Well that's just great letiha, but of course when people take responsibility for paying the rent, keep the place clean and tidy, don't damage the infrastructure and generally act as per the wording of the Lease, well....the Lease is hardly necessary is it ?? Everything just ticks along tickety boo and along we go. Good onya for having a sterling attitude. Unfortunately not everyone has your responsible outlook.
It's only when the brown hits the fan, and (you should know this studying the law) with our pecuniary / adversarial law system, you get the....."and what are you going to do about it" factor.
All of these issues only arise and all of the wording only ever comes into play when things need to be enforced. Trouble is, as many folk have already pointed out, it's jolly hard to actually DO anything. There are so many 'laws' against you to levering unwanteds out of a residence (for many and varied reasons) that it's nigh on impossible.
The biggest thing by FAR with the situation you are all describing, is that the Landlord doesn't hold not nearly enough of the tenant's cold hard folding cash to "encourage" the sitting tenant to take full responsibility. Or as my wife likes to put it, you don't have a hammer.
We've found all of the words and threats and bellyaching in the world doesn't count for a hill of beans if you don't have a hammer to back it up with. If you get a hard case who digs their heels in, I know for a fact solicitors letters are nigh on useless. Costs you plenty good lah, but nothing comes of it.
Police are absolutely no use to you at all, as they will not act without a written order, and we all know how long and drawn out that can be.....meanwhile the cashflow goes down the gurgler and the damage bill goes through the roof.
Not that anyone's interested, but with the Leases we have, the "subletting" clause runs to about 6 pages in itself, and is chock ful of every scenario possible, with reams of clauses that forbid the Lessee to do as they please on a wink and a nod, and the Lessor being able to vet and approve at their total discretion and sub-lessee, as long as the assigned burden of responsibility is fully assigned jointly and severally with the initial Lessee, with a written and enforceable guarantee that the original Lessee shall still be bound by the agreement.....(i.e. no handballing and then skivving off). Suffice to say the conditions are onerous enough to make the Lessee work extremely hard before they even contemplate asking us if they can sublet.
