Council prosecutes tenant for sub-letting council flat on Airbnb

A council tenant has been fined more than £100,000 after being prosecuted by Westminster Council (WCC) for illegally renting his council flat to short-term tenants through the holiday lettings website Airbnb.

The flat in Victoria, central London, had been rented out via Airbnb since 2013 by its tenant Toby Harman who was taken to court last year by Westminster City Council for breaking the terms of his tenancy agreement. The council was awarded a possession order for the property in summer 2018.

Mr Harman appealed but was unsuccessful and at a recent hearing, the judge made an Unlawful Profits Order (UPO) of £100,974.94, one of the highest that has ever been awarded to the council. The tenant has now been evicted from the property.

The illegal subletting was identified by council fraud investigators who found an advertisement for the on Airbnb with over 300 reviews dating back to 2013, some of which mentioned the tenant by name. Bank statements also proved he had been receiving payments from Airbnb for a number of years. Harman did not co-operate with the investigation.

Westminster City Council has a specialist team to tackle abuses of short-term lettings and more than 1,500 properties in Westminster are currently under investigation.

The council is calling on the Government to introduce a compulsory cross-platform registration scheme for property owners, so councils know what properties are being short term let and for how long.

Cllr Andrew Smith, Westminster City Council Cabinet Member for Housing Services, said: “Social housing is there to provide much-needed homes for our residents, not to generate illicit profits for dishonest tenants. It’s illegal for council tenants to sublet their homes and we carry out tenancy checks, as well as monitoring short-term letting websites for any potential illegal sublets.

“Along with a six-figure unlawful profit order by getting a possession order, we can now reallocate the property to someone in genuine need of a home.

“We’re also pressing Government to introduce a national registration scheme to make it far easier for us to take action against anyone who breaks the rules on short term letting.”