What should I do with a rarely used vacant apartment?

I live with my partner who owns her own house, mortgage free. The house will eventually go to her adult children which is fine by me. I have an apartment in Bray which is mortgaged and I am covering it easily, I plan to use this to move into when my partners home is eventually passed onto he kids.

I am looking for advise on what to do with the apartment, we use it the odd time for weekend visits to the sea or her kids can bring their families to it.

I know I could rent it out in the current rental market, but based on some basic tax calculator I will get hosed with tax and I am not sure I want all the hassle that apparently goes with renting out a property, I've never rented out a property before. I dont know if I should put it in Airbnb for the other weekends we dont use it, rent it out longer term ( can it go to the council?) or had to a letting agent who will manage the whole thing for me. I would appreicate the wisdom of the crowd on this. Selling isnt an option as I am not young enought to reenter the mortgage market when I would have to leave the home I am currently in.

'hosed' with tax? What do you mean? All income is taxable. I would think twould be better to let it and pay tax on the income, rather than let it empty. You will end up with around 50% of the income.

Airbnb is profitable though hard work. And of course the profit is taxable.

Maybe use it as a house swap for holidays? Let someone stay in it for free and you stay in their home for free.

Half a loaf is always better than no loaf - hand the apartment over to a renting agency and let them do all the work, but be happy with half the income.

contemporary said:

The house will eventually go to her adult children which is fine by me. I have an apartment in Bray which is mortgaged and I am covering it easily, I plan to use this to move into when my partners home is eventually passed onto he kids.

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It's not that simple. If you are cohabiting you can be accumulating rights to the other partner's assets a bit like a married couple. If your partner passes away and you feel that her estate hasn't adequately provided for you then you can apply to a Court for a share of her estate (or indeed vice versa).

These kind of casual arrangements can cause huge heartache and distress when the time comes. While you are both healthy and all on good terms with her family you should take legal advice. Try to come up with something that will leave everyone comfortable and won't lead to dispute when one of you passes away.

contemporary said:

I dont know if I should put it in Airbnb for the other weekends we dont use it, rent it out longer term ( can it go to the council?) or had to a letting agent who will manage the whole thing for me.

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Airbnb can be very lucrative but it only makes sense if you do a lot of the work yourself and you have to be ready for a lot of wear and tear. Your neighbours will probably hate you and your management company may not allow it. Insurance can be a hassle too. And it's all taxed at your marginal rate. It doesn't sound like it's for you.

I wouldnt rent it or airbnb it in this ever changing legislation dropping climate.
Sure there were mutterings this week of a vacant property tax, needing planning permission to put it on airbnb even for 1 day, and indefinite tenancies if you rent it out.

I'll send you a PM on what I think you should do with it but i wont post it here or next thing you know it will be illegal or taxed

On a tangent, but an important one, you'd want to check your insurance as vacant properties are not covered under most insurance policies. They usually allow a house to be uninhabited for 30 days but there may be issues if there's only someone in it for a few days once in a while but it is usually vacant.

Getting an income is the best thing to do with it. We all have to pay tax

Since your partner has adult children with children of their own, I am assuming you are in the older age bracket/retired/about to retire.

What I would do, in this situation, if I didn't need the money, and potential incredible hassle that renting and/or Air bnb would cause, is what slugbreath suggested.

There are home swap sites that allow you to build up credits by allowing your property to be used as a house swap, then these credits would be used by you for your swap (rather than an immediate house swap). The people on the sites are referenced/vetted/and reviewed so the risk is low.

The advantage of this is that you are not using the house that you are living in.

I know a few people who use either their own house to do this, or a summer or second home in Ireland, and they are very happy with the arrangement.

It does depend on your circumstances and desire to visit other countries, but it gives you the option to take holidays in some non-touristy locations around the world and stay in some great houses/apartments and very little cost to yourself (just the upkeep of your own apartment).

I wouldn't rent it at the moment - if you needed it to live it at short notice you have to give tenant's notice and they may not be able to find another place and be reluctant to move. There is a lot of talk about protection for renters and covid rules apply until January 22. Tax has to be paid but you will work out at about 50% of rent. You may have good tenants and no hassle but getting your property back when you need it appears to be a priority for you so short term lets may be a better option

Could you rent it to students? Preferably mature ones. They'd be in September to June and you'd still have the holidays by the sea. If you approach some colleges, they could provide your name to international students (probably less likely to drink) or even certain types of students (medical/nursing) or just mature.