Subletting is a big concern for landlords, especially if you’re not sure how to approach the matter. In most cases, subletting is a serious breach of the lease agreement. Here are our tips on what to do if your tenant is subletting.
Get the Facts
The first step in dealing with this issue is to actually find out whether subletting is taking place. The new tenant might be house-sitting whilst the original tenant has gone abroad for a short time, and it’s never a good thing to accuse your tenants without having the facts and information to back it up.
Once you have this information, try and get the details of the new tenant and when they moved in.
Get in Contact
Once you have confirmed that your original tenant is subletting, get in contact with both tenants as soon as possible to gather more information and reasoning as to why.
Give a Formal Warning
If your lease agreement prohibits subletting, then your original tenant is violating their lease agreement and a formal warning should be issued that reminds them of that. Notify your tenant in writing detailing the situation, your findings and a notice.
This notice should state what you plan to do if the situation is not rectified, and give them a specific period of time, such as 30 days, to fix the problem and ensure that the new tenant leaves.
Explore Legal Options
If the original tenant is unresponsive to the formal warning, it might be time to pursue legal action or mediation. Before you take any action, however, research your state laws. Since the original tenant has broken your lease agreement, the subletting tenant may not have the right to remain on your property.
Before evicting the subletting tenant, make sure you are within your legal rights to do so.
If your lease agreement does not specifically prohibit subletting, resolving the situation will be stickier. Your state law may offer you a legal remedy, and there are other options that you can implement to rectify this situation.
Last week we wrote about evictions, if you’re curious have a read here: Previous Evictions: How to search for them.