Renting/subletting/staying at friends house

[AndreyM]

Good afternoon,
I found your resource extremely helpful over past years, so big up to all those answering questions and keeping this website working.

I'm in UK on post-study work visa and doing some filming freelance jobs.
I have couple of questions that my mind have been wrestling recently, and which I didn't manage to find definite answers to.

1) I'm planning to move places frequently as I freelance in different cities, and was wondering whether I always have to be officially registered on every adress I'm staiyng at? I want to stay at friend's houses, which would usually mean that official sublet would not be possible/filling in temporary council tax would be problematic...

In relation to that - i presume I always have to pay council tax, and to be able to do that I have to officially rent property?

2) I'm thinking of buying property in UK, is that possible on Tier-1 visa? What happens if I leave UK, can I rent my property out?

3) For how long am I allowed to be away from UK on PSW visa?

4) What are the options for official subletting? Is there such thing, and what are the limitations.

Thank you for your help in advance. I was going to pay £200 for solicitor, but if you could help me out, you could save me a lot of money...

Best regards,
Andrey [/b]

[AndreyM]

Anyone has an advice?

[mulderpf]

I don't really understand the questions as they are about totally different things...

1. You don't have to be officially registered at every address if you keep moving around, but this can cause problems where trying to prove your address when for example applying for credit, driving licence etc.
1b. You don't always have to pay council tax, it would depend on your agreement where you are staying at that point in time.
2. There are lenders who will give you a mortgage, but usually you have to have a certain amount of time remaining on your visa before they will grant you any sort of loan. When you leave the country, you can rent out your property, however, it can be difficult to manage from elsewhere (I'm having to do this with a property back home and it's not easy).
3. As long as your visa is valid when you return, as long as you want. However, you may be questioned upon your return if it's close to it's expiry about your intentions.
4. Are you talking about letting or subletting. Subletting is when you are renting a place and then renting the place out to someone else or a part of the place (e.g. a room). That would depend on your rental agreement. In terms of renting out a place which you own (which is not subletting), there are no real limitations, but there are lots of pitfalls and stuff that you need to know before just jumping in. I suggest you look at the Directgov website.

I am not too sure a solicitor would have been able to help much more- you would have probably wasted some money.