Should an LLC or owners name be listed on a short-term lease contract?

[Christopher J Smith]

My wife and I jointly own a property used as an STR in Florida under our personal names. We also have a registered LLC/dba in Florida where we own it as a partnership. We are currently looking to allow for renting it out for longer term stays (30+days) through Airbnb/VRBO. My question is... When I go to draft a short term rental lease should I list our personal names as "Landlords" on the lease or can I list our LLC/dba on the lease?  Any advise is very much appreciated. thanks BP community!

[Jason Marino]

Hi Christopher,

I agree with some the information included in the other posts. From a liability perspective, there is a limited advantage to using the LLC as a rental manager. It can help remove some of the contractual liabilities that come with interacting with parties from the property owner, and it is not uncommon to see investors using an Operating Company in this way. Based on that, you can use the LLC as a rental manager. The official way to do this is to create a Property Management Agreement between the owner of the property and the rental manager. This document would give the rental manager the ability to enter into Leases, hire contractors, and do other services on behalf of the owner.