Happy for long term let but what if need place back at short notice?

Hi.
We are aiming our apartment at long-term guests. But we will at some point need the apartment back to live in ourselves and this may be at short notice (ie 48 hours) due to unavoidable personal circumstances. We are unlikely to need it back within the next 4-6 months though. But there’s a 1% chance we might. So you see my dilemma.
What happens if someone books long term but you suddenly need the place back asap to live in yourself? Is there a required minimum amount of notice we need to give? Could we say to the guest “sorry but you need to leave in 48h”?
This is something we would of course make clear to guests before they book. But obviously they might book for a few months.
Thanks

You can’t do this. Instead do short term. I would t book unless there was a huge discount or payout for being kicked out with 48 hour notice.

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If it is cheap enough you might get someone to bite.

Thanks for replying
So say someone wants to book for 4 months… is it possible to let them do 1 month and continue it on a ‘rolling 1 month’ basis?
This is how regular tenancy’s work in UK. You have to commit for the first 6 months but after that its 1 months notice to leave from either landlord or tenant. Surely airbnb would be more flexible? There must be a notice period in the rules somewhere? What if i gave them 1 week, or 2 weeks or even a months notice that they had to end their long-term stay? Surely airbnb cant expect someone to book for 6 months and for that to be set in stone? What if i wanted to sell my property?

It’s not Airnb but potential renters, would you rent a place you might be kicked out if in 48 hours notice?

Do you understand what a contract is? You can’t have it both ways, either give people a commitment or leave your place empty.

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for the right price, yes :slight_smile:

so maybe 48h is a bit harsh, but 1 week is ample time to find another airbnb round here

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Throws up hands in disbelief.

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it would be handy know what the actual legal contracted minimum notice time is though louise, which is what im after. there must be something in airbnb’s terms to cover such a situation. it may not be “nice” but im sure it must happen. what if someone was trashing your place? surely you could kick them out immediately? before they did any more damage. even if theyd signed up for 6 months.

I don’t know your situation or the housing situation in your location but I’m going to chime in. I wouldn’t want to stay in a place where I might kicked out in 48 hours (at the right price) unless I was very unstable. I’m thinking of when I moved out of my parent’s house at the age of 17. You want a long term stay but whoever is attracted to such a situation may only give you 48 hours (or less) notice. This sounds like a terrible situation all around and I wouldn’t be surprised if you end up some problem guests.

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In my area if you have a month to month lease, it means either party can terminate with 30 days notice.

Food for thought: If you need your unit back, instead of a 48 hour notice, rent a place yourself for the time you need it. As long as what you are paying is less than what you are renting your place for, you are coming out to the positive.

You mentioned you thought the “I need my unit back” has a 1% chance of occurring.

Having a back up plan of renting something yourself, removes the uncertainly for the long term booking guest thus making your rental appealing.

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Not understanding how you could do this if you want to rent it through Air.
I mean… the rental period is set in stone.

So if you want to rent it month by month, you should take it off Air the second month, draw up a lease and put your terms in. Not sure it would be legal though!

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AirBnb is NOT…repeat NOT… set up to do Long Term Rentals. Therefore their rules, regultions, and Terms of Service are extremely unlikely to have a codicil which would cover your certainly strange and unlikely situation.

Your only real solution is to stick to Short Term Rentals with 2-day notice between bookings (there’s your 48 hours). Either that or shut down the listing entirely.

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The 6-month short-let rule was instituted in Britain for short lets, as I understand, in part to disallow the kind of situation you’re talking about - what is seen as landlords abusing tenants by asking them to leave at short notice.

I think the idea proposed by @Annet3176 et al that you find something else for yourself is a brilliant one.

And, that Airbnb is not a platform suitable for long-term renting.

So the option you have left then would be to have a contract signed in advance wherein this risk is mentioned and both parties agree to it, and the cost you bear for exercising the 48-hour clause will be a big penalty by way of a fee, which might include refunding part of what the tenant has already paid up until that point. And perhaps all this is still stretching it a bit under British law.

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With Airbnb it’s not about giving ample ‘notice period’, there is no such thing. You are expected to honour the booking. Possibly you could cancel the stay, but not without severe host penalties.

I reckon find another platform, Airbnb isn’t going to work in your case

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I don’t know the laws where you are (UK?) but in almost every US jurisdiction, a tenant gets rights after 1 month of tenancy. Even if the wording of yoru contract requires them to vacate on 48 hours notice, if they refuse to leave, you can’t kick them out without going to court, which often takes far longer than a month. And then, depending on jurisdiction, you may even have the court say it’s an illegal contract term and hold you to the original agreement or even extend the contract to a one-year lease.

I do have a couple six-week rentals coming up through Air, and they make me nervous, because I know exactly what could go wrong. However, these are both professionals from the same large company, with multiple reviews, and the prospect of that company providing a regular booking is worth the risk. It helps that I know real estate law though, and so wouldn’t have to hire a lawyer if things went wrong.

I would not rent out your place for a long-term rental and put in the 48 hour clause without finding out exactly how bad it could get.

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Then you should ask Airbnb - we are not Airbnb. However, the point I would like to emphasise is that this is not conscionable conduct - 48hours, a week etc You cant dictate what is ‘ample time’ to cancel someones contract to stay with you for a long term booking when they have done nothing wrong and may be settled and have other commitments with work, family, children, business and not have the energy to move again, pay another deposit, wait for a refund from you or Air etc etc.

If you want to do long term as this benefits you then do it outside of Air with a proper lease and abide by the legal obligations landlords have to as is clearly legislated in each state/country to avoid renters being treated like this. Expect a tenant to tell you to stick it if you give them 48hours or a week to move. I would.

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No way can you do that, you would have to find somewhwre else to stay. Not them

What if they booked for say 4 months and next week you tell them they have to leave in 48 hours. Where are they going to go, that is not fair. You should rent out a room and stay in the house instead.