Holiday Lettings Advice - Cornwall & Devon

Health and Safety In Your Holiday Let

Whether you are a first timer at holiday lettings or a bit of a pro you should never overlook the aspect of Health and Safety when it comes to renting it out to the general public.

My advice would be initially to give it a bit of a test run or ask a family member of friend to test it out as if you were a holiday maker.

If you do this you will soon find any issues that you may have overlooked before. If you dont manage the changeovers and property management yourself then I would recommend that you employ the services of a professional trades person - if you are with one of the large firms who specialise in this its normally taken care of by the company and they will tend to have a list of tradesmen that they use on a regular basis.

Though saying this for the day to day maintenance and general up keep you should provide spare fuses and light bulbs in the property.

Another big issue with holiday letting is what steps to take when the property is empty. First and foremost I would say its a very good idea to change the locks when you first take over ownership of the property, specially since you have no idea how many other people may hold keys from the previous owner.

If you employ a cleaning service or property management company then they will need their own keys for access so just ask the question what precautions then take when holding these keys for you.

Some people I know who have holiday lets tend to say that they encourage their neighbours to keep an eye on the property when its empty and I would say also give them your phone number and email for any emergencies.

Another thing to consider is extra security locks for all downstairs windows. I would say it would also be wise to extend this to include outbuildings, storage cupboards, pool and surfboard stores and the like.

Those are a few tips I can think of to hand and I hope you have found this post useful. If anyone has any other good suggestions they feel would be worth a mention or your own experience then please feel free to contact me and i will add it on to help our other fellow holiday home owners.

Have you got the right insurance to cover your holiday home? If you’re lucky enough to own a holiday home in the UK, one downside is that you now have two properties to worry about. One way to lessen the stress is with home insurance.

Buildings insurance for a holiday home
Your holiday home insurance should cover exactly the same as your regular home insurance - the structure of your property, fixtures and fittings. Make sure your insurance policy is comprehensive and covers the full cost of the repair and rebuild of your holiday home, should the need arise.

Also check that you’re covered for subsidence and flooding if your property lies within a risk area, and read the small print to find out what your home insurance policy doesn’t cover.

Contents insurance for a holiday home
A good contents insurance policy will cover your furniture, carpets, clothes, ornaments, paintings and electrical goods. However, you may want to get additional insurance cover for extra piece of mind.

Examples of additional home cover include:

• Extended Accidental Damage
• Sports equipment or bicycle cover
• New for Old - claims paid on a new-for-old basis
• Family Legal Protection
• Guests’ Possessions Cover
• Garden equipment cover (can also include toys)
• Items in outbuildings/garage cover
• Locks and keys (to cover lost/stolen keys or damaged locks)
• Emergency Assistance – cover for temporary repairs due to a domestic emergency
• Cash/Credit Card – provides cover for theft
  

Contents cover can also be extended to include items that leave the home with you, such as laptop computers, MP3 players, cameras, SatNavs, handheld games consoles, mobile phones etc. (sometimes called an ‘All-Risk’ policy).

Important: There is one clause often found in home insurance policies that is of particularly relevance to a holiday home, and it has to do with the length of time the property is left empty.

Some insurance policies have restrictions on what they cover if a property is left vacant for a significant length of time, typically 30 days or more. This is obviously an extremely important point to consider with a holiday home, which may be left empty for lengthy spells.

A vacant home can be an invitation to burglars, so keep one step ahead of thieves and make arrangements to ensure the home is never left empty for any 30-consecutive-day period.

Top tip: You could get a reduction on your home insurance policy and your holiday home policy by beefing up security measures with the addition of secure mortis locks, intruder alarms and by joining neighbourhood watch schemes.

Sourced from Confused.com Guide to Holiday Home Insurance

TOP 5 LUXURY APARTMENTS IN CORNWALL

Owner Direct Holiday Lettings

There are only two really good quality websites I would recommend if you want to go down this road for your holiday let.

For a holiday home, the types of insurance are varied but necessary. Here are the types of cover you will need to consider:

• Buildings cover - your mortgage company will insist on this

• Contents cover - your own contents should be adequately covered, whilst your guests should cover their own contents and accidental damage to your property.
  
  
• Public liability - covers you for civil actions brought by guests who may sustain injury on your property.
  
  
• Employee liability - you are likely to employ casual labor in the process of running your small business and this cover is a legal requirement.
  
  
• Loss of rental income cover - this can be had for a small percentage of the annual rental income.
  
  
• Cancellation insurance - in case guests let you down.
  
  
• Personal accident insurance - in case you are incapacitated at critical times.

I discovered a good company who specialise in Holiday Home Insurance are Boshers who are based in Devon - their number is 01237 429444 or check out the website for full information at http://www.boshers.co.uk

Coastal homes, period houses and traditional thatched chocolate-box cottages will always be at a premium, but these days are changing and now they are often rivaled for successful holiday letting by cutting edge, modern properties with designer interiors.

The demand now seems to be for luxury 5 star self-catering holiday homes and this is far higher than it was 20 years ago.

It is fast becoming a necessity to have an en suite to each bedroom, designer kitchens, zip-and-link beds, the latest technology such as flat screen digital TV, DVD, Sky and Internet access, a wood-burner or open fire, and full central heating. Extras such as a games-room, gym, swimming pool, hot tub or jacuzzi bath are not unusual today.

The pattern that has emerged in the last few years is the short break holiday. This has been made easier by the Internet, and visitors being able to book last minute on-line. Advertising on the Web now accounts for over 80% of new businesses for holiday letting agencies.

It is however a cut-throat industry and the competition for agencies to stay at the top of the search engine pages is immense - most agencies now spend most of their marketing budget on search engine optimization and basically making sure they come on that all important first page on Google.

When it comes to Tax, Holiday lettings is recognized as a business by the Inland revenue and unlike other forms of property letting the the Inland Revenue will class this as investment income.

There are some really great tax incentives for renting your property as a holiday home, but there are some rules you will have to stick to - follow this link for further information. http://www.direct.go.uk/

To make sure your property fits in with rules and to make sure you are classed as being a furnished holiday let you have to make sure you can tick the following boxes :

• The Property must be in the UK
  
  
• It must be furnished
  
  
• It must be available for holiday letting to the public for at least 140 days a year
  
  
• Actually let as a holiday let for at least 70 days a year (and these must be commercial lets not at cheap rates to friends and family)

The profit you make on you UK holiday letting is worked out in the same way as for other rental income, except that you claim ‘capital allowances’ rather than the ‘wear and tear’ allowance.

Examples of expenses that qualify for capital allowances include the cost of furnishings and furniture, and equipment such as refrigerators and washing machines.

When you come to sell the property you might be able to take advantage of Capital Gains Tax reliefs, such as 'business asset roll-over relief'.

For example, if you reinvest within three years in another UK holiday letting property or certain other assets costing the same as or more than you got for the property you have sold, you may be able to defer payment of CGT until you dispose of those new assets.

You may also pay less CGT when you sell a property you have used for holiday letting, compared with other residential let property such as buy to let.

This is because a UK holiday letting property is treated as a business asset and should qualify for the new entrepreneurs’ relief which has a 10% rate of tax for the first one million pounds of profit.

The amount by which the gain is reduced will depend on how long you have owned the property and how long you have used it for qualifying holiday letting.

For further more detailed information for you personally I would suggest seeking advice from an accountant or tax specialist.