What is subletting?

Subletting means leasing out a part of your home to someone else. You have the right to sublet part of your home but only with our permission.

We may not grant you permission to sublet if it will result in overcrowding, or if we need to carry out work which will affect the area you are subletting.

If you sublet part of your home you are responsible for how your sub-tenant behaves.

Subletting your entire home is not allowed and is in breach of your tenancy contract. Subletting stops tenants that need a home being able to move to a larger property or for new tenants to have a tenancy.

Report subletting

If you know someone who is not living in their council property but subletting it, help us to stop it by giving us information that we can use to take action.

Alternatively, you can call 01438 242666 and speak to a housing officer. This will be in complete confidence. All reports will be investigated and action will be taken to ensure that only our tenants live in our properties.

Report an empty property

If you would like to report a property not being lived in outside of normal working hours, you can call 01438 242586. Please provide the address that you are concerned about and any information that you have that will help us carry out an investigation.

Help us stop subletting

We have 8,300 properties and there are currently 4,490 applicants on the housing register waiting for housing.

If a property is being sublet this is one less property that we are able to allocate to someone that needs it.

We are working hard to investigate subletting and this has led to a number of properties being handed back to us as we were able to prove that the people occupying the property were not the legal tenants.

Subletting social housing is normally treated as a civil offence, meaning it cannot attract a custodial sentence. However a few councils have been successful in using the Fraud Act to bring prosecutions, which can lead to a prison term.