2 mth and 3 mth rental

srcandas

Hi all. Not sure if this goes here but a bit of an odd one.

My wife and I (early 60s) are selling up in UK and moving to my wife's home country of Spain. Due to tax in Spain we need to stay in the UK this year for at least 183 days. Now looks likely we will be UK homeless end of March.

So we need a pad somewhere that is interesting. A furnished double, lounge, kitchen, internet and access to public transport (we do not drive) as a minimum requirement.

We have total even short notice flexibility as to when as we need to hop in and out of spain to see family, look for a house, and check the flat.

An example would be April/May in Dorset, September/October Suffolk, November/December North Devon but anywhere my wife can see more of the UK (Even a Scottish Isle, Lincs windmill, or canal boat ). Country walks important.

But where do you find such places? Only found self catering who don't seem to understand more than 14 days or a closed in winter.

Any thoughts on how to go about this (advertising?) would be greatly appreciated as I'm sure there are people who might find our flexibility useful.

:beer:

trailingspouse

In the past when I've needed medium-term rental, I've found out-of-season holiday lets to be the way to go. But that only works in the winter months, when they're glad of the income and you can get a bargain. In the summer they can make much more money letting out a week at a time to holiday makers, as you've discovered.

It beats me why no-one has developed this market - there must be many people who want to rent for a month or two. In Ireland we stayed at a hotel which had built a complex of small houses as holiday accommodation, and then discovered that they could make more money letting out for a month at a time. They did a roaring trade with companies that employed contractors (that's why we were staying there - we were there 6 weeks), also there was a couple who had been flooded out and needed somewhere while their house was being repaired, and some newly arrived Polish people who couldn't commit to long-term rentals until they had an income.

Sorry I can't answer your question - good luck with it all.

meg00

As landlords are required by their mortgage and insurance providers to have a minimum 6 month tenancy agreement in place you would be better off looking at holiday lets.
The periods you mention are outside the peak holiday times in the UK, so I would advise checking out one of the many holiday cottage companies, and looking for an area you like. Once you have found somewhere the listing will indicate if the owner has more than one property available, they are usually more than happy to quote for a 2/3 month spell.
Another option is to check out University/College websites as they have the student residences available throughout the year. They may be sparse but generally are well placed, with good transport links. House swap websites may be worthy of a look as well.
Good luck!

srcandas

Tx guys. Yup looks like 2 or 3 extended holiday lets. Sad there seems no where to advertise such requirements as I can see as you say trailingspouse there are many reasons to want this but also I imagine for many reasons people who could meet the need.

We have a £7700 budget for 6 months of accomodation so don't think we are being unreasonable. But holiday home sites that price per week with no facility to talk to the owners (yup I understand why) doesn't seem very good to me.

But hopefully a few options will crop up

thesaint

trailingspouse wrote: »

It beats me why no-one has developed this market - there must be many people who want to rent for a month or two. .

The need for 2-3 month lets are few and far between. Also, housing law isn't on the side of a landlord that would want to do this.

IvorBiggun

Never used one myself but have you looked at serviced apartments. I thought they were good for short term rentals.

srcandas

thesaint wrote: »

The need for 2-3 month lets are few and far between. Also, housing law isn't on the side of a landlord that would want to do this.

I'm not sure about lack of demand but for sure the halfway house between short and longer stay seems as you say not favoured by regs.

Just strikes me that if I have a small holiday self catering cottage I would expect less demand October to March (except half term/Xmas) and might expect a few gaps. That seems to be true from booking calendars.

So if as an owner someone said to me "I'll take 9 weeks off peak but I'll move out the week when you have a higher paying half term slot, and only want a small discount in return", I would shake their hand.

However it appears that the agent has no interest in this as they charge a booking fee. So they want short individual stays.

Ivor we use serviced apartments for work but they tend to be more in city areas. Also obviously for work less of a problem as no tax and no VAT.

But cheers one and all :cool:

Madmel

Why not try the local Tourist Information offices in the areas of interest? Ours here knows all the holiday cottage owners and whether or not they are around all year.

I am slightly confused by your comment about taking people off-peak. In my position, it is not really cost-effective to let out our cottage all year round because of the heating system. It costs us a small fortune to heat in winter, there is no mains gas, so it is all electric storage heaters. Also it does not tie in well with our work commitments, and is the best time of year for us to do maintenance and decorating. Both our insurance and planning consent only allow lets up to 14 consecutive weeks to the same guest, so we only do 3 months.

trailingspouse

I can think of loads of reasons why someone might want to rent out for 2-3 months (or at least, not want to commit to a 6 month rental) -

Contractors
People moving areas for work who need to be close to the new job while they house-hunt
Victims of flooding/house fire etc
People needing to be close to hospital for prolonged periods (eg parents of premature babies)
People on secondment

I'm sure others can think of more. Shame the regs don't make it easy.