Rules in Scotland about renting a room Air b and b

BB77S

So if you bought an apartment, had your mortgage in place and so on and you wanted to rent a room out on air b and b in Scotland then you are part of this 'rent a room' scheme which apparently is tax-free up to £7,500.

Fair enough. What if you worked offshore (oil, gas - 4 weeks on off etc.)? Even though you are still registered as living there can you still rent a room out while you are away (even though you have your own room locked presumably it becomes 'renting out the whole place at that point?')? If you are wanting to rent out a room to make money to set against the mortgage/bill payments then you would want to do that if you could.

And I'm not even talking about the tax side of things. If it is deemed renting a whole place out then you pay tax obviously. I mean, can you get covered for all the legal stuff - fire insurance, mortgage lender being ok with it etc,? If no-one knows the answer to this can anyone recommend some legal specialist to liaise with about this?

ProDave

I thought rent a room was if you got a permanent lodger.

Air B&B is more about letting rooms for short periods, i.e a B&B or guest house. You can still do that, but I don't think it comes under the rent a room tax allowance, and you would need to make sure your insurance covers it, which may mean switching to a guest house insurance policy.

BB77S

Thanks for the clarification regarding tax. You basically just need to ensure you meet the 'rent a room' criteria.

But tax isn't the main issue that concerns me. If you need to pay it you need to pay it. It is just nice to try and offset most if not all of the mortgage/bills. So if you end up set back £8k in bills ideally you would be able to rent out a room to cover as much of that as you can.

The big concern is the insurance side of things. If you successfully get a mortgage (1st time buyer, you living officially in the place) then presumably the next step is to find a policy that would accept air b and b type renting? Would that effect the mortgage lender in any way? Are they separate? Also, even if you were living there (with 1 room locked off and reserved for you that you can return to whenever you want - i.e. offshore work lifestyle) would you advertise on air b and b as renting the whole place out (when you aren't physically there) or as shared (which technically it is)?

theartfullodger

In Scotland regardless of what the AirBnB paperwork says the tenancy agreement will almost certainly either be the new PRT or, as a lodger, a "common law tenancy". In both cases, even lodger with resident landlord, the landlord may only evict UNLIKE IN ENGLAND - after a decision by FTT or Sheriff. See....
https://scotland.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/advice_topics/eviction/eviction_of_private_tenants/eviction_of_private_residential_tenancy_tenants
&
https://scotland.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/advice_topics/eviction/eviction_of_common_law_tenants

Slàinte mhath!