London Councils Could Fine For Olympic Short Term Lettings

Posted on January 9, 2012 by editor
Posted in Buy To Let Property, Economy News Tagged Illegal, landlords, lets, lettings, London, olympics, private, short, term

The regulation fiends are out in force again. Landlords and regular folk in London who seek large potential short term profits by renting out homes during Olympic season this year could be in line for a large fine of up to £20,000, due to a short term letting regulation which prohibits this type of let.

A couple of months ago we had the tax guy from government all over the news telling us how taxable this extra income from the Olympics might be. ( No doubt they can’t wait for the extra coffers to arrive at government offices so they can waste it on more pointless regulation.) Now we have dire warnings of huge fines for anyone seeking to make money out of Olympic short term lettings.

And the most ridiculous part of all is that this is a planning regulation! Council regulations state that this is considered a ‘change of use.’ And there was I thinking that change of use is a permanent thing.

Regulation Madness

This just shows up the stupidity of some of our regulations around letting property in this country. This particular regulation would be very difficult to police- even if the councils had the time to do so. Some councils will be very lax at chasing it, and some will be on a Gestapo like mission to enforce it, as with all regulation surrounding lettings-Olympic or not.

I suspect the next thing we will hear is councils and tax people asking neighbors to spy on people on their behalf and report anything out of the ordinary, so we can do their job for them. This was already hinted at by the tax chaps on TV. Councils will supposedly be looking for a change of names on bills for the period as proof. Seriously, come on! If you are making a few thousand pounds over a short term period surly no one will bother to go through the aggravation of changing bills over, if they have an ounce of business acumen they will charge a bit more and include the resources used.

Short Term Lets “Increase Homelessness”

The excuse for this type of licensing regulation is that short term lets can cause homelessness. I think you will find homelessness is caused by council houses having been sold off, tenants allowed to stay for life and pass it on to their offspring, too many people from out of the country allowed to apply for council housing, and a general lack of building of that type of home. None of which have anything to do with investors or those renting out for a short term.

Thankfully, it’s mostly London council regulations which allow fines to be applied for short term lettings and not country wide. Lets not kid ourselves that this is about the greater good for the community. It’s about income generation for cash strapped councils, as regulations like this nearly always are. Would they even bother chasing it if they were swimming in cash? I doubt it. What do you think?