renting out a flat in your basement

theartfullodger

agrinnall wrote: »

"Inclusive of bills" = potential for cannabis farm

Think you'll find operators of cannabis farms rarely if ever pay for leccy: Indeed they usually bypass the meters (if only to avoid raising the interest of the authorities from unusually high usage...

macman

Seems daft tp spend money physically converting it without dividing the utilities up with separate metering for each flat. Should your plans change in a few years, you'd never be able to sell it as an independent unit with that bodged arrangement.
And, with the wrong tenants, your gas and leccy bils are potentially open-ended.

theartfullodger

hollh wrote: »

.....
You say it can't be an AST but it seems to fulfill all the requirements on the Government website:

"Assured shorthold tenancies (ASTs)
The most common form of tenancy is an AST. Most new tenancies are automatically this type..... etc etc etc

Gosh, you don't believe what the government tells you do you??

See HA 1988 Schedule 1(10)
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/50/schedule/1/part/I/crossheading/resident-landlords
(Schedule 1 lists those tenancies that cannot be Assured Tenancies: An AST is but a special form of AT)

Resident landlords

10 (1 A tenancy in respect of which the following conditions are fulfilled—
(a) that the dwelling-house forms part only of a building and, except in a case where the dwelling-house also forms part of a flat, the building is not a purpose-built block of flats; and

(b) that, subject to Part III of this Schedule, the tenancy was granted by an individual who, at the time when the tenancy was granted, occupied as his only or principal home another dwelling-house which,—

(i) in the case mentioned in paragraph (a) above, also forms part of the flat; or

(ii) in any other case, also forms part of the building; and ,,,,,,,

"Dwelling house" can be a flat.

Please don;t take my word for it, check with a solicitor who is expert in landlord/tenant law (Most are perfectly nice people but don't understand this area..) . Or ask the same question over here...
http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/forums/forumdisplay.php?3-Residential-Letting-Questions

hollh

Thanks so much for all the advice. We're going to speak to the mortgage company and hope they don't flip out!