UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi,

I have a property that is let to a family of 3  ( Mum and 2 children) .  When I wrote the contract, I limited the property to 4 people.

I have now discovered that the Lead tenant has another woman living in the property with her son. 
I have said to my tenant that , that is not allowed.  The lead tenant claims that is her sister helping her out as the lead tenant is a single mum.

Iam not sure if the second woman is her sister or not.  What I know is that the second woman has been in the property for months now with her 5 year old son, who is registered to a local school.

I dont want the second woman and her son in my property, the place is not big enough for so many people; what can I do?

Thank you

Your tenant's "guest" is not your tenant. Make sure things stay that way by being careful not to accept anything that might be construed as rent from the "guest". As far as getting her out of your property goes, there's not actually a fat lot you can do, short of evicting your tenant. You could try a stiffly-worded letter and see where that gets you.

Incidentally, you might want to be a bit cautious if your tenant is in receipt of housing benefit. If she hasn't told the council about her new domestic arrangements and they get wind of it somehow, they might decide to sanction her benefits, thus leaving you short on the rent.

Thank you very much thats what I thought. 

She is on benefits and I said to her that is is not allowed to have "guests"  that live in the house.  I also said to her that I dont think the Council would approve as the Housing benefit she gets is for her and her family not for extra people.  She said that she was going to talk to the Council about it but I havent heard anything.

Would the council be able to Claim money back from me if they didnt agree on her "sister" being in the house? or would it be the tenant they would fine?

Thank you

The problem is not so much that the council would try and claw anything back from you, but that they might cut your tenant's benefits and you're then stuck with a tenant who can't afford the rent, which is not a great situation for any of the parties concerned.