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Hi, I’d appreciate any thoughts or advice on this situation. We have let a property to a company, our understanding was that it would be used to accommodate staff of the company for meetings as a cheaper alternative to hotels. The contract (not an AST) clearly states the property cannot be sublet. On carrying out a planned inspection on Saturday we discovered it was in use as an air bnb. This is a breach of our mortgage and insurance T&Cs. Our contract states we can end the contract with immediate effect if the tenant breaches the contract. We sent a formal letter stating we would be repossessing the property this week (today). Our tenant verbally said he understood and agreed to us taking back possession. Today we found a further air bnb customer in the property and received a message from our tenant that he was speaking to his legal team and encouraging us to contact a lawyer. We’ve found the Airbnb booking page and he has updated it so there is no further availability, as such we are wondering if he is just trying to buy a little time until the current Airbnb customer leaves on Sunday. i was just wondering if anyone had recommendations on next steps. We want to avoid a costly legal battle and as a company let it is clearly stated that the contract can be terminated with immediate effect if there is a breach of conditions.

Hello everyone,I am new here, but have been following Rob and Rob for some time and very grateful for all their work they do for community, hopefully I’ll manage to get my own BTL soon.I would like to form “Rent to Rent” limited company and I was wondering if someone could help with advice please.I have found two 3 bedroom houses I can rent and sublet on room by room basis. The living rooms have already been converted into 4th bedroom, so there will be 4 people in total in each house.To my understanding, I need to:1. Sign commercial lease agreement between my LTD and the house owner.2. Make sure mortgage provider is aware of this lease agreement and also that the house is being let as HMO.3. Make sure landlord has building and landlord liability insurance.4. Make sure landlord’s insurance won’t be invalidated due to contract I have between my LTD and the landlord.5. Make sure landlord’s insurer will cover multiple tenants on separate ASTs.6. Make sure house has gas and electrical safety certificates, and also ECP.7. Make sure house meets all other requirements (fire safety, minimum room size, etc)8. Get public liability insurance for my LTD9. Get professional indemnity insurance for my LTD (do I really need it?)10. No mandatory HMO licence needed (4 people in Lambeth area in London)11. No planning permission needed (no HMO Article 4 Direction for this area)Questions I'm looking answers for:12. Is £100 per month a good budget to take care of payroll and everything else to do with tax? Accountant recommendations please.13. Do I need a licence/permission for my LTD to operate as R2R?14. Do I need to register myself as an agent? If so, is it as a “letting agent”?15. Do I need any other licence for myself as director/employee of the company?16. I won't be collecting deposit from the tenants, but instead will require 2 months rent payment upfront. Is this acceptable or I need to handle this money in particular way?17. Where can I get good template for commercial lease please?18. Shall I use company formation agent? I would like to keep my home address private. Any recommendations?19. What else am I missing??Hopefully this post will be a good starting point for other people interested in R2R business.Many thanks in advance for all the input!PG

Hello. I'm a 24 year old professional, working and living in London, and this is my first post! I've been fairly obsessed with property and the property hub for the last few years, so a huge thanks to the community for all the great content. I am looking for advice on residential mortgages. Specifically, what happens if 3 years in, I want to go and live abroad for a year? I've heard of the ability to convert to BTL, but as far as I can tell this would still require me to own at least 20-30% of the property. I've also heard of asking a mortgage provider for the permission to let, but only in the context of a serious change in circumstances, e.g. illness. Can anyone provide a bit more clarity on this or suggest some other options? I am asking as I'd like to buy my first property with a friend but we don't want to lose our freedom to travel and move abroad. As a side note- We have considered getting a BTL in Nottingham (we went to uni here) instead, to avoid getting tied down. However, considering the increased leverage on a residential mortgage (let's say an extra 150% of portfolio value) plus the fact that our capital payments (which would usually go on rent) would far exceed the net yield from the BTL, it seems to make more financial sense to purchase in London first, on a residential mortgage. Id love to hear an opinion on the financial aspect of this decision too. Thanks in advance!

Hi All! So I hope someone can shed some light on this very new scenario that is being played out before my eyes. I own a leasehold flat and the freehold was recently sold on and we have a new Property Management agency that we are paying service charges and ground rent to. I just received a letter stating that I need permission from them to be subletting the property, and need to register my tenant for a fee of £130 and from what I can see another £65 each time they renew, which is every 6 months and thats even if nothing changes. As well as £130 for each new tenant in the future. This was not something charged by the previous freeholder/management agency so a little surprised by it. Has this happened to anyone else and if so, is there anything that can be done about it? Thanks in advance! Cheers Alex

Hi all! First off, l hope everyone had a great Christmas and NYE. I wanted to get a bit more information about R2R, as far as I can see it's deemed a bit of a taboo subject. Through the various threads I've read about it, people seem to view it as a get rich quick scheme but I wanted to see if it's more than that in reality. If you don't know what rent2rent is I found this article that sums the basics ups perfectly - Rent 2 Rent – find a large property that could be rented on a room by room basis and rent the property from the existing landlord on a whole house basis. The landlord gets the benefit of a guaranteed, single, long term tenancy to you at a reasonable rental value. You get the ability to rent out each room individually, usually converting the receptions rooms to gain additional bedrooms, and taking the difference in room by room rent, less expenses and the rent agreed with the property owner as your profit. Detailed knowledge of the area is required to know what type of property would be suitable and profitable for you, and what maximum rent you can afford to pay for the property to still make your own margin. After reading this I felt a little confused, why would the LL allow someone to do this and profit when they could just do it themselves? The only reason I can see someone doing this is if they're extremely time poor and just want an armchair investment with a steady guaranteed income. It seems like it could actually work for both parties but it would take a fair amount of effort for the tenant to fill the house with tenants! Anyway, I just wanted to see if any of the hubbers had anymore information about this, or in fact divulge in rent2rent themselves. If so I would be grateful if you could try and answer my below questions - Isn't this illegal as most lenders would need you to have an HMO license to let out individual rooms? Who pays for the work that is essential for having an HMO? i.e fire doors etc.. How many rooms should a house have to make it suitable? I would imagine 3-6 rooms and then try and convert living space if possible for additional income? How do the letting agents react to this and how should you approach them with this offer? Apologies about the bombardment of questions, I would just be interested to see if this could be a legitimate way to build an income without putting down a hefty deposit or not. Thank you for your time and I look forward to any replies. All the best, James