Leases that don't allow holiday lets!

[harcourtv57]

As if all the FHL stuff is not enough to be going on with - we have two apartments in Southsea which we have been letting as part of our holiday rental business, one for three years and the other for two. Some little while ago we made enquiries with the managing agents for one of the buildings about installing an outside keysafe - the Chairman of the residents association objected (!) and we were then told that holiday letting was against the terms of the lease, and that we must put in a long term permanent tenant instead. We objected and this has rumbled on for some time, but we are now off the hook with them for a while as we have put in a six month tenant over the winter and intended just to start up again next year. Anyway the other apartment has an allocated parking space in a private car park. They have decided to issue all owners with a pass which must be displayed at all times, otherwise vehicles will be clamped (even if they are in their own allocated space ). Spoke to managing agent to explain why this wouldn't work for our guests - visions of them forgetting to display it, being clamped, or taking the pass home with them etc! To now be told again, that its against the terms of the lease!! Has anyone else come across this before? Is it a standard lease term with apartment blocks? I can't understand why it would be a problem but it may become a huge problem for us if we are not allowed to continue holiday lets on these premises

[Hells Bells]

Did your solicitor know what your intentions were when you bought the properties?

[harcourtv57]

No - because when we bought the first one we didn't know ourselves that thats what we would be doing - and when we bought the second one I don't think we specifically mentioned it (or were asked) as we had already been letting out the first one for nearly two years. It just seems a bit of a strange clause. Our other property is a house, so no lease terms to think about!

[Hells Bells]

Perhaps they are more common in places like Southsea.

[Nightowl]

Have you got a copy of the lease so you can check if it specifically excludes holiday lettings? They could just be trying to pull a fast one on you...

[apexblue]

We were interested in buying a flat until we were told holiday lets were not permitted. Should be in the covenants which your Managing Agents should supply you with.

[Nightowl]

I do know that some leases on some flats don't allow it - we've also been the same route as you when looking for another rental property and ended up making the decision not to buy a flat because of the potential for lease restrictions.

[and also the fact that if you have a downstairs flat and the flat above has a leak, you are reliant on the people upstairs fixing it - if they don't you are stuffed - realised that one when we had a persistent leak in our upstairs flat into our downstairs one and thanked our lucky stars that we had total control over it.....] Luckily we also own the freehold to the 2 flats so we can do holiday lets.

We have decided to go for freehold only for the next one so that we can do what we like - currently we are looking at small 2 bed houses with freeholds.

[harcourtv57]

I read all through the lease, but its so old and couched in such legalese that I'm having difficult understanding it. Interestingly enough, the freehold did become available, and we were v interested and the intial costing we were given was £5k - but this then went up to £15k which we simply couldn't afford.

[LaVilleauTady]

We have a couple of buy-to-let apartments in the UK. When considering purchasing, the first thing to get your solicitor to establish is that the lease allows this, otherwise you can get into a lot of difficulty.

I would suggest getting your solicitor to advise you on this very important point - being in breach of a lease can be a serious matter.

The management group can, and do, make alterations to the lease as issues arise, and these changes are passed at meetings of the leaseholders. One of ours recently inserted a clause requiring owners who sub-let to have every tenant checked by a referencing agency.

I can understand why seaside blocks of residential flats would want to create a no-holiday letting rule - it can change the character of the apartments and holiday renters are unlikely to be as considerate to neighbours as a long term tenants or owners.