DS plans to leave his central London flat totally empty for a year

[Tedsabear]

Hi all, so my DS’s dad passed away a couple of years ago, between his pension, life insurance and home DS and as able to sell his home and buy a flat in central London. He spent over 1 million on this (his dad wasn’t super wealthy or anything he just owned a property in a nice area of London and it was paid off mortgage wise). His girlfriend is Portuguese and also owns property in Lisbon.
They are mid 20s.

They have decided to spend the next year as digital nomads as they are able to work remotely. I told DS he should rent out his flat and his girlfriend should do the same. One from a security perspective and two as extra income. He has said no he doesn’t like the idea of someone staying in his space, he’s said I can go and check on it once a month or “whatever” if I like. He said his girlfriend will be doing the same anyway.

AIBU to think he’s being ridiculous?

D'you or the son know how many families are unhoused in London. It's impossible to care about this couple's non-problem.

Agree with you Op
For many reasons leaving a flat empty is not a great idea

Of course they'll insure it. I have an unoccupied property (which is going on the market soon) and it's fully insured with no problem. The only pain is needing to organise someone to visit for a couple of minutes every week, to meet the insurer's requirements. As I said up thread, their main worry is escape of water when no-one is present to spot it.

Yes, you really need an agent to let it for you so that you can be sure you are complying with all the complicated laws on deposits, electrical and gas checks, fire doors etc that apply to rentals now. This takes a chunk of the rent, and it may be difficult to get tenants out at the end of the lease. Plus damage problems and having to pay to store all DS's possessions. I wouldn't have thought it was worth it if he doesn't need the money.

Is there anybody sensible that you or DS and GF know who could house sit for a year?

As long as appropriate insurance is in place this is exactly what I’d do.

Until the tenants trash the place & won't leave. Whoops!

DS needs contents insurance to provide cover against risks of leaks and damage to flat beneath, break-ins, theft fire storm risk and damage to household items, damage from leaks from flats above, and will be expensive.

Will have to arrange for regular inspection to satisfy insurers.

OP could use it for weekend visits trips to theatre etc while inspecting.

Despite how the majority of land lords act, renting property comes with responsibilities and legal obligations. If he doesn't want to meet them then leave him be. You go and live it and give him cash if you're so concerned

If he rents it out and the tenant won't leave, it could easily take 2 years to evict them. London courts have MASSIVE backlogs for hearings and bailiff appointments. Plus S21 won't exist soon so he'd need to find another ground to get them out. I wouldn't do it.

Has he checked he’d be allowed to work from different countries? There are tax implications and other restrictions for employees to work from other countries.

I'm renting out our flat in London while we moved abroad with DH's job.

It's a pain in the arse and I'm in the process of kicking out the tenants.

Seriously not worth it of you can afford it.

From the OP:

"They have decided to spend the next year as digital nomads as they are able to work remotely"

The world is full of digital nomads at the moment. I have two friends doing it. Interestingly, given the Portuguese girlfriend, Lisbon is pretty much the European capital of digital nomad life, to the point that locals are complaining about it!

Being able to work remotely and working internationally are different things. I know from my work that permission is needed to work from a different country unless you are sent there for work purposes
due to tax and other liabilities for the company.

He is freelance so it’s a non-issue.

I get that you find it frustrating to watch him appear to throw money away, @Tedsabear . It's hard to watch someone seem so casual about it and I'm guessing that you worry that his attitude to money has been affected by money and a £1m property just dropping into his lap.

But my enforced 18 months of being a landlord has been an eye opener. I don't know why anyone does it. I have not made a penny from it, and nor did my late mum in the last year of accounts that I saw. But it's brought me a world of pain, and I'm one of the lucky ones who's tenants left (eventually) without me needing to get the bailiffs in. The property is an absolute mess, and if it was my home I'd be heartbroken.

Your son risks all this PLUS having to move all his stuff and put it in storage, at London storage costs. Plus the extra tenants rights that the government are bringing in, make renting your own home temporarily extremely risky.

Honestly, it's not worth it.

Working freelance from a country you don't have a work visa for is an immigration offence in a lot of places. He needs to be careful

Exactly this. There can be both immigration and tax issues. Some countries don’t allow ANY work (even unpaid/voluntary) without an appropriate visa.

Writing “he’s freelance so it’s a non-issue” is rather horrifying in its ignorance. I’m hoping this is just the OP’s lack of knowledge rather than what her DS has told her.

Many countries have digital nomad visas for this very reason.

DP and I did a year abroad in our twenties and we rented out our flat for a year. It was up there with one of the most stressful things we've ever done. The (seemingly nice) tenants were a bloody nightmare, caused thousands of pounds of damage. Letting agent was totally useless and negligent. We all ended up in court whilst I was pregnant. Never again.

If he can afford to leave it empty and still cover the costs then this will 100% be the easiest option. Surely he has a couple of trustworthy mates who'd jump at the chance to occasionally spend a weekend there and make sure everything's fine?

if its a million pound flat in central London its probably in a block with a concierge etc so at least will be reasonably secure? I'd worry about leaks, moldiness etc. Can he pay for a cleaner ro go in once a month at least or pay a property management company to do checks?

I do understand about not renting it oit, they might come back now an dagain between those desiginations or get a last minute cheap flight back to London.

OP has already said that it’s a flat above a shop so no concierge, block etc.

As a pp has pointed out, there's no concierge.
However his insurance for an unoccupied property will insist that the flat is visited regularly, and there are companies that will happily do that and record the visits.

At the moment I have enough people visiting my property to do work/quote/inspect it regarding its imminent marketing (and signing and dating a notebook left there for that purpose) to cover the once a week visit that my insurer asks for. When those visits dry up, the cleaner who cleared the property is happy to make that weekly visit.

This,

He must make sure he has the right insurance and it will cost him money to do it, but unless he has an incredibly reliable house sitter I would leave it empty.

That’s very important; most policies state that the property must not be left unoccupied for more than a certain number of days. Has he also considered the risk of squatters?