Paying more than half the rent to leaseholder

Jay D

Just wondering has anyone here experienced this? A close relative has recently found out she has paid over half the rent for the past 3 years.

When she moved in initially it was a verbal agreement but bills and rent have been paid via bank transfer.

This only came to light when she recently found a letter stating that the landlord had wished to sell and gave plenty of notice, also stating the deposit to be returned.

I told her when moving in to ask to look at the lease agreement. However, that never happened. So just wondering what the best course of action would be when the person who holds the lease has been charging more than half the actual rent for so long. It's well into the thousands now.

Any advice will be appreciated. Thanks.

listermint

Your friend agreed to a price im sure ?


Ergo. Nothing can be done.

theteal

Yeah, not seeing the issue here, sorry OP. It's a crappy thing to do but there's no contract or anything so mark it down to experience.

yabadabado

Agreed on a price and was happy to pay it?

Tow

Not sure what your problem is? I take it the lease holder is the person who is renting the property from the landlord, and has sub let (probably under Rent a Room rules) to your relative, at whatever rate the market can bare. Nothing wrong here!

The leaseholder can ask what ever rent he wanted, he could ask for more than the rent if he wanted and there would be noting wrong with that. She is a licensee of the leaseholder and basically has no rights.

Also its not uncommon for people who have been the longest living in a houseshare (where each renter does not pay the LL individually) to subsidise their own rent by having new people pay a bigger proportion.

_Dara_

Xander Swift Southerner wrote: »

The leaseholder can ask what ever rent he wanted, he could ask for more than the rent if he wanted and there would be noting wrong with that. She is a licensee of the leaseholder and basically has no rights.

Also its not uncommon for people who have been the longest living in a houseshare (where each renter does not pay the LL individually) to subsidise their own rent by having new people pay a bigger proportion.

That has never been the case in any houseshare I’ve been in (and there were many). It’s either been the same rate for every room or that the people with the largest rooms pay a bit more (and the people with the biggest rooms were usually the veteran housemates). Getting people to pay more just because they are new is pretty underhand. For a larger portion of rent, there should be a perk such as a large room or en suite or whatever.

Bubbaclaus

Xander Swift Southerner wrote: »

The leaseholder can ask what ever rent he wanted, he could ask for more than the rent if he wanted and there would be noting wrong with that. She is a licensee of the leaseholder and basically has no rights.

Also its not uncommon for people who have been the longest living in a houseshare (where each renter does not pay the LL individually) to subsidise their own rent by having new people pay a bigger proportion.

That seems very underhanded for a houseshare. It's ok in the OPs position as it is a sublet scenario, however it's a ****ty thing to do in a houseshare and it's not something I have ever heard of before in one (and I have lived in 6 different houseshares in the last 10 years). All individuals in a houseshare are equal.

Mrs OBumble

_Dara_ wrote: »

That has never been the case in any houseshare I’ve been in (and there were many). It’s either been the same rate for every room or that the people with the largest rooms pay a bit more (and the people with the biggest rooms were usually the veteran housemates). Getting people to pay more just because they are new is pretty underhand. For a larger portion of rent, there should be a perk such as a large room or en suite or whatever.

I've done it.

Was 100% up-front with my fellow tenants.

The sweetener for them was that I covered the excess rent when we had an empty room. Because ... they couldn't afford it, I could, and I had other things going on in my life at the time which meant I really didn't want to move house.

So i added a small amount (about a tenner I think) to their rent on-going, agreed they could move out any time they wanted and only pay for days actually lived there. They stayed and I only had to cover one or two empty rooms.


Also - there are other non-equal scenarios: larger rooms, car-parks, five-day occupants, etc.

James 007

Bubbaclaus wrote: »

....... All individuals in a houseshare are equal.

Yes, but some individuals in a houseshare are more equal than others. I have always ensured that it has never happened to me. I have heard it happening. For example the longest serving tenant may be collecting all the rent, may be paying all the bills, they have built up a relationship with the landlord. They may also be doing all the viewings for new tenants etc. In this case the landlord is happy to have the longest serving tenant clean up and rent out the room. Landlord does not have to do anything. The tenant then has a right to rent out at a market rate. If the licencee agrees to it then its all considered above board.

the_syco

Jay D wrote: »

Just wondering has anyone here experienced this? A close relative has recently found out she has paid over half the rent for the past 3 years.

If she didn't like renting there, she could have moved, no?

dudara

Also, the deposit may represent the original rent amount, but the rent could have increased since then.

In the end of the day, your friend was happy to pay the amount she paud. She has no comeback.

cloneslad

Is it possible the deposit to be returned is for an older rental agreeement? When I was renting I sub let the other bedroom, it was a bit bigger than mine and had it's own bathroom (but not ensuite) and I leased it at half the cost of the rent at the time (which was €1,150 a month) but the only written rental agreement I had was for €1,000 per month, which I had from I first moved in 2 years before the rental increase.

Either way, there's not much she can do but she may actually not be paying more than the other tenant. If she was happy to pay that amount for the past three years then I wouldn't worry what others were paying.

_Dara_

_Dara_ wrote: »

That has never been the case in any houseshare I’ve been in (and there were many). It’s either been the same rate for every room or that the people with the largest rooms pay a bit more (and the people with the biggest rooms were usually the veteran housemates). Getting people to pay more just because they are new is pretty underhand. For a larger portion of rent, there should be a perk such as a large room or en suite or whatever.

I haven't directly experienced it myself, mostly as it's been rooms let separately I lived in so rent was straight to the LL but I've certainly heard of it happening where there is a "head tenant", even on here I've seen it mentioned in threads.

Tigger

Jay D wrote: »

Just wondering has anyone here experienced this? A close relative has recently found out she has paid over half the rent for the past 3 years.

When she moved in initially it was a verbal agreement but bills and rent have been paid via bank transfer.

This only came to light when she recently found a letter stating that the landlord had wished to sell and gave plenty of notice, also stating the deposit to be returned.

I told her when moving in to ask to look at the lease agreement. However, that never happened. So just wondering what the best course of action would be when the person who holds the lease has been charging more than half the actual rent for so long. It's well into the thousands now.

Any advice will be appreciated. Thanks.

tell her not to open other peoples post

quickbeam

I've done it too. I rented a three bed apartment and sublet the two largest rooms for a substantial portion of the overall rent. What I was left with was probably less than what I'd have paid for a similarly sized bedroom if I'd not been the leaseholder. The saving helped me save for a deposit on a house of my own. It's not all plain sailing though - any empty periods had to be covered by myself and I had to do the advertising for new tenants when required (pre internet days: meant putting an ad in the paper with the costs that that incurred). Overall, if people are happy to pay for the rent you charge, then there's not a lot of problem.

Bubbaclaus

James 007 wrote: »

Yes, but some individuals in a houseshare are more equal than others. I have always ensured that it has never happened to me. I have heard it happening. For example the longest serving tenant may be collecting all the rent, may be paying all the bills, they have built up a relationship with the landlord. They may also be doing all the viewings for new tenants etc. In this case the landlord is happy to have the longest serving tenant clean up and rent out the room. Landlord does not have to do anything. The tenant then has a right to rent out at a market rate. If the licencee agrees to it then its all considered above board.

That's a licensee arrangement, not a houseshare. I agreed in my post that it's fine in a licensee arrangement.

James 007

Bubbaclaus wrote: »

That's a licensee arrangement, not a houseshare. I agreed in my post that it's fine in a licensee arrangement.

Thats fine, there's no point in discussing the houseshare issue as this is not the case for the OPs friend. The OPs friend is a licencee arrangement with lease holder.

Bubbaclaus

James 007 wrote: »

Thats fine, there's no point in discussing the houseshare issue as this is not the case for the OPs friend. The OPs friend is a licencee arrangement with lease holder.

That's fine. I was responding to a post about houseshares though.

_Dara_

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

I've done it.

Was 100% up-front with my fellow tenants.

The sweetener for them was that I covered the excess rent when we had an empty room. Because ... they couldn't afford it, I could, and I had other things going on in my life at the time which meant I really didn't want to move house.

So i added a small amount (about a tenner I think) to their rent on-going, agreed they could move out any time they wanted and only pay for days actually lived there. They stayed and I only had to cover one or two empty rooms.


Also - there are other non-equal scenarios: larger rooms, car-parks, five-day occupants, etc.

Yeah, I mentioned those non-equal things in my post.