Is this illegal?

So I have been desperately looking for a flat as I am starting a new uni course soon and cannot find anywhere. My friend has offered to let me live with her for the entire year (reduced rent) and her dad owns the flat so she's not the owner but her dad is. So she offered to let me live with her and pay less rent but the thing is she doesn't want to tell her dad since he is a bit iffy about this stuff so technically I'd be paying rent but the landlord wouldn't know.
She also won't be there for 8/12 months so i would essentially be living by myself and this place has concierges and stuff. So because there isn't an official landlord agreement, there would be no papers saying I am supposed to be there... so this seems like squatting to me?
Like i am paying to stay there but also I'm not actually telling the landlord I'm there, I am telling his daughter who is not the owner of the flat...
Should I go through with this? I am really quite desperate for a place so was wondering if its worth staying there with her for the first few months or should i just book like student accommodation or something as a back up. I have changed courses and they do not guarantee accommodation for returning students unfortunately so I wouldn't know I have a place until like august and i start end of august...

Stay clear of this, if her father presses charges your done for. It seems like her father and her may have some sort of disagreement and she wants an extra cash flow (shes making money off her dads stuff without knowing). I forgot the specific word but its illegal to be paying rent to the property then letting somebody else come in and making them pay for it. Ok this is from a legal perspective.

If you're really close friends and you are familiar with her dad, its best to do it the legal way. Always better to be safe than sorry, your friend may have good intentions but if something goes awry, it wont end well.

This is subletting and is illegal.


Subletting in itself is not illegal but the daughter is breaking the subletting law if she doesn't have her fathers 'landlods' permission

So if I managed to convince her to ask her dad and he said yes and I was paying rent, it would be fine? Like would we need to sign anything?

So if I managed to convince her to ask her dad and he said yes and I was paying rent, it would be fine? Like would we need to sign anything?

she has assured me that she had people stay for weeks on end and nobody has said anything about it so i think it would be okay if i stayed? it just that its a full year of living rather than a few weeks or a few months, she doesn't feel comfortable telling her dad. she's saying he's quite unreasonable so i don't think she'll mention it