Longer holiday let - paperwork?

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kathiejs
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Location: Devon

Longer holiday let - paperwork?

Post by kathiejs »

We let our place through Airbnb - it went on in Dec and we had our first guests over Xmas & NY. A neighbour has enquired about her daughter moving in for a while as she is breaking up with her partner & has to move out, but doesn't want to commit to a new long term lease immediately as she may decide to move away from the area. We've said 3 months could be possible as we have no other bookings until May, but as it wouldn't be through Airbnb I wondered what sort of paperwork people normally did, if any, for this kind of longer holiday let? We're more used to being residential landlords so allowing someone to stay there with no paperwork goes against all our insticts!
zebedee
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Post by zebedee »

You are experienced Land lords, so take a breath, step back and think about the facts objectively.

You now let your place out through ABNB, but this situation is not a holiday.
She is not on holiday. Your property will become her main residence. You have suggested it will become her home for around 3 months.
As such, what are her legal rights? Just because you have not issued her with a tenancy agreement does not mean that a sympathetic court would be prepared to evict her and make her homeless if she does not move out at the end of the agreed timescale.
What would your insurance company think if you need to make a claim?

You really need to use a tenancy agreement to be safe.

She is the daughter of your neighbour and their feelings will be highly charged with what she is going through. You do not want to get this wrong and find yourself the target of displaced anger from your neighbours if things go awry. You could be stuck with the ill feelings betweeen yourselves and your neighbour.

There is nothing to stop you from releasing her from a tenancy agreement before the timescale ends if you are both happy for her to move on. A tenancy agreement does not have to be 6 months (as I am sure you know already), and a three months agreement may be your safest option.
AndrewH
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Post by AndrewH »

Agree with zebedee. This is not going to be a 'holiday let'. A written tenancy agreement is a must.
akwe-xavante
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Location: East Yorkshire

Post by akwe-xavante »

Agree with AndrewH...

However you could still rent it as a holiday let, just rent it in three week blocks, renew the booking every third week.

But they take the risk that they may have to be out early to make way for other guests if somebody else makes a booking.

Nothing to stop them booking it via AirBNB on a three weekly basis as a holiday?

I personally wouldn't entertain the idea of a short term permanent let in a holiday let.
kathiejs
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Joined: Wed Aug 16, 2017 7:05 am
Location: Devon

Post by kathiejs »

Thanks all. We've decided not to allow it - apart from the issues raised here, the cottage is not registered as a separate postal address, and we don't want someone with unknown credit history registered at our address.
AndrewH
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Post by AndrewH »

akwe-xavante wrote:I personally wouldn't entertain the idea of a short term permanent let in a holiday let.
I am 10 years out of touch with what laws now apply to ordinary tenancies in the UK, but even when I left the country the law was well biased in favour of a tenant and against an innocent landlord.

So if a tenant failed to vacate at the end of the term a court was unlikely to order an instant eviction. It might be a month or two before the residence had to be vacated by court order. This would certainly upset the apple cart if holiday guests had made bookings covering that period.
Ecosse
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Post by Ecosse »

AndrewH wrote:
akwe-xavante wrote:I personally wouldn't entertain the idea of a short term permanent let in a holiday let.
I am 10 years out of touch with what laws now apply to ordinary tenancies in the UK, but even when I left the country the law was well biased in favour of a tenant and against an innocent landlord.

So if a tenant failed to vacate at the end of the term a court was unlikely to order an instant eviction. It might be a month or two before the residence had to be vacated by court order. This would certainly upset the apple cart if holiday guests had made bookings covering that period.
It's something to be aware of, the tenancy law/rights have just changed in Scotland and I'm not sure whether that's the same in England, or whether Scotland was bringing itself in line with England. Either way, it's a bit of a minefield and if you're not thinking of renting out long term, personally I wouldn't go there.
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