Renting a flat -- no HMO license. Is that good or bad?

[IreneR]

If I wanted to rent a short-tem (4 months or so) flat in Edinburgh, and the ad states that it doesn't have an HMO license, is that a bonus or a warning flag?

I googled HMO license, and I understand it has something to do with multiple households in a building. But I'm unclear about the details....

I'm unsure if Scottish law is different but no HMO means you can't rent it if you are renting between more than two unrelated parties. I.e. 3 or more sharers cannot rent that property.
You can rent it as one household or two separate occupiers.

Hope that helps!

That is a tremendous help. Thanks so much for responding!

I think all rental properties in Scotland need to be licensed regardless of whether they are HMOs but HMOs only need to be HMO licensed (in England anyway) if they are more than three storeys or if there are five sepsrste households.

In Scotland the landlord also needs to be registered with the local authority. Is the landlord you are looking to rent from? A bigger warning flat is a landlord willing to let for 4 months to you. 6 months is the norm.

We'll be in the UK on an academic gig, and there is a company who rents from the landlord on our behalf. But the agent has forwarded the listings for us to look over.

It looks to me like most of the properties are generally more like holiday flats, and we'll be in town during the winter, when tourists might be a bit thin on the ground.

Thanks for all the replies. I so appreciate the help.

I'd see it as a good thing (assuming you don't need to share with more than one unrelated person).

I'd suggest it means that the LL hasn't had to rent to students or sharers and therefore the property is likely to be in better condition. (that's obviously a sweeping generalisation about the way students/sharers look after rental property - which I make having been both at some point!)). Probably means the LL either doesn't usually have a problem renting it out (probably to families / people who can afford more space than they need) or doesn't desperately need the income.

I'm making loads of assumptions here , but it's how I'd view it....