Hi
I would like to ask if any of you have rented your basement suites out for people on reccies or short term rents. If so where do you start? Also how did it go?
Its something i have been toying with for a while now as we found it difficult to find somewhere to rent in the burbs when we first came, there are loads for the city and through travel companies. I have trawled through this site and not found much either. The local papers advertise for longer term rentals but nothing for a few weeks here and there.

I thought it might be a good way to help other people out as we were helped when we first arrived.

Thanks in advance

I have never done this myself, but I know a woman in Jasper who offers private home accommodation (PHA). It's similar to a B&B, but she does not serve breakfast to her guests. She provides her guests with a self-contained suite (flat) in her house. The suite is comprised of a bedroom, bathroom, living room, kitchen and private entrance.

Businesses that earn more than $30,000 a year have to charge their customers 6% federal GST. In Alberta a B&B or PHA that earns more than $30,000 a year also has to charge its customers a 4% provincial room tax.

Since this woman's revenue is under $30,000 a year, she does not have to charge her guests either of the above mentioned taxes.

This woman deliberately has chosen to call her place a PHA (that does not serve breakfast) rather than a B&B (that does serve breakfast). The reason is that there are additional hoops that she would have to jump through (additional hygiene inspections, etc., etc.) if she was to serve food to her guests.

But keep in mind that what I'm telling you refers to Alberta. As with so many aspects of Canadian life, the operation of a B&B or similar business is different from province to province (and sometimes from municipality to municipality).

Here is a federal government website about starting a bed and breakfast. I think at least some of the information would be applicable even if you were operating a PHA rather than a B&B.

Here is a British Columbia government guide to starting a bed and breakfast.

Hope that helps.

Perhaps I should add one or two observations about running a small business -- I mean any small business, not necessarily just a PHA.

My husband and I have a small business. My husband is an engineer and I'm a technical writer. We both have clients for whom we do contract work, and we both invoice our clients through our company.

There is a certain amount of hassle involved in running a company. There is extra paperwork (more tax returns to submit than an ordinary individual has to submit, and so on). You should not underestimate the amount of discipline that it requires to stay on top of that stuff.

With that said, though, there are many opportunities to offset expenses against your taxable income. I could give many examples, but a couple of them will suffice. We have a fax machine. Because we have family members overseas, we occasionally find it useful to have a fax machine. After my father-in-law's death, for example, my mother-in-law and my husband exchanged a lot of legal correspondence by fax. But our fax machine was bought and paid for by our company. My computer has gone on strike a few times recently, and I've decided to replace it soon. When I do, it'll be the company and not I that will buy the computer.

Although I have no experience of running a PHA, I imagine it would give you opportunities to write off expenses that you ordinarily would incur as a householder but that you could claim were related to the operation of your PHA.

I thought it might be a good way to help other people out as we were helped when we first arrived.

Thanks in advance[/QUOTE]

If you're up and running in November you've got yourself a customer.

We're having a problem finding a short term let in London. There are some on the market but lets say they are not exactly 'des res'. We're not looking to buy a property until we are actually there hence the short term lease. My OH has another trip over in September and if no luck then we'll have to tie ourselves into a long term lease and hope we dont find the dream home too soon

TC

We're having a problem finding a short term let in London.


I think i might be a bit far out for you, I'm in Pitt Meadows / Maple Ridge, BC.

Thanks Judy good advice as usual.
One of my other questions is how would i go about advertisments? Would it be ok to do it on this site or sites similar.

I don't want it to become a big business just a couple of weeks here and there for people on reccie's and the like.

Methinks a bit too far for the daily commute

Is there no one else that has done this ??

You could use the Classified section, but not the main forums.

Site rule 8.
The forums, (including the private message and email systems), are not a venue for advertisements in any way. Please do not post promotional/advertising messages, urls, nor specifics that would lead people to your site/product/service. However, a single line in your signature with a link to your site is allowed. (For signature guidelines please read Rule 17.) It will be the sole discretion of britishexpats.com and its moderators as to what constitutes an advertisement.

I've PM'd you - lots to consider in addition to advertising, including insurance - for us an additional $1300 CAN for the year!

Perhaps some people think the thread title suggests that you’re looking for a place to stay. If they feel they don’t have any useful information to offer, perhaps they haven’t even bothered to open the thread. When I saw the thread title, I thought it was related to an accommodation search rather than a potential offer of accommodation.

I thought I read here that one BE family rented their basement to another BE family while they got themselves sorted out. So there is at least one BE member who has done what you’re thinking of doing. But for them it may have been a one-off thing, just to help someone out, rather than something they wanted to get into on a long term basis.

I don’t know if they did it “officially” or if they lent them the space for free or if they exchanged cash under the table.

It seems to me it would be a lot of trouble to set up a small business, and do all the paperwork that’s associated with that, if one is going to rent the place out for only a few weeks a year,

If one was going to do it for only a couple of weeks here and there, it would be tempting to charge cash and keep no written records of the transactions. But that route would not be without risk. Suppose there was a fire in your house and suppose that, during the investigation following the fire, it came to light that you had illegal tenants in the house. I’m guessing it might render your homeowner’s insurance null and void. The likelihood of that scenario unfolding is very small. However, the consequences if it did unfold could be severe.

Judy, you read my mind!
We've been going through this process ourselves recently, and I've sent a PM explaining some of the things to consider, including property insurance.

I don't often start a thread and it was difficult to write a title without the suggestion i was advertising something.

Thanks though. I see what you mean about the insurance.