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Recurrent bookings and FHL qualification

Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2017 10:05 am
by deebeegee
I've been letting my flat in London out to guests as a Furnished Holiday Let for 18 months. The chap who is in now is going to be working in London 5 days a week for the next couple of years and has requested to book out my flat Sunday-Friday for about 46 weeks of each year. I probably wouldn't try and fill the weekends but would advertise the weeks when it would be empty through the usual channels. He specifically doesn't want a tenancy as he wants the flexibility to cancel if his contract ends and also to only pay for the times he needs it rather than throughout the year.

From a strict interpretation of the FHL rules I think I would satisfy the pattern of occupation, availability and letting criteria but it feels like this scenario may run contrary to the spirit of the law. Has anyone done anything similar or know how HMRC might look upon such an arrangement?

Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2017 11:32 am
by Giraffe
When I first started holiday letting 15 years ago, In the first year I did holiday lets for 6 months of the year, and a 6 month contract let for the low season when it's not so easy to holiday let a large house in Cornwall. HMRC let me split the year and claim half the running costs towards the FHL. Whether they would do this now I do not know.

But if you are only letting each week for only 5 nights to the same person this may fall within the FHL rules. If your visitor was using B&B his arrangement would fall within their rules. If you are concerned, why not check with HMRC?