Living with the landlord
Question
My girlfriend has moved in with some friends. They're renting the flat and my girlfriend is paying her rent to them. She hasn't signed any papers and none of the bills have her name on them. What are her rights if they decide to chuck her out? Is she sub-letting from them? Is this even legal? I'd just like to know what her rights are.
Answer
If your girlfriend has moved in with friends, then they will be her landlords. As she will be unavoidably sharing accommodation with them (even if it's just the bathroom and kitchen) then she is likely to be an excluded occupier.
This means that if they fall out and want your girlfriend to leave, they only need to give her reasonable notice. Unfortunately, the law doesn't define what 'reasonable notice' is. Depending on the situation, it could be as little as a few hours. However, if she has a contract, she would be entitled to the amount of notice set out by the contract.
It sounds like these people are assured short hold tenants who are subletting to your girlfriend. Whether this is legal or not will depend on what their contract with their landlord says, and whether they have the landlord's permission to sublet.
Legal or not, this will have no bearing on the legality of your girlfriend's tenancy with her landlords. But it's important to know that if her friends' landlord finds out they can take action to evict them. Alternatively her friends could be told by their landlord to evict your girlfriend if their landlord finds out and doesn't want her to sublet from them.
Updated: 24/09/2008
Question answered by Shelter
