A lack of rental supply is driving more tenants to sublet rooms without the landlord's consent, as reported by the Agency for Rental Negotiation (ANA). However, the real problem arises when those who do so seek to make a business out of subletting, which, moreover, they do not declare. The ANA is committed to improving the search for solvent tenants and penalising these practices in the contracts.
According to José Ramón Zurdo, lawyer and director general of the Rental Negotiation Agency, "It is hard for landlords to detect subletting, and they normally only find out about it from caretakers or neighbours".
The solutions proposed by the company include improving the search for solvent tenants, penalising these practices in contracts, or changing regulations so that those who engage in this type of behaviour are quickly evicted.
How does the owner act when aware of this illegal practice?
When subletting is detected, landlords usually act in one of three ways:
- In a friendly way, by bringing it to the tenants' attention so that they stop subletting. However, this approach does not usually work and causes tenants who commit these practices to continue to do so, but be more cautious so that they are not detected.
- In a resolutive manner, initiating the appropriate legal proceedings to resolve the leases due to unauthorised subletting.
- In a permissive manner, giving authorisation, usually implicitly, to the existing sublease or even including the subtenants in the lease, as joint tenants together with the tenant who has sublet.
The problem with unauthorised subletting is that as landlords continue to collect the rent, they do not usually initiate the termination procedure, which would be the best option, to terminate the lease, and they implicitly consent to subletting. They tend to do so for two reasons. Firstly, because they presume that by starting to terminate the tenancy they would also stop paying rent, and many landlords rely on this rent to meet other payments and therefore consent. Secondly, court proceedings to terminate leases and repossess properties in cases of unauthorised subletting are very lengthy as they are ordinary proceedings, and therefore much slower than the already lengthy eviction proceedings.
How to prevent illegal subletting of rooms?
The ANA recommends establishing fines in the contracts so that tenants who intend to commit this type of illegal practice are aware of the financial consequences they will face. However, Zurdo warns that one must be very careful with the amount that is set for these penalties so that they cannot be considered abusive. However, these penalties would not have any intimidating force when dealing with defaulting tenants.
To avoid penalties that lack intimidating force, the only possible solution is to improve efforts to find solvent tenants, even if this means offering more competitive prices when it comes to renting properties. "We say this because when the tenants who occupy the properties are solvent, they do not enter into the game of having their salaries seized for committing this type of illegal practice," ANA points out.
José Ramón Zurdo points out that "it is true that some real estate advisors advise owners not to do anything in these cases as long as they continue to collect the rent and are not affected economically. However, this does not seem to be the best solution as they will never be able to control who lives in their homes and what they do in them".
Another solution could be regulatory and would consist of modifying the Law of Civil Procedure so that these proceedings would be handled swiftly, thus preventing tenants from subletting properties and making a profit from renting out rooms. Another option would be to provide the State Security Forces with sufficient mechanisms so that, in these cases, they could act directly without judicial authorisation.