Holiday Home Rental Agreements

By purchasing holiday home insurance, you can help protect your assets against a wide range of  perils. The core of the policy wording will also contain liability insurance which can help protect you  against claims of negligence made against you. If you own a holiday home or second property, its usage can vary, often, the property may have been acquired, solely for the use of the owner, some people are happy to let the property just to family and friends, whilst others use the property for commercial purposes by accepting regular lettings, which can be either short term ( up to 6 months) or long term ( over 6 months).

If you are going to use your property for holiday letting purposes, its of paramount importance , that each of your bookings are provided with some form of letting agreement. Because, in the main, these lettings are on a short term basis up to 14 nights is very typical), the form needn’t be at all complicated, in fact, the simpler the better as the incoming renter, is more likely to study the document and understand the terms and conditions. Many holiday property landlords, still do not bother with any form of contract, which  seems strange as they are easily available  on line or from most good book shops. You can even design your own contract, however, it may be wise to have the wording checked by a solicitor. If you own a holiday home in an overseas country, such as France or Spain for example, it is always wise to seek the advise of a local solicitor or possibly notary to help provide you with guidance. Overseas countries have different rules and regulations relating to holiday lettings, in fact in some counties, it has been known for there to even be regional variations.  By giving your tenants a contract for the letting period, you are demonstrating that your business, is run in a professional manner, the tenant will know what is expected of them and  this will help to ensure  that  the chances of a disagreement is reduced.

Your holiday home letting contract, can contain other information but as a basic minimum, it should include the following.

You should specify on your contract , that the property is being provided for holiday usage purposes only. It should be pointed out that the issue of a holiday let contract offers the renter  no protection under the Housing Act 1988 ( as opposed to longer lets over 6 months , which are usually dealt with  by an assured short hold tenancy agreement). Your contract, should also specify , that the property is rented only to the tenants mentioned on the agreement and that no form of sub letting can take place. Although , its unusual to find this occurring , with short term rentals, you should also point out that the renter is forbidden from altering the property in anyway (such as repainting etc).  One area, that can often cause problems, is the allowance of pets in the property. You should clearly state if Pets are allowed, think carefully about this, many people will not consider renting a home that has had  pets staying in it ,then on the other hand, you may find that allowing persons to bring pets to stay with them, is a real advantage for you and it will assist bookings. If you do intend to take deposits from your holiday renters, you should also specify , when you intend to return their monies

 




At Assetsure.com you can find out more about holiday home insurance and understand some basic holiday home investment tips.