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Solid Fuel Fire Safety Information For Holiday Lets

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If you have a solid fuel fire in your holiday home or cottage, check out this informative video from TheMasterSweep.co.uk containing advice on Solid Fuel Fire Safety Information For Holiday Lets

Iain is based in Cornwall, to find a chimney sweep in your area visit the Guild Of Master Sweeps site here – search for a chimney sweep    

Holiday Home Chimney Fire Safety Advice

As a holiday home or cottage owner you have a duty of care to your letting guests. Employing a qualified sweep to maintain your chimneys forms an important part of a structured fire risk assessment. A clean chimney can help prevent fire and structural damage to your holiday home. Check out this useful advice from Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service on Chimney Fire Safety 

Guild of Master SweepsDuty of care also a forms a general condition of a Holiday Home Insurance policy. You must take all reasonable steps to protect and maintain the property, prevent damage or injury and comply with laws by-laws and regulations. Failure to do so could void your holiday let insurance cover.

Other posts of interest to furnished holiday let holiday home owners:

For further information on UK holiday home insurance visit the website page most relevant to you:

 

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Holiday cottage owner asks – Can I use my router as a Wi-Fi hotspot?

wi-fi Q: On my farm I have three holiday cottages where I plan to offer Wi-Fi access to guests using a router located in the building’s roof. Not all guests are interested in using the Internet or checking email while on holiday, but an increasing number are so, to cover the cost of offering the service and any surcharges, which may arise due to excess downloading etc., I want to levy a nominal charge. Is it practical? Are there any snags that I should be aware of?
Ron Racher, Sherborne, Dorset
A: Courtesy of The Telegraph (Rick Maybury). Even though you are proposing a very small-scale system you can’t simply install a wireless router and allow your guests to access the web willy-nilly. There are a number of legal implications to be aware of, as detailed in the 1998 Data Protection Act and the Digital Economy Act 2010, and there are hefty fines for transgressors. The key issues are that you have to be able to identify and keep a record of your guest’s online activities in case they are involved in downloading illegal content, copyright infringement and so on. There’s a summary of the pertinent regulations on the Cyberair website at http://goo.gl/5XHrU.

Read the full answer here.

Holiday cottage owners contemplating adding any electrical sockets in their let properties should use a registered electrical contractor to ensure that the installation is safe and legal so as not to invalidate your holiday home insurance policy. It is also important to check that the contractor has their own liability insurance. Find out more here

As a holiday cottage owner you will also find the links below of interest:

For Self-Catering holiday cottage owners in Scotland, the Scottish Government has produced the following:

You may also find the following posts for holiday cottage owners of interest:

Follow this link for posts similar to Holiday cottage owner asks – Can I use my router as a Wi-Fi hotspot? other useful resources for holiday home owners

For further information on UK holiday home insurance visit the website page most relevant to you:


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Flood Alerts And Warnings In Force – be flood aware!

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Holiday Home Insurance | A guide to calculating your Sums Insured

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holiday home gutted by fire

Holiday Home Insurance specialists, Boshers Ltd advise furnished holiday let owners to review their cover and in particular to check that sums insured are correct.

Mark Lavington, Director of Boshers Ltd said that, “many holiday home owners will find that their holiday home insurance falls due for renewal during the Spring and early Summer as this is often when properties were purchased or began their life as furnished holiday lets.

This is therefore a poignant time to ensure that you have sufficient cover and especially that your sums insured are correct, as underinsurance can cause holiday home owners major financial issues”.

Please read Holiday Home Insurance | A guide to calculating your Sums Insured for more information.

Should you require any additional guidance, a holiday home insurance quote or a revised quote to increase your sums insured, please contact a member of Boshers Holiday Home Insurance Team on 01237 429444 or visit http://www.holidayhomeinsurancequote.co.uk/ 

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You, your holiday home keys and your insurance

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You, your holiday home keys and your insurance. Are `Loss of keys’ covered? This is frequently asked with respect to our holiday home insurance policy. Boshers holiday cottage insurance contract does include the reasonable cost necessarily incurred in replacing door or window locks at the holiday home including locks to safes and alarms following theft or loss of keys.

If your holiday home, cottage, or cottage complex is insured elsewhere be sure to check their policy wording throughly. When selecting the right holiday home insurance for your property be sure to compare the cover offered. It can often be false economy to focus purely on the premium. Check out more answers to your holiday home insurance FAQs.

You may also find the following posts for holiday home owners of interest:

Follow this link for posts similar to `You, your holiday home keys and your insurance‘ and other useful resources for holiday home owners

For further information on UK holiday home insurance visit the website page most relevant to you:

Thank you for reading `You, your holiday home keys and your insurance’.

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Carrying out alterations or improvements at your holiday home?

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Many furnished holiday home owners will choose the low season to renovate, improve and alter their holiday homes. Be sure to inform your holiday home insurance provider of such alterations so as not to compromise your cover. 

Sums insured may need to be increased to avoid underinsurance. Check out Boshers holiday home insurance | Guide to sums insured or call us on 01237 429444 should you have any queries.  

You may also find the following posts for holiday home owners of interest:

Follow this link for posts similar to `Carrying out alterations or improvements at your holiday home?‘ and other useful resources for holiday home owners

For further information on UK holiday home insurance visit the website page most relevant to you:

Thank you for reading `Carrying out alterations or improvements at your holiday home’?.

 

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Boshers | Holiday Home Insurance Shares Images On Pinterest

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Boshers Holiday Home Insurance Shares Images On Pinterest. The latest social media hype is focussed on Pinterest. We at Boshers holiday home insurance are always looking for ways to communicate articles of interest to holiday home owners. Check out our first virtual pinboard for UK holiday home owners.

Boshers holiday home insurance shares images on pinterest
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Tax on furnished holiday lettings

 

If you let out a furnished holiday home in the UK or the European Economic Area (EEA), you may be entitled to certain tax advantages. However, your property must meet some rules to qualify.
Rules for furnished holiday lettings for the 2011-12 tax year
To make sure your property qualifies as a furnished holiday letting, it must be: 

  • in the UK or EEA
  • furnished
  • available for commercial letting to the public, as holiday accommodation, for at least 140 days a year (210 days for 2012-13)
  • commercially let as holiday accommodation for at least 70 days a year (105 days for 2012-13) – the rent must be charged at market rate and not at cheap rates to friends and family
  • a short term letting of no more than 31 days 
Tax advantages of furnished holiday lettings

The tax advantages if your property qualifies as a furnished holiday letting are: 
  • you can claim capital allowances
  • you get the benefit of some favourable Capital Gains Tax rules when you sell or `otherwise dispose’ of the property 
 
If your property doesn’t qualify 

If your property doesn’t qualify as a furnished holiday letting – for example you own a holiday villa outside of the EEA or you don’t let it out for enough days – you’ll be taxed under the residential property lettings rules. 
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Legal case clarifies taxation of holiday lets in the UK

An article on the PROPERTYWIRE website outlines in detail the results of a resent tribunal case relating to the treatment of a holiday let property for inheritance tax purposes. 


A landmark tribunal case ruling has resulted in much needed clarification regarding the taxation of holiday lettings and has also criticised the conduct of the UK tax authorities. 


The case revolved around whether or not the letting of a holiday cottage consisted wholly or mainly of holding an investment. Property consisting of a business or an interest in a business carried on for gain and consisting of something other than the making or holding of investments (relevant business property) is entitled to relief from inheritance tax. 


The property in question was a large bungalow overlooking the sea on the Suffolk coast in England. The property could accommodate up to eleven people and was typically let for les than two weeks at a time. HMRC had determined in 2008 that the property was subject to inheritance tax. The taxpayer appealed to the Tax Chamber of the First-Tier Tribunal, claiming that the property was entitled to relief as a `relevant business property’.  To read the full article click here 


Holiday let owners looking to protect their business would be wise to choose a holiday home insurance policy that is built around a commercial property insurance wording, tailored to the risks involved with operating commercially let UK holiday homes. Call the Holiday Home Insurance Team at Boshers on 01237 429444 for advice and quotations or visit HolidayHomeInsuranceQuote.co.uk    

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Top Ten Coastal Property Investments

The Telegraph has published two great articles. It’s top ten of coastal property investments. and it’s top ten affordable seaside investments.

The articles contain some stunning photos of coastal towns and villages across the UK, all are favourites for holiday home staycations. Boshers are proud to provide holiday home insurance for many properties across all twenty locations. 


  

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