Short terms lease - property

[BREMBOV6]

Morning,

Hoping someone can perhaps help or point me in the right direction. I bought my first flat about 2.5 years ago but have probably in the last year been spending more time at my partners place. My intentions are to place my property on Airbnb but given the lockdowns etc have not yet done this as didn't feel it would work out.

I am now looking at doing a short term lease (2/3/4 months) and potentially have someone who is interested. However I am wondering what I need to do to make this feasible and legal/above board? I assume mortgage needs updated and home insurance. Ideally I would like to have kept bills etc in my name so that when things hopefully improve moving over to Airbnb is simpler.

Any suggestions would be helpful.

Many thanks

[yellowbentines]

If you want it to be set up fully legal/compliant then you probably won't like what you need to do:

- Tenancy agreement (to my knowledge all tenancy agreements in Scotland are now monthly rolling contracts with 1 month notice required)
- Register as landlord with local council
- Gas safety certificate
- Energy Performance Certiciate
- Electrical safety certificate (EICR)
- Pay tax on any rental income
- Keep deposit in an approved scheme
- Inform mortgage lender
- Change Buildings Insurance

Also be aware that very very few lenders permit Air B n B lettings, and local councils and neighbours don't like them either.

I have a couple of modest properties I let, it can be a bit of a headache at times, and a complete ballache at others

[BREMBOV6]

yellowbentines said:

If you want it to be set up fully legal/compliant then you probably won't like what you need to do:

- Tenancy agreement (to my knowledge all tenancy agreements in Scotland are now monthly rolling contracts with 1 month notice required)
- Register as landlord with local council
- Gas safety certificate
- Energy Performance Certiciate
- Electrical safety certificate (EICR)
- Pay tax on any rental income
- Keep deposit in an approved scheme
- Inform mortgage lender
- Change Buildings Insurance

Also be aware that very very few lenders permit Air B n B lettings, and local councils and neighbours don't like them either.

I have a couple of modest properties I let, it can be a bit of a headache at times, and a complete ballache at others

Oh hum. I expected as much a lot of effort for potentially only 2/3 months but I also have a flat sitting empty. I assume the above would need carried out for airbnb? I am under Edinburgh Council but not central, I stay very close to three bridges

Many thanks for your reply

[yellowbentines]

BREMBOV6 said:

I assume the above would need carried out for airbnb?

I'm unsure on what you need to do to lawfully let a property via Air B n B, however I'm pretty sure most properties advertised this way are bending or breaking some rules along the way anyway - simply as to be 100% legal is quite tricky given the barriers against short-term lets put up by mortgage lenders and insurers.

However, I don't think Air B n B put up any barriers themselves, so most people just crack on with doing it....

[colin79666]

Also keep in mind with the no eviction rules in place “cos COVID” you would struggle to kick them out even if they stop paying rent. Sounds like an awful lot of hassle for little reward.

[Louis Balfour]

BREMBOV6 said:

Morning,

Hoping someone can perhaps help or point me in the right direction. I bought my first flat about 2.5 years ago but have probably in the last year been spending more time at my partners place. My intentions are to place my property on Airbnb but given the lockdowns etc have not yet done this as didn't feel it would work out.

I am now looking at doing a short term lease (2/3/4 months) and potentially have someone who is interested. However I am wondering what I need to do to make this feasible and legal/above board? I assume mortgage needs updated and home insurance. Ideally I would like to have kept bills etc in my name so that when things hopefully improve moving over to Airbnb is simpler.

Any suggestions would be helpful.

Many thanks

I know nothing of Scottish law, but assuming it's similar to English you could potentially offer your "someone" a licence for perhaps 3 months.

A licence differs from a tenancy by dint of the fact that the occupier doesn't enjoy exclusive possession. Which means that they cannot exclude the landlord. If you were providing services, e.g. laundry, cleaning etc. you could legitimately offer a licence. This would be quite reasonable for a short-term arrangement and if the occupier lost his or her work you don't need to go through the courts to get rid of them.

[yellowbentines]

colin79666 said:

Also keep in mind with the no eviction rules in place “cos COVID” you would struggle to kick them out even if they stop paying rent. Sounds like an awful lot of hassle for little reward.

Indeed, in fact the laws/regulations these days are heavily stacked in favour of the tenant in most situations.

Landlords have become an easy target for the government, HMRC, local authorities and the media - many are just regular people looking to make a little money from 1/2/3 properties, e.g. make provisions for retirement, but it's becoming increasingly difficult and costly.

[BREMBOV6]

Chap is looking to rent the flat for possibly two months, maybe more.

Any advice on the simplest way to do this, could I list the flat on airbnb and just ask him to book out the dates required. Means this can continue once he wants to leave. How does an 'arms length' agreement work? its a legal team I've come across but unsure on its usability.

[CornwallCharlie]

Dependent on number of bedrooms and if you were legitimately there from time to time then worth looking at whether a lodger relationship would suit. Without more info, hard to say whether this would be appropriate but might be worth checking out.

[BREMBOV6]

Thanks for this, I've looked into this vaguely but seems a possible good option.