Is Air B&B legal?

[Fastpedeller]

Something which has been discussed at home for a while.......
B&B establishments have to get planning permission for change of use, fire safety check etc, but it would appear such things don't apply to Air B&B? Is this the case, and are all owners flying under the radar? I expect Air B&B are merely an agent and accept no liability.

[Vipers]

Fastpedeller said:

Something which has been discussed at home for a while.......
B&B establishments have to get planning permission for change of use, fire safety check etc, but it would appear such things don't apply to Air B&B? Is this the case, and are all owners flying under the radar? I expect Air B&B are merely an agent and accept no liability.

What springs to mind is when the government insisted on fire retardent furniture after a specific date, all was well and good until one landlord asked the question, did it apply to accomodation rented furnished, thinking it was exempt.

Decision was it did apply, and landlords had to change out reasonably good condition furniture, but it didnt stop the tennent puttin in non fire reardent furniture.

So maybe when the question about AB&B is asked, they may be in for a shock.

[GT03ROB]

I would suggest many AirBNB places are operating other than in accordance with the law.

[QJumper]

Here's aan article I found on the legalities:

https://www.houst.com/blog/is-airbnb-allowed-in-lo...

[Stick Legs]

There is a couple I know who let on Air B&B.

The list of people who are unaware of the fact include but are not limited to HMRC, their mortgage provider and their insurers.

I have humbly suggested that if anything went awry that they would be up the creek without a paddle.

They think it’s fine.

I would be willing to bet that they are not alone

[bigandclever]

I think that probably sums it up, Airbnb is perfectly legal; the operators underneath may not be. Take the 90 day rule in London, for instance. Airbnb restrict a property from being listed for 90 days in a year to comply with the law; so the operators do 90 days on Airbnb, 90 days on booking.com, 90 days on expedia, etc. And then they have multiple listings on each platform anyway and just bypass the system.

[PurpleTurtle]

Stick Legs said:

There is a couple I know who let on Air B&B.

The list of people who are unaware of the fact include but are not limited to HMRC, their mortgage provider and their insurers.

I have humbly suggested that if anything went awry that they would be up the creek without a paddle.

They think it’s fine.

I would be willing to bet that they are not alone

Yeah, they are probably on a sticky wicket there (noting this is a couple of yeas old, I expect they've had a further helpful data drop)

https://www.informaccounting.co.uk/blog/hmrc-recei...

[BoRED S2upid]

Stick Legs said:

There is a couple I know who let on Air B&B.

The list of people who are unaware of the fact include but are not limited to HMRC, their mortgage provider and their insurers.

I have humbly suggested that if anything went awry that they would be up the creek without a paddle.

They think it’s fine.

I would be willing to bet that they are not alone

They may have a nasty surprise from HMRC one day as it’s easy for HMRC to find out if they are letting a property and they will just issues the fines for not filing the tax return. Likewise the council will want 150% (ours does) council tax backdated.