Short term lets new licensing scheme

[Markedforsl]

Can I ask whether anyone is having to deal with this? We have a spare room we advertise on AirBnb (occupied for a few months a year at most) and are considering using it for a lodger at some stage to provide a little retirement income. We're caught by these rules. If you have a lodger, rent a room out on AirBnb, or want to save money by doing a house swop for your holiday, you now have to comply with a large number of onerous and expensive rules to apply for a licence (the application is expected to cost a few £100s, not refundable if it's rejected). Gas safety checks, electrical checks and improvements, environmental inspection report, a check and certificate for every electrical device the lodger can access, taking photos of all fire safety labels on all furniture they can access, even more fire safety stuff than the new fire safety rules brought in recently, having to inform the neighbours and give them the chance to object, house inspections including potentially unannounced visits and even forcible entry, lots of paperwork. And then having to apply for renewals. Plus my area is considering making obtaining planning consent a requirement for everyone caught by the new rules.
This is surely the end of the road for people who just want to make use of a room in their house, and will mean higher prices and less availability for visitors? Scotland is very full this summer, with people complaining about accommodation prices. What will it be like when the rules kick in? Everyone is skint and getting skinter. This has to be seriously bad news for the tourism industry and for Scottish people who like holidaying in Scotland.

Is anyone else affected by this?

I don't think it's fully implemented yet - this article is interesting www.morton-fraser.com/insights/licensing-regulations-short-term-lets
I suspect that not all authorities will use all the powers - it is a bit of a sldgehammer to crack a nut though. You have until April 23 to apply for a licence so it would probably be a good idea to contact your local authority.

I also don't think it will impact you if you want to have a longer term lodger or do a house swap. It is really to crack down on the multitudes of airbnb places in Edinburgh ( I think)

You're wrong on all fronts. It covers the whole of Scotland, though all parties apart from SNP/Greens argued strongly against this and the extremely onerous nature of the scheme. I've read all the documentation on this. The legislation was passed in January and guidance has been published too.

1. All local authorities are required to implement the scheme, by 1st October this year. All the things I've mentioned (and more) are minimum requirements. Local authorities are allowed to require planning consent and to add any other requirements they wish. They're also allowed to charge as much as they wish for applications.
2. The guidance states that renting a room to a lodger and doing a house swop are covered by the scheme. It says that inviting a friend to visit you overnight if they don't pay you anything or offer you anything in exchange may well not be covered by the scheme, and that's the only "good news" there is.
3. So if you do a house swop holiday or use a house sitter to look after your cat and water the plants while you're away you will be committing a criminal offence.

I stand corrected.

Oh great another well thought through but of Scottish government legislation then is it?

I have a long-term 3-day/week lodger who stays with us every two weeks when he's on late shift at work.

The new license may be a PITA for us and, depending on the license fee, may be the end of this arrangement / our rental income.

Knowing my cash strapped Local Authority they will look to charge £££ for this.

I already have gas safety certificates, smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and PAT test the appliances we have provided for them to use.

The EPC thing is ridiculous. The room we let out in a fairly new extension which will have a different energy rating to the older, original part of the house!

Out of courtesy, my immediate neighbours know about the arrangement and it doesn't bother them - there is plenty of parking locally etc.

I can see Edinburgh cracking down on permanent AirBnBs but I really can't see how they will know about or take action against all the people who rent out a room/sofa to performers or visitors to the Fringe. Folk will be in and out in a month, and I doubt those cash-in-hand landlords will know, or care, about the license scheme anyway. It's hardly been widely publicised.

As PP, usual SNP sledgehammer to crack a nut.

I think that this is typical of the SNP.

I do think something needs to be done about anti-social behaviour in Air BNBs and about safety but this is excessive.

SNP & Greens....making great decisions for Scotland as usual......🙄

I think it's a good idea, on two counts - short term lets exacerbate the housing shortage and housing conditions should be regulated.

Do you believe that housing conditions for a lodger or someone doing a holiday house swop must (through threat of criminal proceedings) be vastly "more safe" than an ordinary householder would consider necessary or even advisable for themselves and their family? If your health and safety concerns for your own family are the same as is required for a short term visitor under the new rules, I assume that you've carried out a Legionnaire's Disease assessment for your house, as is required under the new rules if you want to do a weekend house swop with a friend? And I assume that you wouldn't dream of renting a holiday cottage for a week without seeing an Environmental Protection Report for the property first?
How exactly are these extremely onerous and expensive rules, which may for many not even be practicable because of a shortage of tradesmen (I've recently had to wait 3 months for a plumber to fix a dripping tap, for example) going to help to increase the availability of cheap rooms for lodgers? Lodgers will literally lose their homes over this. And it will have a devastating effect on the tourism industry. I've read that half of Airbnbs in Scotland are expected to close. People will no longer be able to rent out their spare room - bringing spending from England and the continent to Scotland. Instead, only wealthy Airbnb owners who rent out whole cottages year round will continue to operate. They are the ones who are renting out houses which could go to young local people.
There will obviously be a knock on effect for people who offer goods and services to tourists - eg restaurants and gift shops and providers of outdoors pursuits. Tourism is hugely important to Scotland, and will only become more important if it moves to independence.
I recently spent a weekend in the spare room of an elderly woman in the West of Scotland. She lives alone. Losing that income will have an enormous effect on her quality of life. There are lots like her.
Having the most extreme regulation in the world tends to be a bad sign, not a good one.

Good re your figure on Airbnb’s! They’ll be replaced by people who are there 365 days a year and consistently spend money across the full breadth of local businesses not just leisure. I’ve spent a fortune on leisure this summer holiday, as much as any tourist would, yet I’ve also spent money locally where tourists wouldn’t - local Pilates studio membership, car serviced and then new tyres last week, ongoing private dental treatment, private nursery fees, veg box subscription, the list goes on - there’s more to local businesses than just leisure. Sick of hearing the trope that only tourists spend any money!

Are the safety rules more onerous than for a landlord of a long term residential let? If they are then that seems odd but if it’s just brining short terms lets in line with these regulations then again good, I don’t see why it should be any different?

I'd say that the new rules - incredibly onerous (whether more onerous than a long let I don't know - but the long let regime in Scotland is renowned for being extremely onerous and over the top, which results in less availability and higher prices for tenants) have been designed to make it too expensive, difficult and uncertain for people to offer short lets (there's no knowing what each different region will add to the already extremely onerous minimum requirements, and they can charge any sum they like). You haven't answered the point that it will no longer be possible to rent a room as a lodger, assuming people take the new regime seriously. Personally, that's how I lived for many years as a younger person, and I couldn't have afforded to rent a full house or flat. Those people on lower incomes are stuffed under this new regime. They will literally be thrown out of their homes. People who don't have a lot of money and therefore need to share their home with a lodger or with Airbnb guests to make ends meet are also screwed. Who can afford to spend a thousand pounds, maybe more, and all that effort and paperwork to rent out a room for £40 a week?
There is no reason to require people to go to these lengths with their properties on health and safety grounds. These are not things that anyone even thinks of doing for the safety of their own children, for example. They are not required anywhere else in the world. It is another freedom that is being taken away from us - the freedom to use our own houses in perfectly reasonable ways - eg to do a house swap, which from now on will be illegal.
And we do actually need money coming in from outside Scotland. We are outside the EU, may soon be outside the UK. We are not a wealthy country. The beauty of our scenery is one of our main assets, and we do need to make use of it.

As a private LL, I have to comply with all the relevant legislation eg smoke alarms, legionella, licensing etc - and it has always irritated me immensely that the same safety measures were not applied to Air BnB.

Why shouldn't all accommodation meet safety standards?

Some areas eg Edinburgh- are overrun with air bnb - which causes annoyance to neighbours etc -,and I do wonder how many of them are paying taxes correctly.

There does need to be regulation of this sector.

There was party wide agreement on a registration scheme.
And the new measures are not just about safety - eg the owner of the property has to get an environmental report done on the property so that it is available to someone who wants to rent a cottage for a week.
@MoreProseccoNow - do you think that the legislation you have to comply with is fully proportionate/appropriate?
If so, do you fully comply with all of these measures within your own family home?
Do you think that it should be illegal to do a weekend houseswop with a friend unless you fully comply with all these measures, including paying several hundred pounds for a licence?
Do you think that these measures are equally appropriate in the case of lodgers (or even Airbnb guests) who use someone's spare room - so share a house with the owner?
People who want to rent out one room may now be required to apply for planning consent, on top of everything else.
This can only drive costs up, drastically. Where the hell are people supposed to live? What do you do if you can't afford to rent a whole property, when renting rooms in family homes is in practical terms illegal? And what about people - often single people - who are no longer allowed to help themselves by renting out a room, and have to throw their lodger out? Who wins in that situation?

It's like most SNP policies, it's not a bad idea but they don't consider the detail or the wider impact. It's yet another demonstration that the government lacks the skills, checks and balances for effective legislation.

Yes Air B and Bs should require approval. There should be limits to the density in any one area. They should need to comply to the same standard as rentals.

It is ill thought out to apply it universally. Letting a room is different. It's not taking out a property that could be used by a permanent resident (because it has one) and is less likely to apply to the bottom end of the market where the lower cost (i.e smaller starter homes) are snapped up for holiday lets.

Most of the people I've known rent rooms like OP describes have been health care workers, usually on shortish rotations in more rural areas. Exactly the kind of people we need to ensure have a variety of housing options

Just out of interest, if you charge your adult child rent would this legislation apply?

Given overnight guests are only exempt if you don't charge

Renting a room gets tax breaks as it is something the government is actually trying to encourage. There should be even more encouragement in university towns where there is always an under supply of accommodation so in that respect i agreed with the OP that this legislation is poorly targeted.

airB&B’s need to be clamped down on in Edinburgh. 1 in every 10 properties in the old town is an airB&B. Guest houses are closing due to lack of business. And house prices spiral ever higher as people buy to short term let. This is not a healthy way to run a city.

Totally agree regarding AirBnBs and all whole property Lets.

Totally not appropriate for LL's renting a single room.

How will they know who has a lodger in order to enforce the legislation?

Like many people I would imagine, I had heard about this in relation to Airbnbs and am supportive of this, but not about its impact on having a lodger or arranging a house swap - that's madness!

Is there anything that can be done? Is it worth contacting councillors if local authorities are deciding local implementation?

I think this is a great idea. Someone paying to stay in accommodation like short term let’s, etc, deserves to have this situation well regulated. You are entitled to make your own home as safe or unsafe as you want, but if someone is paying to live in it, the standard should be impeccable. Especially people letting a room in their house cause that sort of scenario seems most open to abuse.

@Markedforsl - these are 2 completely different scenarios- when you charge others to stay in your home it becomes a commercial arrangement & safety standards should apply.

The only one I personally disagree about is legionella assessment but I comply with that as it is the law.

The tax-free room allowance of £7500 p/a is a nice little earner - almost as much as I receive in rent for my 1-bed flat. I pay out of my rental income for the necessary safety checks, registration, smoke alarms etc. to comply with the law, as should a room let arrangement.

I don't understand why house swaps, including informal reciprocal arrangements with friends are included in this. There's no commercial incentive, I am not aware that house swaps are to the detriment of the local housing market or that there is a big health and safety issue with house swaps - once again, the SNP are over reaching themselves in controlling what private citizens do in their own home.

I used to let a room out (in a previous house). I didn't have a lot of money and It was really helpful to be able to make enough money that way to cover utility bills. I let the room to a student, and to a couple of low-paid workers. The house had the usual fire alarms etc - after all, I was concerned about my own family's safety. The people concerned definitely couldn't have afforded to rent a whole flat or house, and they didn't have people they could do a house share with. The rent was cheap. I don't know what these people would have done if renting a room out had been illegal at that time. Paying to have everything needed done and for a licence under the Scottish Government rules would (at an estimate) have cost me over 6 months' rent - so not viable. If you had some money you could use for this upfront, then you would almost certainly put the rent up to cover it. This, plus a massive drop in the availability of rooms for lodgers, would have led to a big price increase for lodgers, who would have been fighting for the few rooms available. If this law had passed while I had a lodger, I would have been forced by law to throw the lodger out. They might have had nowhere else to go.

I've checked the legislation again. The good news is that planning permission shouldn't be needed to let out a room in the house you are living in yourself. Though that very much isn't the message being given out by my council, unfortunately. All the other stuff does appear to apply to lodgers though. On the question about having family to live with you, as I understand it the rules won't apply to immediate family members, but I think they will apply to people like cousins. So you should be able to charge your adult children rent. Check this for yourselves though.
I don't agree that it is necessary to have all these health and safety checks, let alone the home environmental report, just because you're charging money. There is a balance between maximum conceivable safety measures and practicability and cost-effectiveness. Scotland's approach is gobsmackingly extreme. Are people from Scotland not prepared to rent out holiday accommodation in England or in in any other country worldwide, due to safety concerns? I doubt it. This is a way of moving money from house owners to local authorities - that's pretty obvious, as local authorities are allowed to charge whatever they like for a licence application.
Scotland will get fewer tourists. They will go to, or stay in England. No doubt that's what some people want, but it will come at a price.
I do agree that Edinburgh is out of control, but there was cross party support for a registration scheme. And the rest of the country is nothing like Edinburgh. One size doesn't fit all. And house swaps and lodgers should not be within this scheme at all.
I was planning to join a house swap group when I retire, as a way of being able to visit some nice places despite having little pension provision. And I wanted to get a lodger for the same reason. So that's my retirement shafted.