Short-term or holiday letting can be a lucrative way of making money on an otherwise empty property you own. Obviously, if you own two properties and only live in one then letting to short-term tenants allows you to make money on the house without committing to a long-term tenancy agreement. This in turn keeps your options open should you ever want to quickly sell the property. However, even if you only own one property, letting it out to short-term tenants while you yourself are away on holiday can bring in a good amount of cash to fund your own trip.
Preparing Your Property for a Short-Term Tenant
Aside from the legal responsibilities such as the requisite safety measures, preparing your property for a short-term tenant can be worrisome, especially if it’s your own home you are letting out (rather than a spare second property). The first big question is what to do with all your personal property, though you have a couple of good options.
Firstly, you can designate a spare room in the property as your storage room and pack all your personal possessions in there and then lock the door. If your property isn’t big enough to do this (perhaps all the rooms are required by the tenants), then you can hire a storage facility like Big Yellow to move all the necessary possessions into for the duration of the letting. Obviously, you will want to do your calculations of how much this will cost compared with how much you will make from letting out your house in the first place (don’t forget to incorporate the tax that will be due on the rent you receive).
Responsibilities of a Short-Term Landlord
As you will be on holiday yourself while your short-term tenants are in your home, it is probably much better for you to go through a letting agent who can take care of anything that goes wrong during the letting period. If the heating breaks or the boiler decides not to work, then the tenants can contact the letting agent to take care of it. Alternatively, if you prefer not to go through a letting agent, you can arrange something with a friend or family member who lives nearby who the tenants can contact in the case of any issues with the property, and that designated person can take care of those issues.
