How to create value and get owners permission to short term sublet

I would love to know what would appeal or are the most important aspects to homeowners to agree to sublet.

My husband and I travel extensively and we are looking to short term sublet possibly up to two homes in different locations in Australia (at this stage Queensland and WA) whilst we travel however we would like to do this with the owners permission and would like to understand what would make this agreement appeal to the landlord and how best to position it during the application process?

Our thoughts so far - Regular cleaning, regular property inspections and regular general maintenance as well as guest screening.

 

I'm confused - what do you mean by this? Wouldn't the best and easiest way just to offer a bit more money?

I suspect I'm just weird and different from most landlords, because I wouldn't be fussed about my tenants subletting really.

 

Good to know, we certainly thought of this as well but want to overcome any other objections or concerns. How much extra per week would make it appealing to you?

 

As a landlord I'd expect those things as a given - PLUS a cut of the additional fares. You are exposing my property to additional risk, I'd have to take out different (likely more expensive) insurance. Id expect additional reward for that risk.

Hope that helps.

 

10% over normal rent would be enough for me. But again I suspect you'll need to maybe offer 20% or more over to be enticing enough for many landlords.

The problem is, I suspect most of the other conditions you're offering aren't even legally permissible under a residential tenancy.

 

Would you be subletting it to one person the whole time you're not using it or putting it on Air BnB and having multiple short term subletters.

One is vastly different from the other in terms of risk, increased maintenance and wear and tear.

 

Ideally short term rentals as we'll be traveling throughout the year, and sometimes away at short notice. We were also considering employing a property management company that specialise in this type of arrangement.

 

Thanks, that's helpful. Re other conditions, could you expand on why they might not be legal? If we had short term guests we'd have professional cleaning each time, during which time the property would be inspected and it would be in our interest to maintain the property to a higher than usual level.

 

Thanks it does - we thought of offering to pay the difference for the insurance policy (if applicable) the goal is not to make a profit but to assist in covering our rent whilst we travel, whilst acknowledging that we were liable regardless and fully capable of covering.

We could offer a share of any profits however this would have to be in arrears given we'd be unsure of when we would travel, if we could secure renters etc.

 

Because in nearly all situations, you can't alter the standard lease terms in the residential tenancy legislation. Even if the parties agree.

Overall I think you should be looking to keep things as simple as possible and the best way to do that would simply be to offer more rent to cover the potential downsides such as increased insurance costs, etc.

 

Its a big fat no from me.

As a property owner, if i wanted to have the issue of increased wear and tear I would have made it into a short term rental.

Don't get me wrong, your landlord owner may agree, but i think its a 50/50 chance.

Any damages, the most the landlord has to claim from is your bond. Sure you may have insurance, but that's assuming the insurance pays and doesn't take forever (and also assuming you actually stick around to fix the problem as opposed to dusting off your hands and walking off). Lots of downside risk with no upside to allow you as a renter to run an AirBNB.

You could do it without telling and hope that the landlord doesn't know, but its not hard to check. My property managers are on the look out for these things, tenant is overseas or travelling, yet there are always people at the house regularly - its easier to catch tenants doing this than you think. Just needs a PM with half a brain.

 

Thanks for your input. We absolutely want to have the owners permission, no need to add stress into the mix - our goal is to find a mutually beneficial arrangement, adding value to the property be it through additional rent, excellent up-keep or potentially professional improvement to the property at our cost and understand it won't appeal to all homeowners.

Out of interest is there anything at all that would make you consider this as an option?

 

See I don't really agree with this position which gets thrown around here a lot.

What's the real difference? The tenant is liable for everything anyway, just like a normal tenancy.

More wear and tear? I'm sceptical that this is actually true. I have an airbnb I manage, as well as a bunch of long term rentals. The airbnb property I have has had the least amount of "wear and tear" issues out of all of mine by far. If anything, the tenant has additional incentive to keep the place well looked after if they have an additional financial interest in doing so.

The only argument I agree has merit is that some insurances might need to be changed.

 

Except where there are major issues as a result and the bond itself doesn't cover it and the tenant hands back their keys and walks off and isn't contactable anymore.
At least if the property owner was getting the increased return, then they themselves could justify it (or at least it will make them feel a little bit better).

 

Increased rent, very large bond, my discretion to use the bond to have items fixed that have been damaged after each tenancy (the increased rent is to cover my time to inspect the property personally and organise trades to fix stuff up).

 

Wouldn't it just be cheaper and easier to hire the home you want on a short term basis when you need it? Negotiate a rate for the terms you need.

 

How is this any different from the risk of a normal long stay tenant doing this?

Like I said, at least a subletting head tenant has a financial interest in running things properly.

 

Currently we do this, we are actually renting for a month at a time whilst traveling however we'd like to have a home base as well as somewhere we can have storage. We'd plan to keep 1 room in the house as our own, locked up when we are renting short term.

 

I agree, we have more skin in the game as we need the property to appeal to short term rentals and we want to impress our landlord. so the home would be maintained well above the minimum most renters do.

 

Here's an alternative. How about communicating with the landlord when you're travelling and allow them to advertise on AirBnB? Work out a profit share with the landlord, credited against your rent.

That puts the responsibility back on the landlord. The catch to the tenant is what happens in the event that possessions are damaged or stolen, but you can probably make some provisions for this in the agreement.