Unlawful Sub-letting

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Marmion House, Lichfield Street, Tamworth, Staffordshire B79 7BZ Phone: 01827 709709 enquiries@tamworth.gov.uk

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Unlawful Sub-letting

On these pages you can find the following:

What is unlawful sub-letting?
Your rights and responsibilities
How would you know if other people are breaking the rules?
What’s it got to do with me?
Does it have any other impacts on our community?
How you can report it

What is unlawful sub-letting?

In a nutshell:

A tenant lives in social housing (local authority or registered social landlord) renting out their home, when they're not meant to be.

Your rights and responsibilities

Rights

You have the right to sub-let a room in your house
If you want to sub-let a room in your house, you must get prior written approval from the council.

Responsibilities

You must use your Council property as your main home.
You must obtain our permission in writing if you wish to use part of your home or any part of the land adjacent to it for any form of business activity.
If you leave your home for more than four weeks you must tell us

How would you know if other people are breaking the rules?

Have you ever thought?

“I’m sure the guy next door hasn’t been home for ages!”

“Hang on a minute… he doesn’t even live there anymore!”

“Why are those people living there?”

“Who is my new neighbour?!”

They may just be unlawfully sub-letting their home. In other words; they could be housing cheats…

What’s it got to do with me?

The Audit Commission estimates that up to 5% of social housing tenancies in your city could be sub let.

This deprives the most vulnerable people on housing waiting lists of a home. There are currently around 2000 applications on the waiting list. Helping us could dramatically reduce this number and help those most in need.

Does it have any other impacts on our community?

Yes! Cracking down on unlawful sub-letting will also help tackle other social problems such as: illegal immigration, prostitution, cannabis factories and fraud.

Ending unlawful subletting can cost around £4,000 where as building a new home costs around £100,000. That’s money coming from the public purse which could be spent on improving Tamworth. It’s your money!