The tenancy trail
Answer – holiday lets
Where a property has been let in a genuine holiday let situation, then if it is a tenancy, it will not be an assured or an assured shorthold tenancy, but a common law or unregulated tenancy.
It will also be an ‘excluded’ tenancy under the Protection from Eviction Act 1977, which means that a landlord will not need to get a court order for possession.
However, this will ONLY be in genuine holiday situations. A landlord should, therefore, protect his position by ensuring that:
- The tenancy agreement stipulates that the property is let for the purposes of a holiday only
- The tenant’s home address is given in the tenancy agreement, and
- (In most cases) the fixed term is not longer than 3 months. If the fixed term is more than three months then there may be a presumption that it is not a genuine holiday let, plus the landlord will need to carry out a ‘right to rent’ check.
The fact that a tenancy has been granted only for a short length of time does NOT mean that it will automatically be a holiday let. Short lets under assured shorthold tenancies are possible. See our FAQ on this here.
People renting out a property for short holidays, for example using services such as Airbnb, need to be careful that this will not put them in breach of the terms of their
- Insurance
- Mortgage
- Lease, or
- Tenancy agreement
Which could have serious implications.
Note that Landlord Law does not at present have any holiday let agreements, and the site information is geared to residential tenancies rather than holiday lets.
