Anyone moved into a holiday let between selling house and moving into the new one?

[Creatinghaddock]

I'm likely to have a gap of about 4 months between sale of current property and moving into new one.

Would prefer not to take on a rental as they're mostly 12 month contracts.

And I'm not in an obvious holiday location.

Anyone have any experience of this?

I imagine it's very area dependent. You might find a holiday let is prohibitively more expensive (I've seen a couple advertised here for over the winter and they're on at about £1500 a month more than we're paying for normal rent). Plus they're furnished so you'd need to do something with your possessions. And it may be harder to find one into the warmer months of the year.

Worth approaching a letting agent though to see if a normal let would be offered short term or with break clauses? A house in the same block as ours didn't rent out for ages and now has temporary tenants for two months only whilst they renovate and for £250 pm less than it had been advertised at!

Furnished holiday lets have a maximum limit of 30 days rental in one booking at a time, so you'd have to arrange directly with an agency/owner and agree to leave for one night in every month. It's probably only possible in areas that don't get any visitors over the winter as most lets will be booked already for half terms/easter for example. I'm not sure what the rules are for air BnBs?

Not exactly the same - but we did once move into a trailer tent for a month. Between sale and purchase. It was summertime and we treated it as a holiday/ necessary short term mild inconvenience.
Would something like that be acceptable?

That’s not true about not letting for longer periods. We have had a film company in our holiday house for months at a time over 12 years! The film company paid the advertised rate of the previous year. However it might be cheaper, at a quiet time of year, to negotiate. My neighbour had a 4 month rental from someone who was in your position op. It does happen.

To get business rates, holiday home owners need minimum rental occupation each year. I think it’s 10 weeks so, if it’s not a popular rental, you might be a Godsend if you are extra weeks. Ask and see what you can get. Some other rentals might accept a few months too.

Short let? Again imagine it’s area dependent but round here there are a few places that can be let for x weeks or months. Usually furnished and bills included (like a holiday let).

I had a holiday let somewhere with no winter season. I used to let it out between October half term and easter/mid march on a longer term basis, usually to insurance clients.

I also have a lot of friends who lived in Air bnbs when they moved back from overseas and were waiting to buy. One issue can be continuity and often they had to keep moving every few weeks, so you may have to do a few.

I have a friend doing it at the moment. It is off season here so the holiday lets are reallly discounted.

Not something I would recommend in high season.

The rental market is bonkers at the moment so your options are likely to be limited. I had a friend who had two months of moving from abroad back to U.K. in December and January and they put stuff in storage and sofa surfed with friends (with one child in tow) for two months as there was literally nothing apart from a hotel. They considered a six month rental but most landlords felt the voids either side were not attractive and the competition for a rental was fierce.

other options outside of winter and holiday season are caravan parks so that may be an option. My friend had someone who had a caravan but sadly it was at a park that closed December and January.

good luck!

@TizerorFizz From HMRC: Do not count longer-term lets of more than 31 days, unless the 31 days is exceeded because something unforeseen happens. For example, if the holidaymaker either:

falls ill or has an accident, and cannot leave on time
has to extend their holiday due to a delayed flight

Pretty clear that you can't let for more than 31 days and count those days as part of your FHL 'allowance', which is why you don't see it happening more often. Of course, I don't suppose that in practice no one is going to come and check that you have actually left on night 32 before you come back and start another 31 days.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/furnished-holiday-lettings-hs253-self-assessment-helpsheet/hs253-furnished-holiday-lettings-2022