Rental property help please

[comfyoldcardi]

A relative owns a flat in the UK. The lease specifies no short term rental contracts.
Relative is in another country and rented the flat to a company for a period of one year.
The company is now subletting to short term tenants.
What should she do?
If this is illegal, who is responsible?
I am trying to help her sort it out.
Thank you to anyone who can help.

She owns the lease, the terms of which are being broken, so it is fully her responsibility.

If she is allowing her tenant (a company let) to effectively sublet the flat then the terms of the headlease must be in their tenancy agreement and any subsequent agreement from them to the subletee.

Thank you for your prompt reply fannyandmoonface.
I will ask her to send me a copy of the contract she agreed with the company.
English is not her first language and I don't know whether she got any advice before embarking on this.

Sorry I spelled your name without capitals.
I loved the faraway tree books when I was little.

To be fair to her, she had no idea they were doing this until the block management told her. Hence trying to sort it out now.

Oh dear, what did she think the company wanted the property for?
It's quite common in some areas for companies to rent properties from private landlords and then rent them out on super short term basis (like air b'n'b) to make money which shouldn't really be allowed because they're effectively running someone else's property as a business.

Other companies will let a property for the purposes of putting up their own employees either short or long term so it really depends on what they're doing and what permission (if any) they have to be doing it.

Who is the freeholder?

Indeed. She was naive.
I am not sure re the freeholder. I have asked her to scan and send the documents.
I wish she had asked me and dh first. We could have got proper advice/ found a managing agent.
Now we have to deal with it.

Ah. Now she says she engaged an estate agent to market and let the flat.
We need to see all the paperwork.

Oh dear I do hope she has a copy of the tenancy agreement between herself or her agent and her official tenant, I'd be happy to look at it for you and offer any advise I can.

I've been an estate agent and letting agent for almost 10 years. I don't claim to be an expert in any capacity but would be happy to try and help if I can.

She needs to take action against the company if subletting was not allowed in her contract. However responsibility for breaching the lease is hers. Does she use the agent to manage the let on an ongoing basis or just as a tenant finder?

It depends on what she opted for! The company I work for offer 3 levels of service from tenant find, part managed and fully managed. Our fully managed option includes legal notices but she really needs a copy of her terms of business from the agent and then a copy of the tenancy agreement for the let.

Sorry @LIZS I thought you were the OP asking I'm tired haha.

Just waiting for her to send everything. We are in different countries/ timezones.
Thank you both for the advice. At least we know what we should be asking.

I assume by 'company' she means Letting Agents - they would normally let for a 6 month period initially so what has happened sounds normal.

I suspect that your relative knew she shouldn't rent out the flat - even via a letting agent - and the management have realised she has broken the lease. Your relative is responsible. I would try not to get involved tbh!

I can't just leave her to deal with it. She is from a different country and clearly didn't understand the rules. Obviously she would have done better to ask our advice before letting the flat, but presumably she trusted the letting agent.
Until we see all the paperwork we don't know exactly what has gone on.

A reputable agent will ensure a copy of the headlease is provided to the tenant, in this case the company, along with the TA. If they did ok, the tenant is in breach and should be sent a cease and desist letter, probably along with a s8 notice for breach of a term of the TA and notice of possession proceedings, with the costs recovered from the tenant as part of those proceedings. Having said that, if the letting agent didnt provide a copy, they are negligent and you would have a good case for breach of contract and or negligence against the letting agent. Where that leaves your friend is in a difficult position. Probably the easiest way in that case might be to explain to the tenant the cock up and pay them off to give up the tenancy, recovering the costs from the letting agent through money claim online. Hope that helps.

'@SassitudeandSparkle' a let for 6 months would be extremely unlikely to be breacing the terms of the headlease.