Tackling Short-lets in Leasehold Properties Short letting is when a property is let for anything less than 90 consecutive days. Websites such as Airbnb and Booking.com are becoming more popular in facilitating these types of let.
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Presentation Transcript
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Tackling Short-lets in Leasehold Properties<br>
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Short letting is when a property is let for anything less than 90 consecutive days.
Websites such as Airbnb and Booking.com are becoming more popular in facilitating these types of let.
Leaseholders of Westminster City Council are NOT permitted to short-let their property as per the terms of the lease.
While the Deregulation Act (2015) allows short letting for a period up to 90 days in a calendar year, the terms of the Westminster City Council lease prohibit this and therefore supersede the law as the contractual terms between the Landlord (Westminster) and the Tenant (the leaseholder) What is Short-letting?<br>
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Clause 17
“Not to permit or suffer to be done on the Demised Premises any act or thing which may be or become a nuisance or inconvenience to the Lessor or to any other owner or occupier of any of the flats or to the owner or occupier of any adjoining or neighbouring property”.
Clause 18
“Not to use the Demised Premises for any trade profession or business whatsoever but to keep and use the Demised Premises as a single private flat residential purposes only”.
Clause 19
“Not to use the Demised Premises or permit or suffer the same to be used for any purpose of an illegal immoral improper unpleasant noisy or noxious nature”.
Please note: Exact wording and referenced clause numbers may vary between leases but all Westminster leases contain words to the same effect. The Lease and Relevant Clauses<br>
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Leasehold Operations Process Litigation Team
Issue Letter Before Action
First Tier Tribunal Application
If resolved before the sign a legal-undertaking and pay for the incurred legal costs.<br>
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Injunction to prevent the leaseholder from breaching the terms of the Lease – this is a non-ASB injunction
Anti-Social Behaviour Injunctions – if the breach is anti-social (against Leaseholder or resident)
Forfeiture Possession Proceedings
Mortgage Lender Action for Breach of Lease. Typical Legal Action Against Leaseholders<br>
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Cameron House
We received continuous complaints from neighbours within the block about noise and the new subtenants occupying the property. A link was also found on Booking.com advertising the property for short letting purposes.
After numerous attempts to resolve the issue with the leaseholder, the matter was referred to our legal team due to breach covenants. In January 2020, the case went to tribunal, which found in our favour.
This was our first major FTT determination for short-letting which strongly supported this activity as a breach of the lease against Schedule 7, Clause 18* as using the property as a business and not as a private single dwelling.
Lascelles House
In this case, short-letting at this property has been ongoing for a extended period of time. During the legal process of this case, the short-letting had been confirmed to ceased. However, we did not remove our FTT application to seek determination of the breach of lease and to recover legal costs.
November 2023 the case went in our favour and the tribunal granted a determination for historic breach of lease. Another breakthrough determination that strengthens our fight against short-letting and confirms that we can seek legal action and recover costs for historical breaches.
It also determined that we can take action even if the property is being let out using a managing agent. Major Case Breakthroughs<br>
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351 cases have been reported to leasehold operations since 2020.
Reported cases dipped during covid but are now on the rise again as shown below.
We have amended our process to take a much stronger stance on short-letting and have increased our legal action.
Spikes in short-letting during the summer holidays and Christmas periods. Current Cases / Trends * This is an estimate based on current number of cases<br>
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Leasehold Operations has successfully implemented Artificial Intelligence to help combat short letting in the borough.
The AI system now actively scans platforms like Airbnb and Booking.com to gather key information on Westminster City Council properties, such as addresses, host names, and more.
We will continue to enhance and refine the system to ensure it delivers the best possible results, enabling us to take a more proactive approach in addressing short-letting cases. AI in Short-letting<br>
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How residents can report short-letting :
Residents report short-letting by emailing us at housing.enquiries@westminster.gov.uk
Residents also report any short-letting activity by completing the following form - https://www.westminster.gov.uk/form/report-short-lettings
Residents can drop in to any one of our 8 area offices and report this to our Leasehold Operations advisors Contacting us<br>
