Can I let my house out for 1 year or less?

Danceswithfishes

I live in rented accommodation close to where my child is doing his last year of A levels, so I don't want to move until mid 2025. 
My husband died and left me enough money to buy a flat or house. I cannot afford my present area (where I rent), but I can something up north (where I will relocate once my son has gone off to university). I make limited amount of money (due to health reasons) so I'm thinking I can buy a place and let it out to help pay my rent, until I'm ready to move next year. 
My query is this: if I buy a place can I let it out for just one year? Would any tenant agree to that? I even thought about renting out the two bedrooms of the property (rent a room scheme), but would it mean I have to furnish the entire house in addition to the bedrooms? 
Edit: thank you all very much for the help, clarification, and ideas. Definitely investing rather than buying.
Thank you all!

Sapindus

Doesn't sound worth the stress and hassle!

Mark_d

Personally I would avoid buying a place to let out.  You get taxed on all the income and there may be capital gains liabilities.
If I were you I'd save/invest the inheritance and use the interest/dividends to help with your living costs.

p00hsticks

Danceswithfishes said:

I even thought about renting out the two bedrooms of the property (rent a room scheme), but would it mean I have to furnish the entire house in addition to the bedrooms? 

I don't believe you can use the rent a room scheme if you are not actually living in the property yourself.  

I'm with Mark_D - there is too much potential downside.
Find the best short term savings account to put the money and then look for a home when you are actually ready to move.  

Bookworm105

yes you can let it for as long or as short as you want 

crucial thing if you let as a tenancy is legally the LL cannot serve notice of repossession during the first 6 months of the tenancy whether you have a tenancy agreement in writing (please do) or not (please don't)

as you yourself identify, the issue will be your intention to "only" let for 12 months, that will limit the market of potential tenants since it costs money to move home each time as tenant so those looking to put down roots will avoid you. With the 6 month restriction, you would have to be lucky to get 2 successive tenants working to the perfect 12 month time scale

in reality going into the rental market as LL already intending to exit it in 12 months time will make your life very difficult and very financially risky. You will be 100% exposed to the tenant from hell who refuses to move out and costs you time, effort, and money in legally evicting via the courts 

as a tenant yourself you will be aware of the fact a property that suits the rental market may not be the sort of property you would want to buy as your own home.

if you have a lump of cash and need extra income from it, then buying a property is a big gamble, yes it locks you into today's purchase price and so "protects" you from property inflation (or crashes) but as a short term investment producing an income it is a pants idea fraught with risk.

that said, is the area you eventually want to live in a holiday destination? Accessing the short term rental market as a LL these days may be better through airBnB or similar???

you cannot use rent a room unless it is your own main home - your question about furnishing the entire property clearly shows that you claiming they are lodgers and you claiming tax free would be tax evasion given you are not living there yourself.

GrumpyDil

Also if you need a mortgage you would need to start with a buy to let and then convert it to residential when you move in. 

Personally agree with above planning to own a BTL property to let for one year and then move on is not worth the trouble and likely hassle. 

Keep_pedalling

For one year it really is not worth it. The main risk is that your tenant won’t leave at the end of the year leaving you with the longwinded and expensive process of getting them out. Best just to get the best interest you can on the cash you have for your future purchase. 

vacheron

We (actually my wife) suggested buying a nearby flat as an investment to rent out at a cost of approx £150k a few months ago. 

£150k property rental income: Approx £550pm before tax.
(This is before agent fees, vacancy, cas certs, insurance, damage, cleaning, maintenance, tax etc.).
Effort / hassle - large, 

Put the £150k in the bank instead at 5%.
Interest income £625pm before tax. 
Effort / hassle - virtaully zero. 

Had I put it in my HSBC Global Strategy Dynamic fund in my GIA account for the last 12 months:
Average investment growth over the last 12 months £2,313pm.
Effort / hassle - virtually zero. 

We did not buy the property! 

hugheskevi

I recently had to let my property out for a fairly short period, due to travel (let for 12 months initially, then extended for a further 6 months).

I had no shortage of interest, but I was based in London. There is no requirement to inform a tenant that you are not intending it to be a long-term let, but you might choose to do so.

I'd suggest renting property out is a last resort - it isn't good to rent somewhere out as an inexperienced landlord. Everything went quite well with the house I rented out, but there were many things that could have gone wrong (as others above have pointed out). You can reduce the risks with careful tenant vetting, insurance, etc, but you cannot reduce them to zero no matter what you do.

Forthcoming possible legislation is only going to make things worse for landlords it would seem, and actually getting your property back is far from easy if tenants do not co-operate. There are a lot of costs involved, as well as compliance requirements (eg EPC, deposit protection, EICR, gas safety check, boiler servicing, inventory, mid-term inspections, referencing,  landlord insurance, building insurance, dealing with agents, tax returns, etc). Then there is capital gains tax to consider too.

Becoming a landlord of a single property when there is not a compelling need to do so would be extremely unattractive for a lot of people.

theartfullodger

You can let out (the whole property or just a room or several rooms) for a week, 4-weeks, a month, 5 months, a year, woteva... But unless you also live there all the time you can't enforce getting it back when you want (England - is this England or eg Wales, NI ...).

'tis the law... (Other countries similar but crucially different)

gwynlas

If you are thinking of buying a home for life then invest the money until you are ready to move.

Explore the area where youu think you might want to live carefully to ensure it is future proof in terms of amenities such as shops, transport etc. following local news on line.

Does your child have an idea on where they might choose to attend uni after A levels  and would this be commutable from your new home?

Letting a room or rooms would be a good way to help with costs in the future but living with strangers might be difficult so you should also think of this when purchasing as you could then think of giving them an ensuite room so they are self contained.