Definition Of Subletting

[trixie123]

My daughter lives in a flat I own , she does not pay any rent but pays the Utilities, I  have received a bill for ground rent from the freeholder demanding payment for subletting. 

 

My question is, do I have to pay the subletting fee even though she has never paid any rent or service charge as I am the one who pays the service charge each year?

 

Has anyone had any experience in this sort of issue?

 

[spider1]

12 minutes ago, trixie123 said:

My daughter lives in a flat I own , she does not pay any rent but pays the Utilities, I  have received a bill for ground rent from the freeholder demanding payment for subletting. 

 

My question is, do I have to pay the subletting fee even though she has never paid any rent or service charge as I am the one who pays the service charge each year?

 

Has anyone had any experience in this sort of issue?

 

No never heard of this before / bit odd 

Edited February 3, 2020 by spider1

[Pyrotequila]

I'd suggest some proper legal advice as it sounds like it could be fairly complex

[Chez2]

Good advice to get proper legal advice. Link to Gov website for reference

https://www.gov.uk/search/all?keywords=subletting&order=relevance

[geared]

I assume you don't live with your daughter in this flat?  You own the flat outright or you rent it?

 

You should first consult your property documents and see what is in there, you might find a restrictive covenant in there about subletting.

Edited February 4, 2020 by geared

[ttparsons]

I have had exactly the same at Riverside some years ago now.  I wrote explaining the situation and they withdrew the charge.

[spider1]

20 hours ago, geared said:

I assume you don't live with your daughter in this flat?  You own the flat outright or you rent it?

 

You should first consult your property documents and see what is in there, you might find a restrictive covenant in there about subletting.

When you buy some flats it says quite clearly in the deeds you cant let it to anybody. This should have been made quite clear to you by your solicitor as its value goes down. There is a big block of flats in   S13 that has that clause on that nobody in the buy to let will buy . If you bought  it as normal  you can let the flat to who you want you must have known this when you bought it as its always common knowledge .  Sub letting is quite common in london were people rent a flat and then sub let again to some one and collect the rent pretending they are the landlord 

To simplyfy things you could ask anybody who owns a flat there if they have 

anything in there deeds that says they cant let the flat as it will be common knowledge knock on next door // 

Edited February 5, 2020 by spider1

[poppet2]

But her daughter is not paying any rent, therefore is her daughter technically sub-letting? There is probably no tenancy agreement or contract of any kind and money has never changed hands. It is just a member of the family, flat sitting temporarily. 

Edited February 4, 2020 by poppet2

[geared]

23 minutes ago, poppet2 said:

But her daughter is not paying any rent, therefore is her daughter technically sub-letting? There is probably no tenancy agreement or contract of any kind and money has never changed hands. It is just a member of the family, flat sitting temporarily. 

I agree, but the Landlord might not know (or believe) that, and I'm sure the OP doesn't want loads of legal wrangling when they're just trying to do someone a favour.

[Jeffrey Shaw]

Is there any documentation recording the terms on which OP's daughter occupies?

If not, and in the absence of evidence, how could the landlord could prove sub-letting?

And anyway, as already posted, we do not know what the lease says about sub-letting.