Can you Airbnb a council property in the UK?

[Rituparna0]

Hello,

Need urgent advise.
if one owns a council / social house in London, can it be rented out on Airbnb ?

Will it be legal / ethical for such landlord? Are there restrictions from the various London councils on short term rents?

Looking forward for your replies.

[Victoria567]

It’s called social housing for a reason.

Its not there for unscrupulous people wanting to make a fast buck or two, from air bnb, by sub letting.

Its there for rent to tenants from a disadvantaged socio-economic background or genuinely homeless people and not for folk abusing the system by using a council house / social housing as a second home.

Im quite appalled by this question.

[David4253]

**[Inappropriate comment removed in line with the Community Center Guidelines]

[Cassidy48]

Hi,

while I appreciate everyone’s comments on here, your tone and demeanour is actually quite horrified and judgmental. The young lady was asking a genuine question and your response was quite degrading, Please, if you have nothing nice to put out into the community, words or otherwise, please keep them to yourself, every opinion should be valued in some form or another.

[David9008]

**[Inappropriate comment removed in line with the Community Center Guidelines]

[Seivar0]

 Totally pointless

[David4253]

If you OWN it now, definitely. If it was ever a council house, that's irrelevant if you own it. To be honest, I don't know the legality, but even if someone is a council tenant, if they originally qualifies for a certain size of house because that's what they needed, and let's say a kid moves out so they have an extra room, chances are they're paying a bedroom tax, so ultimately, it's pathetic to whine as though they shouldn't Airbnb the extra room to offset their costs. London in particular, it's not like they'd be making much of an extra buck or two. More like surviving and hanging onto their family home.

[Gordon0]

As an FYI, @David4253, the post you are responding to is ten months old. And the person you are replying to is highly unlikely to see it as you haven't @ed them. 

[David4253]

When you reply directly to a comment on pretty much any platform, you don't have to @ someone.

[Helen350]

@David4253  - We do here! Kinda a convention..... Especially if you want the person who wrote the OP to see it... (Tho' she has anyway... it might be interesting for you to regard her thoughtful explanation?)

[David4253]

Well, I am new to this in that I only found the post because I was looking for similar information (and no, I'm not a council tenant). However, I'm not here to troll just because I'm not really concerned with pointless conventions (you're getting these). I'm happy to read the OP's essay, and I'm sure it's worth more than some auto accusatory attitude, moralising views on subtenancy.

[Cassidy48]

Always good for other members of the public to see peoples comments however regardless of age of posts 🙂

[Helen3 · Accepted solution]

Not only are you replying to an old post @David4253 , but you are actually factually incorrect, it is illegal to sub let a council tenancy and would be grounds for their tenancy being terminated. 

And you could make many thousands a year doing STR on a council house in London not just a pound or two.

However in this case if they own the property, unless their lease says otherwise, they should be able to use it for STRs.

[Helen350]

@David4253 Your tone sounds aggressive & scathing.... I wonder if you're on this site to troll...?

Regarding the original question, it came from a lady in India, & you don't know WHY she asked the question. It is possible that she was planning to travel to London, and did not want to rent a place where it was illegal....? So it's a good question, a genuine question, and a sensible question.- No need to be nasty, that's not how we are on this forum! 

[David4253]

Given that you called a theoretical person unscrupulous, who would simply Airbnb a council house that in context of the question they OWN, and given that you were for some reason appalled by the very question, forgive me for not exactly thinking you were being polite. Forgive me for finding it disingenuous and hypocritical to say that's "not how we are." Maybe not everyone is, but you are.

Furthermore, I specifically stated that I didn't know the legality if they were a council tenant, therefore I made no factual claim to be factually incorrect about. I simply said it's pathetic to whine about it. My take is that even while now I know it's illegal, I don't consider that the same as being unethical in the scenario I mentioned, qualifying for one of a certain size and then later someone moving out, paying bedroom tax on the extra one. Even if it could be thousands (likely why it's illegal, because the council isn't getting that revenue), there's nothing unethical about leasing out any room to have to a willing subtenant.