18^th Dec 2016

A specialist landlord insurance company is sending out a stark warning to all landlords to be on their guard over the Christmas break. It claims that there has been a 14% increase over the last twelve months of damage claims solely down to landlord's properties being illegally sub-let and the festive period is one of the main periods.


More and more tenants are resorting to this unbeknown to their landlords and increasing rents are possibly behind this sharp practise, which could ultimately lead to them being evicted for breaking their tenancy agreements.

It has also been found in the past year that as many as one in six tenants had sub-let rooms or in some cases the whole property to persons not included on the lease. Nearly a quarter of those tenants that admitted to this action, had not even looked at their terms to see if it was allowed and over a third did not inform their landlords they were doing so.

The landlord insurance company said that numbers of sublets increase during the festive period as some tenants who go away on holiday, see this as a way of recouping some of their rent, instead of leaving the property empty.

Eddie Hooker, CEO of the insurance company, said “Whilst off on vacation themselves, tenants may consider subletting to earn extra easy income, but according to findings form an association, almost half of tenants who sublet their property do so without their landlord’s permission."

He continued by saying :“Subletting can breach a landlords mortgage terms and also invalidate their existing insurance policy – so it’s vital for them to be aware of the problems it can present. An increasing number of landlords are suffering accidental and malicious damage to their properties, generating a rise in claims, because tenants have sublet to another tenant.”


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