AIBU to think my tenant might be subletting

[landladywithmissingtenant]

I live in a flat in a large block (60 flats in all) I own the one I live in and one other, which I rent out.
I used to see my tenant now and again, probably twice a month or so but I have realised that I haven't seen her in about a year or more. My daughter lives nearby and also used to bump into her quite a lot at the local shop and she says she hasn't seen her in ages either.
She's a retired single lady and it's a single occupancy studio flat.
The other day I was locked out of the main building and I rang her buzzer to ask if she wouldn't mind letting me back in and a man answered and buzzed me in before I'd finished my sentence.
I tried the buzzer again the next day and no-one answered.
Am I being unreasonable to think she might have left the flat and be subletting it? or something more sinister?
And WIBU to go and knock on her door and see if she's there? I'm worried I might come across as harassing her. And what do I say if she answers?

No, just a factual one.

TBH id send a note through the door stating you are going to be doing an electric test in the next 2 weeks - and could they give you a date that is convent to do this on within that time frame - give your phone number and see what comes back

I lived in a flat fir 4 years that was all electric but still had to have gas safety checks every year even though there was no gas.

Still need electric and smoke alarms checked regularly

My first thought would be she’s got a boyfriend!
I let to a single woman and if a man answered that’s what I’d think! Certainly wouldn’t occurred to me she was subletting
But as you normally see her once in a while I’d reach out and do as has been suggested. Say you need to do a flat inspection for whatever reason and you will have your answer!

Why so rude? Are you the landlady that had a thread deleted last night? You have a similar posting style

If you haven’t checked the property in a year who has been doing the gas safety checks? Because if you want to terminate her tenancy you can’t serve a s21 unless they are up to date

That is interesting, I live next door to a house of hell, the landlord is appalling and despite the propery being in a Selective Licensing area and his breaking all the regulations nothing seems to be being done. I am in regular contact with the licensing people who have told me that some of the tenants are in the country illegally and that the propery is in a very poor state of repair. The tenants also make my life a misery, think noise, drug dealing, using my address to commit fraud (phone, and benefit, I have had all the debt collectors letters!). The council inspected it two years ago and told me it was a serious situation, and they were taking action; yet, nothing has been done. They told me he has 3 other properties all in a similar state, I can't understand why they have not taken him to court

The post literally above yours says it’s all electric.

It was just a response in kind to a rude poster. No need to develop a conspiracy theory to explain why someone isn’t indulging nasty and ignorant posters on AIBU.

You have the right , providing you give them notice, to examine the flat.

Just a warning, when I was MUCH younger, my BF & me rented a 2 bed flat. We had a friend living with us &, when the LL gave us notice to inspect the property, we would either say that we had my sister staying in the spare room or, (after a year & 2 visits) we would just cram our lodger's wardrobes with clothes etc & tell them that we were using it as an overflow for my clothes.

We were also not allowed to have pets, so locked the cat door (we had 2 cats) & when they tried to get into the cat doors during the visit we told the LL that they were neighbour's cats who we fed. 😗

We redecorate our let’s every 5 years (unless tenants do their own to a decent standard), we do checks every 6 months.

Start doing a regular check and pay more attention to your property!

There is no requirement for landlords to do gas safety checks on houses that are not connected to the gas supply and don’t have gas appliances. It’s possible your home used to have gas and while the appliances had been removed the pipes had not been disconnected from the gas supply. In this case a gas safety certificate is still required even though you don’t use gas in the house at all. An alternative explanation is that your landlord had several properties and contracted someone to check all of them just to make sure none that actually needed it got missed.

Just knock on and say you are checking in as you haven’t seen her in a while.

I lived in a block of flats during COVID at one point the whole place smelt of rotten rubbish it turned out that a neighbour had been dead for months by the time they found her.

If you move someone else into the property don’t you have to let the landlord know? I know he might have just been visiting but the LL would have a right to check wouldn’t they?

Well shoot me for not reading every single post in a 5 page thread before responding

Yes, immigrants have to give you a share code to prove they are here legally. I'd send a letter giving 24 hours notice of inspection. Also if I suspected she was subletting I'd raise rent to market value so she had no incentive to do so.

It was actually the 22nd post in which OP said the flat was all electric. Is that not still on the first page for you?

You don't have to read the full thread but you can read just OP's comments. It helps to make sure you've seen all OP comments as then you don't have to post things that have already been answered/clarified, making the thread unnecessarily longer

No, it doesn't. That's not how it works.

Thank you.

I got told to "up my game" with wrong information from someone who hadn't read my updates, and I gave a response in kind. I then get told by two seperate people that I'm the rude one.

And yes, some of my responses have been "snippy" but people are berating me with wrong information, advising me (wrongly!) on things I didn't ask for advice on, and making a lot of assumptions about something I know more about than they do (and so I should, it's my responsibility)

I know people don't like landlords, but I inherited some money from my mum. Instead of blowing it on crap or hoarding it in the bank, I bought a cheap, run down property taking up all of my inheritance, worked hard on it, did it up with money I earned, and instead of selling it for double the price, I rented it out cheaply to someone who was in need of housing.

I'm not some big rich landlord who doesn't care about her tenant. So I don't see why people are trying to trip me up and catch me out. I just wanted some advice.

OP - I'm curious, if you live in the same block, how come you only saw her twice a month?

Separate entrances. It's a big building and her entrance is round the front, on the main road.
I live round the back on the ground floor and I have my own private entrance directly into my flat. She parks on the main road and I park in the underground carpark.
I'm actually more likely to bump into her at the shop near the building than in the building.

They really should, thats shocking. Those poor people who might die in a fire because he can't be bothered. My place was in a selective licensing area too, there were loads of raids but so many kept popping up.

Just a thought but you mentioned that she parks on the main road - do you know what make/colour or registration number her car is? Just thinking that you could give it two or three days and check to see if you see her car and, if you don’t, then some of the other modes of checking the flat might be worth trying.