Renting out house as a holiday home?

linzeloo

Hey all,

Thanks for all your replies and help. I contacted my bank and they told me it was fine to rent out with a consent to lease certificate - my mortgage payments remain the same etc which is good news!

So I'm going to rent out as a holiday let for 2 - 3 months and rent out as a regular tenancy agreement for the remainder of the time. I can afford to rent out at 50% occupancy for these months so anything I get after this is a plus.

If I can find a house share that costs no more than £400 then this will give me a few extra hundred quid per month (in theory).

Wish me luck...

franklee

linzeloo wrote: »

So I'm going to rent out as a holiday let for 2 - 3 months and rent out as a regular tenancy agreement for the remainder of the time. I can afford to rent out at 50% occupancy for these months so anything I get after this is a plus.

Sorry but that's an appalling way to treat regular tenants, chuck em out each holiday season - unless you make that clear before they sign up. But then you're not going to get that many regular tenants interested unless you find someone wants a short term let and you can expect lower rent and more void time than for a long term tenancy. Round here the same old holiday lets come up for six months winter let on an AST and likely sit empty as who wants to move after just six months incurring yet more agency fees, removal fees, upheaval etc. Oh and if you get a tenant who refuses to leave on your S21 date then they may still be in occupation when your holiday guests are due.

Wee_Willy_Harris

franklee wrote: »

Sorry but that's an appalling way to treat regular tenants, chuck em out each holiday season - unless you make that clear before they sign up. But then you're not going to get that many regular tenants interested unless you find someone wants a short term let and you can expect lower rent and more void time than for a long term tenancy. Round here the same old holiday lets come up for six months winter let on an AST and likely sit empty as who wants to move after just six months incurring yet more agency fees, removal fees, upheaval etc. Oh and if you get a tenant who refuses to leave on your S21 date then they may still be in occupation when your holiday guests are due.

Just a thought, but.... students?

PasturesNew

linzeloo wrote: »

Hey all,

Thanks for all your replies and help. I contacted my bank and they told me it was fine to rent out with a consent to lease certificate - my mortgage payments remain the same etc which is good news!

So I'm going to rent out as a holiday let for 2 - 3 months and rent out as a regular tenancy agreement for the remainder of the time. I can afford to rent out at 50% occupancy for these months so anything I get after this is a plus.

Thanks for the update! For the record, the holiday let I'm keeping my eye on has a booking this week (£425, less agent fees and running costs - but it does sleep 7).

linzeloo wrote: »

If I can find a house share that costs no more than £400 then this will give me a few extra hundred quid per month (in theory).

Wish me luck...

I'll PM you something to try that's very effective for this.

PasturesNew

franklee wrote: »

Sorry but that's an appalling way to treat regular tenants, chuck em out each holiday season - unless you make that clear before they sign up.

It is very common in this region for people to do this. You advertise the property as a holiday let, then come the end of the season you advertise "winter let available". It's a big problem for people trying to find affordable/regular homes in the area because owners can make more by letting only to holidaymakers - and you tend to be "grateful" to be able to get a winter let. Many people spend the entire summer monoths on floors, renting illegally converted garages or even living in sheds, dreaming of the day they can get a winter let (this is serious, I'm not joking), although I think my town is worse for this than the OP's town (which was PM'd to me, so I know the comparison).

A 1-bed place there is about £600/month at the moment, but you can get that per week for holiday lets, so you only need 25% occupancy to get the same income.

franklee

PasturesNew wrote: »

It is very common in this region for people to do this. You advertise the property as a holiday let, then come the end of the season you advertise "winter let available". It's a big problem for people trying to find affordable/regular homes in the area because owners can make more by letting only to holidaymakers - and you tend to be "grateful" to be able to get a winter let. Many people spend the entire summer monoths on floors, renting illegally converted garages or even living in sheds, dreaming of the day they can get a winter let (this is serious, I'm not joking), although I think my town is worse for this than the OP's town (which was PM'd to me, so I know the comparison).

A 1-bed place there is about £600/month at the moment, but you can get that per week for holiday lets, so you only need 25% occupancy to get the same income.

Good to know the OP will call it a winter let only, I do see winter lets round here too, usually in good locations and cheaper than the usual AST. I thought this winter let idea was more for people with second homes where they use the property themselves for the summer as then a tenant leaving late doesn't matter so much. Or the OP could do the other way round living there in the winter themselves and holiday lets for the summer.

Mixing the two seems odd as winter lets are let as ASTs and as we all know there is no guarantee the tenant leaves when the S21 notice asks and if so it can take a few months to shift the tenant by which time their stay could easily overlap with booked holidays. That said I'm not in such a holiday area as you or the OP (but it is still a bit of a holiday area and there are a lot of second homes) so winter lets often go untaken, but the point remains what does the landlord do if he has holiday guests due when he is still trying to evict the winter tenant?

PasturesNew

Where a property is a holiday let and it's been let as a winter let, with the tenant being advised as such in writing (the property has to already have been let for holidays and the AST should be no more than 8 months), it falls within the realms of the Accelerated Possession Procedure. Any tenant, no matter what they signed for, will still have the right to stay there for six months (even if it does clash with holiday bookings in the diary).

For a holiday let, only two weeks' notice has to be given for a Notice Seeking Possession. Being a holiday let (pre-declared properly) comes under the Mandatory Grounds when it gets to court, so a judge HAS to move to eviction (if the paperwork's correct, of course).

I'm sure it must have happened, for all sorts of reasons (one of which might be that the tenant thinks they have "the usual rights" as they didn't research the difference between a normal AST and a winter let or a holiday let), but I've never seen it turn up here on MSE (yet).

franklee

PasturesNew wrote: »

Where a property is a holiday let and it's been let as a winter let, with the tenant being advised as such in writing (the property has to already have been let for holidays and the AST should be no more than 8 months), it falls within the realms of the Accelerated Possession Procedure. Any tenant, no matter what they signed for, will still have the right to stay there for six months (even if it does clash with holiday bookings in the diary).

For a holiday let, only two weeks' notice has to be given for a Notice Seeking Possession. Being a holiday let (pre-declared properly) comes under the Mandatory Grounds when it gets to court, so a judge HAS to move to eviction (if the paperwork's correct, of course).

I'm sure it must have happened, for all sorts of reasons (one of which might be that the tenant thinks they have "the usual rights" as they didn't research the difference between a normal AST and a winter let or a holiday let), but I've never seen it turn up here on MSE (yet).

It's still an AST and the usual rules apply. I don't see a section 8 would be quicker than a section 21 served to give notice to leave at the end of the fixed term for a typical six months winter let. It's helpful for shorter fixed terms but then is it worth all the mucking about for much shorter winter lets.

There's nothing special about section 8 ground 3, it's two weeks notice like many of the other section 8 grounds and as usual if the tenant doesn't leave the landlord needs to get a possession order in just the same way as for other grounds.

With the S21 served to give notice to leave at the end of the fixed term the landlord can apply for the possession order as soon as the fixed term is over. It's an unchallenged section 21 that's called "accelerated possession" as it doesn't need a court hearing but if the tenant challenges then it's the usual routine which can easily be several months depending on at what stage the tenant goes.

So the landlord of an AST winter let can have just the same problems evicting the tenant as we read from day to day on here and would therefore need to think through how they arrange the holiday bookings to cope with that. That is the tenant who clashes with holiday bookings by not leaving when the notice asks. Not clashes with the fixed term which are easily planned to avoid as the landlord knows the dates of the fixed term in advance.

I do agree it hasn't come up for holiday lets here IIRC and I wonder why. Perhaps there aren't many landlords who mix the two types of lettings and maybe many winter lets are for second homes rather than properties used for summer holiday lets or maybe the trick is for the landlord to put the rent up and the tenant then scarpers pdq.

tyllwyd

I was a student at Bath University, and I remember one time that I rented a flat which was used for holiday lets in the summer. It was good for us because in the summer term we left to go on work placements. Mind you, that was 20 odd years ago, long before ASTs, deposit protection and all the rest - he was probably quite lucky that we were quite civilised for students and didn't trash the place.

linzeloo

franklee wrote: »

Sorry but that's an appalling way to treat regular tenants, chuck em out each holiday season - unless you make that clear before they sign up. But then you're not going to get that many regular tenants interested unless you find someone wants a short term let and you can expect lower rent and more void time than for a long term tenancy. Round here the same old holiday lets come up for six months winter let on an AST and likely sit empty as who wants to move after just six months incurring yet more agency fees, removal fees, upheaval etc. Oh and if you get a tenant who refuses to leave on your S21 date then they may still be in occupation when your holiday guests are due.

I will certainly let the tenants know the situation and, for the record, I currently manage 8 properties for directors in my company so am fully aware of the implications. If I do not get any interest in a shorter let, I will simply move back into the property.

Please do not imply I treat potential tenants in an appalling way when you do not know the full details of my situation or background.