggest is quite sensible and something we are planning on getting them to do. Under normal circumstances we would have told the subtenants that they have to vacate the premises immediately as they have no legal right to be there. And the tenants would have been served notice and they would probably have left.

The complication now is that their flights are cancelled and there is no definite date when they can leave. They have shown us flight bookings for 29 May, but there is no guarantee that these flights will actually fly. Two of the tenants had tried to fly home last month but their flights were cancelled while they were at the airport. So even if we do get it put in writing, there is no way of enforcing it during the lockdown.

I think in the circumstances we will have to serve a 3 month section 8 notice on them anyway, just in case they can't move out due to the lockdown. We have to wait a couple of months before we can serve a section 21 notice as they only moved in in January.

Reply to the comment left by Smartermind at 30/04/2020 - 11:52
Under English law if one party offers a contract and the other party accepts it then a contract is created. It doesn't even have to be written down.

So you would need to be very careful indeed about entering into any kind of contract with the sub-let tenants without spelling out the terms of the contract and also checking that it was lawful. Like for example accepting rent directly or entering into an illegal tenancy contract with them.

normal

Reply to the comment left by Beaver at 30/04/2020 - 11:00
You had a lucky escape Beaver!

We had four UK, (English, Irish and Scottish) student tenants two years back and we suspect, after they left, that they may have been involved in drug dealing, again according to what neighbours tell us. But these tenants were a real nuisance having loud parties, upsetting the neighbours and even falling out with each other and inevitably they left the house in a state. They had paid their rent on time and did not complain about forfeiting their deposit to pay for the damage. Although we had a valid claim, we suspect they let the deposit go because they had fallen out with each other.

We had an application last year by someone who we suspected, from his strange behaviour and false information - employer had a fake website with fake address, salary slip was fake - that he wanted to use the property for human trafficking and fraud. We declined his application and reported it to the police. But the police did not follow it through.

DO NOT take money directly from the sub-tenants. No right to rent checks, no contract and possible problems with HMO licence. Evict as soon as possible.

Reply to the comment left by Beaver at 30/04/2020 - 12:05Thanks Arthur and Beaver. We have no intention of taking any money from the subtenants and have instructed the tenants that they shouldn't do so either. My son does not want to breach his HMO licence by entering into any formal contract, written or unwritten, with the subtenants.

Our priority at the moment is getting all the occupants to vacate the premises as soon as humanly and legally possible.

We are also concerned about the welfare of the abused subtenant, even though it is not my sons responsibility. She called the police, but they took no action.