Not granting licenses to brothels leads to a shortage of working spaces where prostitution can be practised legally. This shortage of safe and licensed working places forces sex workers to work in illegal ways, from hotel rooms and from houses in residential areas. When a town council finds out about an illegal home-based brothel, the sex workers are often confronted with hefty fines for illegally operating a brothel. After that, the tax man will come and demand a share of tax money, based on earnings that are sometimes estimated too high. Last but not least, if a sex worker is found working from her own house that she rents from a social housing corporation, she will almost always get evicted, because operating a brothel in your own house is considered a nuisance to neighbours and a breach of the rental contract, regardless if this brothel was receiving 1 or 50 men per day. To protect themselves, sex workers can sometimes feel forced to hire pimps to stand on the lookout, or they end up with no other option than renting workspace from abusive people.