Freeholders right to vet Landlords

Comment from Marc Von Grundherr, Director of Benham & Reeves Residential Lettings:

Freeholders Right to Vet Landlords

“We recently heard of a landlord, whose freeholder, the block management company, was insisting on vetting prospective tenants to the extent that he was losing them. It brought us to review the issue of whose business it is to vet tenants – the landlord or freeholder?

“The answer is often in the nature and terms of the lease – if it does not authorise the freeholder to approve the landlord’s tenants then the freeholder has no right to do so.

“If a property can become an HMO (and need licensing) then a freeholder may want to refuse consent to let – but still not to vet the actual tenants! We have never heard of a freeholder actually monitoring the tenants to whom the landlord has chosen to rent his property.”