Short-term lettings in London

I think buying a house is expensive enough in London, so if Home owners rent out their house for a while to help with mortgage payments the government should butt out of this. However, if people can't find affordable houses to buy or rent anymore, because companies who run short term rentals buy them all up, the government should interfere. Maybe the limit should be at 2 or 3 houses per person/company that you can use for short term rent.

Short Term Lettings quickly become a trigger for a downward spiral in an area. The sense of community is eroded by a transient population who tend to be noisier, feckless and inadvertently anti-social. Wealthier families are the first to leave, robbing the area of the civilised generation - and then the level of crime creeps up. Seen this several times.
Sell your flat as soon as you see the authorities and building management allowing it.

There is a big difference between renting out a spare room in one's own home, or renting out a second property via an assured tenancy - both of which increase the availability of stable housing for Londoners - compared to renting out an entire house/flat on a short-term let via AirBnB, which can leave the property unoccupied for lengthy portions of the year and can thus decrease the availability of stable housing for Londoners.

Perhaps I have been unlucky, but it is often been the case that AirBnB renters show little consideration for the neighbouring properties, for example by hosting loud parties late at night, deliberately not securing entrances to the building, not disposing of rubbish properly, etc - simply because they do not have to care about the consequences of their behaviour in a property in which they will only be staying for a couple of days.

I was unaware of the planning permission requirement for short-lets, but this sounds like it would be sufficient to manage the potential negative impacts of short-term lettings within a building or an area, without having to create any new law or regulations. The existing framework should allow local councils to manage the density of short-term let properties in a given area, and to balance this with local housing needs. However, more effort needs to be put into enforcing the current rules.

Many new-build blocks of flats have lease terms forbidding the short-term letting of the property; it appears that such rules are often flaunted by property owners, with no consideration for how this might impact neighbouring homes. I would hope that the presence of such a restriction in a property's lease would automatically result in the refusal of planning permission. Planning applications/decisions are publicly available/searchable, so any neighbours who are being adversely impacted by the short-term letting of a property should be able to check that it is being done legally and report it, if not.

I don't object to people having a lodger in a spare room. The problem is people renting out whole properties on short lets as it reduces the number of properties available to long-term tenants and pushes rents up. Existing rules need stronger enforcement.

It never ceases to amaze me why in respect of issues that are already unlawful or anti social why anyone thinks that more "rules" or legislation will magically work or suddenly be enforced. I worked hard to get on the property ladder - what business of the government is it to decide who I can have round or stay over - so what if they pay to stay in the spare bedroom ? I agree that they should not be noisy, anti-social but that's just common sense. I see the questionnaire was heavily biased against letting - its absolutely no ones business what I do in my own private property. There seems this idea that by me renting out via airbnb I am depriving someone else of a long term let - yes maybe but its my property and surely its my decision ? I much prefer short term as you won't get stuck with someone who doesn't work out for very long and the government needs to take a long hard look at the serial rental abusers on normal letting, my brother rented his house two years ago whilst he was away to help pay mortgage - person didn't pay rent citing Covid ! Took ££s in legal action to evict - never again and he now does airbnb.

Two experiences that have informed my opinion about short-letting, for your consideration.

1. In our block of 12 individually-owned long-lease flats, one absentee owner set up an arrangement with a company that used the flat like a hotel room. It was a one-bedroom flat with an wooden internal staircase converted, without planning permission, by dividing rooms, installing bunkbeds and moving the unventilated gas-stove under the stairs, and then advertized for up to 10 guests !! A cleaning and laundry service came when guests changed over. Noise levels at weekends were unacceptable, and drunk guests even entered another occupied flat once by mistake. We took photos of the kids lined up waiting for someone with a key to open the front door, and photos of the trash and damage they caused inside the common areas. We begged the management firm to stop the short-letting on the grounds that the flat owner had broken the terms of their lease. They had the locks changed, but the renting company found a way around that. We appealed to the Landlord to enforce the lease conditions, but they obfuscated and were no help. Westminster Council enforcement section was, frankly, hopelessly under-staffed and subject to frequent staff turnover, and they never managed to inspect the flat in question during a period of three years. But, in their defence, the 90-day limit on short-lets is virtually unenforceable. Finally, the short-lets were shut down due to the fire risk, and the flat owner was ordered to restore the flat to its previous configuration. The flat appears to have remained empty during the two years since then.

2. Overseas friends booked an AirB&B room in an occupied flat on Tottenham Ct Rd a few years ago. They were shocked and left after one night -- it was not equipped as advertized, it was a slum, filthy, with an entrance hall that was a fire risk, plants growing in the bath, and another guest in their living room!!

Living on an estate of family homes we have experienced some entirely inappropriate short term lets with unauthorised parties occurring with excessive attendees and cars everywhere blocking legitimate residents, creating noise, excess refuse etc. as well as overcrowding properties. Several of the short term lets and HMO room lets also bring drug use and dealers to family streets.

Some short term lets may be ok but they need to be away from residential areas and properly controlled to limit the disturbances which can occur in non tourist areas.

Govt intervention only exacerbates problems. Example taxing rents which just results in higher rents. Want to make rents more affordable? Don't take away 40%/45% of the amount.

Sub lets and tax evading properties should be curbed though. As well as limits on how many people can live in a room/flat

Such short-term rentals are attractive to landlords since they are unsecured and are quick money earners. In parts of London they might help the economy with additional tourists spending. But they do have a negative impact upon the local rental market for people working in London. Also there is no involvement with the community or the area with short-term renters (they have a different agenda). There can be security issues with short-term renting where the renters have a possible criminal agenda, for example drug dealing.

I live on a mixed-tenure garden square where several home owners rent out their properties short term. I rent from a housing association; two of my friends and neighbours have been evicted for trying to make up rent arrears by offering occasional airbnb lets. They caused no nuisance by doing this, but the landlord had a new housing manager who enjoyed throwing his weight around and he refused to withdraw the notices of seeking possession. Ironically, both women resorted to airbnbs themselves on becoming homeless. Parallel to this, the landlords that repeatedly rent entire flats for wedding parties, birthdays and luxury weekenders, land us with party noises in the shared garden, drunk vomit, cigarettes, bottles and urine in basement areas and similar problems.
I think well managed short term accommodation can provide benefits like a bit of extra income during an owner's temporary absence, or when adult kids are away at uni, and drawing tourists back to an area with entertainment and retail businesses badly affected by the lockdown. But the current system isn't properly regulated; it's mostly just further reducing the pool of affordable rental homes in an area where we've had a housing crisis fragmenting our community for decades.

The problem in a leasehold block of flats is that those using these platforms do not bother to check the terms of their lease. Many blocks legally cannot rent in such a way but when they do often problems ensue around block security; nuisance to other residents & problems with refuse disposal (& other general block management issues). The anti-social nature of mostly young people short term renting just to party; ignoring block's rules & causing residents upset should not be overlooked!

No short term lets should be allowed at all in the council-stock, including those bought by leaseholders under the Right to Buy. I live in Westminster where it seriously depletes the number of homes available for those who need them to live in permanently.

They often are also a source of anti-social behaviour, when tourists party, arrive late at night or cause other kinds of nuisance. We need neighbourhoods where people know their neighbours not those where faces change constantly.

Plus, we have a grave housing crisis, especially of affordable homes. This means that all homes for whose construction grant money was used should be exempt from any short-term lettings.