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.

I do wonder about the capacity of Local Authorities to implement and to enforce this policy

Agree. Until you've lived next to an airbnb, you will not understand!

I don't think anyone disagrees that AirBnB style Short Term Lets where a whole property, especially in a shared stair, is rented out should be regulated. What is overkill is to include long-term lodger arrangements in private family homes ESPECIALLY when it is not clear how Councils, especially Edinburgh, will identify and prosecute those making a quick buck in August each year.

I think it’ll mean people are pushed out of the market. I have a nice holiday cottage next door that I’ve rented out for years. Converted barn in a farmyard type place. Nearest neighbours 300m away, lots of parking, it doesn’t really effect anyone, they come buy things in shops and eateries and go home.

Running a decent cottage is expensive enough already. Electric check, water testing (private water supply) linen, maintenance, marketing costs thousands before you even take a booking.

I’ve had change of use planning permission granted so will now be residential and sold to ex so children can meander between houses.

@JamMakingWannaBe

It's still not clear to me how "the authorities" will know I, or anyone else, have a lodger, have a Fringe performer on my sofa for a month or have asked a friend to pet sit

What matters, is householders insurance cover for property damage and public liability for injuries. This legislation puts domestic hosting on a different footing; and if you are unlicensed and make a claim for "guest peed in the guest bed and ruined the mattress" insurers may decline to pay up if the host was breaking Scottish law by not having the license/registration. Even worse, if Fringe guest falls over your dog breaks leg and sues, your domestic "public liability" and legal cover may be invalid.

They won't but it's like a lot of rules/laws, such as health and safety, fire safety, etc - no one actually goes around checking as a matter of routine, but if something bad happens, they throw the book at the person responsible if the legal requirements weren't in place! So, basically, it's the threat of huge fines or imprisonment that is the driver to get people to comply rather than a local council guy with a clipboard coming round checking!

I know this post has been going on for years, but the deadline is looming - eeks.
I watched the video from Craig Douglas of STLSolutions on the options for Planning Requirements versus Certificate of Lawfulness. This is the case for various different locations in Scotland - not all though.
https://bit.ly/STLSolutions-Video
If you're a member of the ASSC, you may be able to get a replay of the ASSC/Airbnb event held earlier this week, that also covers a lot of the new information.

@KellyinScotland are you a property owner in Edinburgh? I saw somewhere (?) that no licences for holiday lets had been granted yet? (or maybe it was planning permission)

@Srit Hi there! Yes, I own a property in Edinburgh. There are some licences being granted, but the amount of property licence application and planning applications that are being denied are horrific. It's decimating the industry with property owners with long-term decently run businesses with no complaints being turned down under general blanket refusal, usually that it should be housing stock, or that it will damage the neighbourhood. With those as reasons for turning down applications, they can effectively turn down every request. It's pretty disgusting really. The legislation was supposed to be to improve health and safety but it's clearly not the case.

https://edinburgh.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/799461?force_language_code=en_GB

If you have a licence application in progress and need a bit of help, there is a live event daily 3pm-4pm run by STL Solutions with lots of Q and A opportunities. https://us05web.zoom.us/j/8713063689?pwd=WTs0ZuS8aMizSJxKDbZrStSon70vhI.1

We were forced to sell a flat we had rented for 12 years in Edinburgh. No licences for flats on a common stair and it was £3000 just to apply. We had planned to keep it for a few more years (DH's pension really as he has often been self-employed).

It is really anti business. And makes next year's Festival look well out of most ordinary folks' reach.

That's bonkers.

A huge % of flats in Edinburgh are on a common stair.

Are they not thinking this through or is it deliberate?

It is entirely deliberate, they want all the LL to sell up - whether it be those on short term let's or providing PRT's.

The sooner the Green's/SNP are out the better

How will this affect the shortage of student accomodation? Are they restricting HMOs or just short term let's. I think the blanket ending of fixed terms had had an unfortunate effect. In Edinburgh LLs used to rent to students in term- time, tidy up and then rent out for the festival ( this happened in other areas popular with tourists too). I'm a typical Airbnb hypocrite though, find them very convenient but don't like the housing shortage they have caused. I have used several that were people's homes that they just rented out when they weren't there, that seems like a good compromise, it would be a shame if that became too uneconomic.

I think there's an exemption for the festival period, where you don't need a licence but you do need to have complied with the conditions.

@Wbeezer

I am an Airbnb landlord hypocrite though, they’ve been a great financial asset, but I don't like the housing shortage they have caused either. Interesting though as well as all the tourists we’ve had many relocations, people who are splitting from partners, people up for business etc etc. Unless they change the policy there will be a lot of unintended consequences.

I lived in the centre of Edinburgh a few years ago, quite a few years ago now and it was lovely how residential it is with all the domestic flats and that looks to have changed.

But it does look like a sledghammer has been applied to a nut, a large problematic nut but still much too much, too soon.

You're hitting that exactly there @Wombat27A It's a sledgehammer to crack a nut. There's real mixed messages - with the original line being that it was for health and safety, and property owners who complied with the law would have no problems to continue, but it's crystal clear that that was nonsense.

And it's not just holiday rentals, it seems to have hoovered up home swaps, and B&Bs and caravans in the mix.

There's an interesting meeting that's going to happen this week with the politicians, so hoping for a last minute change!

I really hope they have the balls to see this through. No one should have to live next to an airB&B. It’s grim. It has ripped the community out of the centre of Edinburgh, driven rental prices sky high, pitted locals against students in the fight for accommodation (and incidentally we NEED to grow our foreign student numbers due to the SNPs bonkers free tuition fee policy)

A prior poster said how bad it was for business, but residential housing stock should not be used for business. There are b&bs and guest houses for that. If airB&B owners have to sell up I have the worlds tiniest violin for you. I live near a lot of b&bs that are struggling due to the proliferation of airB&B. There was a tourisim industry in Edinburgh pre-airB&B don’t you know, and it worked just fine!

This also covers rooms in people's houses, 5 day a week renters (often NHS workers), holiday swops and pet sitters.

These are all situations where this legislation has got it wrong, clearly.

Yeah the renting situation in Edinburgh is awful. I didn't realize how bad until friends had to move out from rental. Took them 4 months to find anything close enough to school (forget about catchment) with a budget of 2k a month... Totally insane!

What are the disadvantages in this scheme to Scottish people? The disadvantages I can see to getting rid of great swathes of airB&B are minimal. The advantages in freeing up these properties for long term rental or putting them back on the open market are massive. Just massive.

I just can’t see why we ought to have any concerns. It can’t come quickly enough!

I agree @Mousemat25 , I really don't see how this proliferation of short term lets is any good for the residents in the city. Apart from maybe the few that make a lot of money from Airbnb.

Because the legislation is badly written and includes b&bs, guest houses, caravans, house swaps - even where no money is paid, if you let a room in your home to 4 nights per week to someone who is working in the area but lives the rest of the week elsewhere.

As others have said it is aimed to stop Airbnbs but will impact on lots of other legitimate short term accommodation. The trade bodies for b&bs/guest houses are opposed to it.

It even covers tents.
It's not accidental that all these things are covered - it's been very clearly drafted that way deliberately. The guidance even suggests that if you invite a friend to spend the night and they give you a present that might be covered. Seems it will depend on how big the present is. If they take you out for a meal you're probably committing a criminal offence in not having a licence.