Quick Guide - Holiday Let Licences

Holiday let licences are a hot topic at the moment, and we’ve been asked by several clients to help clarify how this might effect their business or project plans.         

In Scotland, there’s significant change afoot in relation to how holiday let properties - or ‘short term lets’ – are managed. Holiday let licences are currently being rolled out across Scotland, the main reason for which is to make sure rental properties are safe, properly maintained, and compliant with relevant current standards. Up until now, any residential property could be used for short term letting (via Airbnb for example) without any safety checks or validation whatsoever. It was a bit of an anomaly.

Anyone operating a short-term let before 1 October 2022 must apply for a licence by 1 April 2023, although there are discussion about an extension to this deadline. If you’re starting a new holiday let business, you need a licence from the outset. To apply for a licence you will need plans of your property, which demonstrate access and egress arrangements, as well as the locations of hard-wired smoke, heat and Carbon Monoxide detectors.

Holiday let licences are not the same as planning permission for holiday letting. In Scotland, trial areas have already been established, in which planning consent is additionally required for any holiday let business.

With existing properties, this means applying for planning permission for a change of use from normal residential/domestic use, to a commercial holiday let use class. Effectively holiday lets will now be considered as a business. For example, this is equivalent to the current situation if you wanted to convert a residential building into a shop or café. You would need change of use consent.

While the requirement for planning consent is currently only limited to specific areas, there’s an expectation that this will eventually be implemented across Scotland. This does not currently affect second homes if they’re not used for short term letting.

With new-build holiday let properties, this will not typically affect the planning process. It is already possible anywhere in Scotland to apply for planning consent under holiday let usage. However currently there’s nothing to stop applications which are processed as residential use, then being used for letting.

Our own project Taigh-bàta was approved with holiday let consent, which was granted alongside permission for a family home. To us, small-scale, purpose-built holiday lets, alongside permanent homes for resident families feels like a comfortable way to integrate tourism into rural communities, reducing the damaging imbalance between holiday homes and permanent residences in fragile rural communities.

Get in touch if you’d like to have a chat about a new or existing holiday let business.

Further detailed information on licencing requirements can be found via the following link.

Short Term Lets Legislation Changes in Scotland | VisitScotland.org