Tenancy Contracts

[gdlb113]

Hello all, quick question about tenancy contracts.

Background for context - I am a subtenant, it has come to light that my landlord is subletting to me unlawfully. Apparently it says in the head lease, subletting is permitted if permission is obtained, which apparently, it was not. I have not seen the head lease and the head landlord and the agent seem reluctant to send it to me. They want a copy of my contract with my landlord as proof they are in breach of the contract they have. I want a copy of the head lease for the same reason to then take legal action. The head landlord and agent are a bit stand off-ish and are saying something about a data breach if they send me the contract they have with my landlord.

I doubt the answer is yes, but am I entitled to see the head lease in this situation, at least a redacted version, or is there any legal way of obtaining it? TIA

[islandgirl]

Let them ask the illegal landlord for a copy of the contract he has given you. In your situation I would not help them if they will not help me. Hopefully someone will come along with a legally informed viewpoint rather than an emotional one!

[atticus]

Is this residential property or business/commercial?

[dslippy]

The terms of the headlease and commercial/private question do make a real differerence.

[gdlb113]

atticus dslippy

It is a business to business contract as is the head lease. It's essentially a rent to rent for serviced accommodation for which we were assured that our landlord had permission to sub-let. It's turning out to be a pretty costly lesson. We're thinking we would go after our landlord for misrepresentation but without the head lease we don't have any concrete evidence other than texts and emails from landlord and their agent saying that our landlord is not allowed to sublet. Should we be paying our landlord the rent still? Not sure if they are paying the head landlord now the cats out the bag but we don't want to be in breach of contract and we have bookings on the apartments. Head landlord said they would be happy to let us carry on with a contract direct but after they have our contract. Assuming they would get our landlord to surrender their contract with us... We just don't know if we can trust them on their word. Keen to hear from both of you as to where you think we stand in this messy situation.

[dslippy]

They may be business sub-tenancies. In such a case, consent to a sub-letting is approved unless the clause provides otherwise. A clause against assignment is a clause against unreasonable refusal of consent to an assignment.