Occasional holiday letting when the lease says NO

Hoblands

I appreciate that I've probably already answered my own question with the thread title but thought best to ask the collective wisdom here before abandoning our plans completely!

We are looking to buy a holiday home on the Isle of Wight but the apartments with any 'wow' factor (sea / marina view etc) are beyond our budget unless we rent out for a few weeks of the year as a holiday let.  I emphasise 'few' as we would only need / want to let during the peak island event weeks of IOW festival, Round the Island race, Old gaffers week, Cowes week and possibly a couple of others that we'd have no interest in being there for.  The lease / management companies on all of the properties we are interested in state that using the property as a holiday letting business is absolutely not allowed.   Our situation is that we wouldn't be running a business, but simply filling the property for a few weeks each year to cover the maintenance costs and bills.  We wouldn't be eligible for any tax relief as it won't be commercially available for the required 140 days. 

I don't want to deliberately break rules so would need to open dialogue with the freeholders / management companies.  Would we be fighting a losing battle?

Thanks in advance.

Paul

davidmcn

Hoblands said:

I don't want to deliberately break rules so would need to open dialogue with the freeholders / management companies.  Would we be fighting a losing battle?

Assuming they care about it at all, I expect so - if they say yes to you then it's difficult for them to refuse anybody else. Even if only "occasional", how are they going to police that?

Browntoa

I live somewhere with those restrictions. Was fully backed by the residents association and enforcement carried out all the time

Scotbot

I used to live near a development with excellent views which also had the same restrictions because the people you rent to are on holiday, want to have a good time and can  make a nuisance of themselves and disturb the neighborhood. I  expect you would get a firm no if you asked. If you don't ask and go ahead you are likely to get complaints from the neighbours, expect these regulations to be enforced.

ssparks2003

A few weeks of letting of a flat with the wow views in festival time,  cowes week etc means you would be generating an income of 1,000's so you would be in breach of the agreement.

Hoblands

Thanks for your replies.  The answers are as I expected but if you don't ask...  Back to looking at properties further inland I guess!

Cheers,

Paul

martindow

Hoblands said:

Our situation is that we wouldn't be running a business, but simply filling the property for a few weeks each year to cover the maintenance costs and bills. 

From the other answers it seems impossible, but if it were it would be a business.  You would be receiving rental income that would be taxable and you would need to comply with any letting regulations that were applicable.

AdrianC

Hoblands said:

Our situation is that we wouldn't be running a business

Yes, you would.

You might be in denial about it, but you certainly would be running a lettings business. Your income from it would be taxable, and you would be subject to all of the other legal requirements.

And, no, a lease that says "No holiday lets" doesn't mean "No holiday lets unless you can sort of handwave a justification to yourself that this doesn't apply to you because you're special."

theartfullodger

And if you breach with holiday let's the freeholder may decide to pursue you to forefit the lease & your investment totally lost, plus you still owe on any mortgage.

V expensive mistake, albeit perhaps unlikely.

mrschaucer

The other owners will all be aware of the restrictions re letting and may well have bought there BECAUSE of said restrictions. 

NameUnavailable

You're buying a leasehold, which is essentially a long term rental agreement. What you're saying is that the places you've seen have a 'no sub-letting' clause in the lease. It's not up to any management company to decide what your lease can and can't allow.

Buy a freehold house - you can do anything you want then.