A tenant spent six months paying rent to who he thought was his landlord, only to realise that he’d been the victim of a scam.
‘I rented an apartment from this guy about half a year ago for me and my son,’ the post from @Capable_Blood1968 in the AmIOverreacting Reddit thread shared, noting that until now there had been ‘no issues’ and that his landlord was ‘friendly.’
But when he got a knock at the door from someone who claimed to be the ‘actual owner’ of the building, he knew something was horribly wrong.
The fake landlord, who was actually the tenant, had been illegally subletting.
The Redditor wasn’t without reason for believing that his ‘landlord’ was who he said he was, as he’d been given what looked like a legitimate lease and paperwork.
‘I was confused…apparently this dude has been illegally subletting to me with fake contracts and hasn’t paid rent to the real owner in months,’ the post continued. ‘I’m not sure how long for exactly, but enough to start the eviction process.’
After the Redditor realised what was going on, he quickly texted his fake landlord, demanding an explaination.
At first he claimed it must have been a mistake, but he went onto to deny that the tenant had sent him any money for ‘rent’ in the first place: ‘I’ve spoken with my bank. I’m sorry I cannot find [a] record,’ the scammer’s initial reply read.’
Is subletting illegal in the UK?
In the UK, you can legally sublet your home if the tenancy agreement explicitly says so.
If the agreement says you need your landlord’s consent, that they cannot ‘unreasonably refuse’ your request to sublet.
If your tenancy doesn’t have a specific clause on subletting, tenants with fixed-term tenancies can sublet without the landlord’s consent.
If you have a periodic tenancy (one that renews after a certain period, most often month to month) you need your landlord’s written permission, and they can refuse for any reason.
If you’re a subtenant, and the head landlord (the owner of the property) finds out you’ve been living there and wants you to leave, you still have some rights.
Shelter says: ‘You can stay as long as your immediate landlord’s tenancy [the immediate landlord is the tenant subletting to you] continues – even if they do not have the head landlord’s permission to sublet.’
Despite the Redditor pointing out that he’d signed a lease – and that since he knew he had kids, he’d been put in an unthinkable situation, the scammer eventually ignored his calls.
Sadly, he wasn’t alone, as many recalled similar experiences in the comments section – including @Intelligent—Bug, who was in a rush to find a flat when they were 18.
‘Guy told me he was subletting to me, I didn’t bother checking with the landlord,’ his words read.
‘His stuff was there so I guess I naively assumed he was incentivised to pay the rent. Come to find out 1.5 months in he wasn’t so I got kicked out. I did get back every cent I paid to the kid though [and] I had an obvious advantage because my dad’s an attorney.’
@RespawnUnicorn recalled an experience of their neighbours, who had someone try to sell their house illegally.
‘They had just got married…both parties had owned their homes but obviously only needed one, so rented the other out,’ they recalled.
‘No issues with the tenants until about a year later when they had a pint with their old neighbours who asked them how the sale was going. Turns out the tenant had put the house on the market.’
And for @inComplete-me, sadly they were ‘evicted on a cold day in January’ after they found out their so-called ‘upstairs landlords’ were actually squatters.
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