Help to buy scheme and subletting spare rooms

tim123456789

Windofchange wrote: »

The answer from as much as I understand is a resounding no. The idea of these government schemes is not to turn you into a buy to let landlord. I'm sure people around you are subletting to tenants - maybe a phone call to HMRC to see if they are paying tax on that,.

He didn't say that they are sub-letting to tenants, he said that they had lodgers (not the same thing)


As to tax, this will all be covered by the rent a room scheme, so unless this is a very high rent area or the have two lodgers, they will easily be complying


Tim

Windofchange

Yup and what is a lodger? Someone who stays in your property in exchange for financial reward?

"Subletting is essentially the practice of an existing tenant letting all or part of a property to another. Rather than paying rent to a landlord the subtenant pays to the tenant (sometimes known as the mesne landlord) who then pays the landlord."

So, if we assume that the renting of rooms is not allowed under the terms of the agreement as I am fairly sure it won't be, it is not legal. If the people who own the other properties are owners outright then that is different of course. For the purposes of our original poster who has a government / tax payer subsidised property I would strongly suggest that he can't "rent a room" on any scheme...

Pixie5740

Windofchange wrote: »

Yup and what is a lodger? Someone who stays in your property in exchange for financial reward?

"Subletting is essentially the practice of an existing tenant letting all or part of a property to another. Rather than paying rent to a landlord the subtenant pays to the tenant (sometimes known as the mesne landlord) who then pays the landlord."

So, if we assume that the renting of rooms is not allowed under the terms of the agreement as I am fairly sure it won't be, it is not legal. If the people who own the other properties are owners outright then that is different of course. For the purposes of our original poster who has a government / tax payer subsidised property I would strongly suggest that he can't "rent a room" on any scheme...

A lodger is an excluded occupier and is not the same thing (legally) as a sub-tenant at all. Excluded occupiers live with their landlords and have very few rights unlike tenants and sub-tenants who don't live with their landlords and have a lot more statutory rights such as the right to exclusively occupy the property.

HTB doesn't prevent people from taking in lodgers however the mortgage lender might. The OP would have the read the T&C of the mortgage. HTB does prohibit the letting of the entire property to tenants except in some exceptional circumstances such as serving members of the armed forces going on tour.