The Letting Centre

Rented second homes

Question: 358
We are located on the South Coast in a holiday area. We offer a number of properties for 6 monthly renewable tenancies which would normally be assured shortholds. As some tenants have their main residence elsewhere the rented property is classed as a second home and we cannot therefore use an assured shorthold tenancy. Please could you advise us what type of tenancy agreement we should be using in this instance, which Act the tenancy will be covered by and what period of notice and in what form this should be.
Answer:
The Housing Act 1988, as amended, states that:- "(1) A tenancy under which a dwelling-house is let as a separate dwelling is for the purposes of this Act an assured tenancy if and so long as - (a) ... (b) the tenant or, as the case may be, at least one of the joint tenants occupies the dwelling-house as his only or principal home;" The tenancy is not one to which the Housing Act 1988 applies - it is therefore a common law tenancy and those common law rules would apply. Other statutues such as the Protection from Eviction Act 1977 will, however, apply to this tenancy. Notice must be given by a written 'notice to quit' in the prescribed statutory form. The notice period for a monthly tenancy would be the rent payment period, that is one month, unless the agreement specified a longer period.
References:	Pages:	Hyperlinks:
Letting Update Journal	Chapter 6	letting-update-journal.html

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