Can you short-let a leasehold flat?

Why the lease comes first

Most flats in England and Wales are owned on a long lease: you own the flat for a set number of years, and the freeholder (the landlord, often a company) owns the building. The lease is a contract, and its promises, called covenants, bind whoever owns the flat now. So a short let can be lawful in every other way and still break your lease.

Breaking a covenant can lead to a court order to stop (an injunction), a claim for damages and costs, and in the worst case forfeiture, where the landlord takes the flat back. Forfeiture is rare and comes with protections, but a dispute gets expensive long before that.

The clauses that catch short lets

Few leases mention Airbnb, and they do not need to. Three kinds of clause do most of the damage.

“Private residence” and “private dwelling house”

Wording such as “not to use the flat other than as a private residence” causes the most trouble. Tribunals read it to mean whoever is staying must be living there, for the time being, with some degree of permanence. A guest staying a few nights is not doing that, so the covenant is broken, even if you live there yourself the rest of the week.

Business use

A ban on any “trade or business” sounds as if it would catch short lets, but the exact words matter. In Triplerose v Beattie the Upper Tribunal found that short stays did not mean a business was carried on in the flat itself, so that part of the clause was not broken. The private dwelling house wording in the same clause was.

Subletting and parting with possession

Most leases control underletting (letting the flat on a tenancy) and parting with possession. Short-let guests usually stay on a licence, a right to occupy that is not a tenancy, and a narrow ban on underletting may not catch that. But many leases also ban sharing occupation or letting anyone else occupy the flat, and those words catch a guest whatever the legal label. Every guest we host stays on a licence, but that alone does not make a short let safe under a lease like this.

What the tribunals have said

Three decisions come up in most short-let disputes. Each turned on its own lease, so read them as a guide to how ordinary words are interpreted.

Upper Tribunal (UKUT) decisions bind the First-tier Tribunal. Bermondsey is a county court decision, so it guides but does not bind.

The lessons are practical. Occasional lets are enough: Ms Nemcova said she had let her flat about seven times in the previous year. Living there yourself part of the time does not help. And a lease that allows assured shorthold tenancies does not imply short stays are fine; the Triplerose lease allowed assured shorthold tenancies of up to six months without the landlord’s consent.

How to check your own lease

Start with the lease itself, not what the sales particulars or last owner said. Your solicitor should have sent a copy when you bought; if not, ask the managing agent or order one from HM Land Registry.

Download the title register first. If the lease is marked as filed, Land Registry holds a scanned copy, which you order by post on form OC2. Ask the managing agent for any deeds of variation, earlier consents and block rules too, because these change or add to the lease. Then look for these clauses.

Then work through these questions. They give a rough first answer, not a legal opinion.

This guide is general information, not legal advice. If the answers are unclear, a solicitor who deals with leasehold can read your lease and tell you where you stand, which is usually far cheaper than a dispute.

Asking the freeholder for consent

If the lease is against you, the cleanest fix is written agreement from the freeholder, often through its managing agent or a residents’ management company. How much room you have depends on the type of clause.

Make it easy to say yes: explain how guests are checked, who they contact and the house rules. Every guest we host gives photo ID, signs a rental agreement and pays a damage deposit or waiver before arriving, which answers many of a freeholder’s first questions.

1. Write to the freeholder or agentSay what you plan, how often, and who will manage it.
2. Offer sensible conditionsFor example a minimum stay, a named local contact and house rules.
3. Get the answer in writingA letter of consent, a licence or a deed of variation.
4. Check it covers every clauseUse, subletting and block rules, not just one of them.
5. Tell your lender and insurerTheir agreement is a separate question from the freeholder’s.

A deed of variation changes the lease permanently, but usually needs your lender’s consent and registering at Land Registry. A letter of consent is quicker; check whether it is personal to you and whether it can be withdrawn. Our guide to mortgages and short lets covers the lender’s side.

Share of freehold flats

With a share of freehold, you and the other owners own the freehold together, usually through a company. You still have a lease, and its covenants still bind you. The difference is that your neighbours are now the landlord: they decide, under the company’s rules, whether to consent, and they can enforce the lease against you. Being a director does not let you give yourself consent.

If the freeholder objects

Most disputes start with a letter from the managing agent, often after a neighbour complains. For a long lease of a flat in England and Wales, the freeholder cannot go straight to forfeiture: section 168 of the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 sets the order.

1. First
   Warning letterThe freeholder says the lease is being broken and asks you to stop.
2. Then
   Breach decidedUnless you admit it, a tribunal or court must decide there was a breach, usually the First-tier Tribunal.
3. 14 days later
   Section 146 noticeThe freeholder can serve a notice setting out the breach and asking you to put it right.
4. After that
   CourtIf you do not, it can ask the court to end the lease. The court can grant relief (let you keep the flat), and often does if the breach has stopped.

That protects you from losing the flat over a disputed point, not from costs: many leases let the freeholder recover its legal costs of a section 146 notice from you. The freeholder can also skip forfeiture and ask the court for an injunction, as in Bermondsey.

Forfeiture itself may go. A draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill, published in January 2026, would abolish forfeiture of long residential leases in England and Wales and replace it with a “lease enforcement claim”. The Bill still has to pass through Parliament, and the government expects forfeiture to end soon after it becomes law. Until then, the current rules apply. Even if it passes, freeholders will still be able to enforce covenants.

Insurance, fire safety and the neighbours

The freeholder insures the building under one block policy, paid for through the service charge. Most leases say you must not do anything that could invalidate it or raise the premium. Short lets can be a change the insurer needs to hear about, so tell the freeholder or agent, and expect some insurers to charge more or add conditions. Your own cover is separate; see insurance for short lets.

Fire safety law treats a flat let to paying guests as non-domestic premises, so you, or whoever runs the let, become a responsible person for the flat under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. The freeholder or agent is usually responsible for the common parts, and the Order says the two must share contact details and cooperate. Ask for the block’s fire risk assessment and evacuation plan, and make sure guests know it. A flat’s front door is often a fire door, so check before fitting a smart lock. See our guide to fire safety.

Almost every lease also bans nuisance or annoyance to neighbours. That does not stop short lets as such, but noise, overflowing bins and the main door left open are easy to prove, and one complaint often leads the freeholder to read the rest of the lease. Clear house rules, a named local contact and checked guests go a long way.

Scotland, Northern Ireland and leasehold reform

Most flats in Scotland are owned outright, not on a lease. The equivalent restrictions sit in the title deeds as title conditions (real burdens), often in a deed of conditions for the whole tenement. “Use as a private dwellinghouse only” is common, and under the Title Conditions (Scotland) Act 2003 other owners with an interest can enforce it. Scotland’s short-let licensing guidance asks hosts to check their title deeds before applying; see short lets in Scotland. Leasehold is common in Northern Ireland, but section 168 does not apply there, so ask a Northern Ireland solicitor.

The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 is mainly about the cost of extending a lease or buying the freehold. Some parts are in force: you no longer have to own the flat for two years before extending the lease. The changes to extension prices are not yet in force. Neither the Act nor the draft 2026 Bill, as published, rewrites the use or subletting clauses in existing leases, apart from the forfeiture change above.

Questions owners ask