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Our role as an agency is to ensure all of our owners meet all of their health and safety regulations for holiday lets before letting their property.

Holiday lets are subjected to the same rules and regulations as long-term tenancies.

In this article, we go through some of the following holiday let rules & regulations you need to consider when letting a property. 

Health and safety compliance

Swimming pools & hot tubs

Financial responsibilities

Planning permission


Health and Safety Compliance

Gas Safety Regulations

As a holiday let owner, it’s your legal duty under The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 to ensure you have a Landlord Gas Safety Record (Gas Safety Certificate) otherwise known as a CP12 certificate. You are required to keep your certificates for a minimum of two years, however, we would recommend keeping all of them. 

You should have by law all gas appliances checked between 10-12 months from the date of the last check by a Gas Safe Engineer. Different appliances may have different service intervals, but we recommend getting them checked every year as above. We would also recommend having your whole gas system including pipework checked as well. 

 

Holiday Let Rules & Regulations | Menai Holiday Cottages

 

Electrical Safety Regulations

Unlike gas, there is no legal requirement for you, the landlord, to obtain and renew an Electrical Safety Certificate. However, in Wales landlords are expected to provide a safe property for their tenants. This includes checking all wiring, appliances and fuse boxes are in full working order. We recommend regular visual checks to ensure everything is still in good working order.

The legal requirements for this are changing in England in 2020. Further guidance on how that impacts Wales is yet unknown. 

Holiday lets are required to have an Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) completed at least every five years. The EICR is a detailed inspection of the property’s electrical installations to ensure they are safe and compliant with current regulations. This is particularly important for holiday lets as they fall under the category of rented properties, which must meet specific electrical safety standards.

The EICR must be carried out by a qualified electrician, and any issues or hazards identified in the report must be addressed promptly. While the official requirement is every five years, property owners may choose to conduct these inspections more frequently, especially if the property experiences heavy use or if significant electrical work has been carried out. Keeping a valid EICR helps protect guests, minimises the risk of electrical faults, and ensures compliance with legal obligations.

 

Fire Safety Regulations

It’s up to you, the landlord to carry out a fire risk assessment to identify and remove/reduce potential fire hazards.

This assessment will determine if there are any fire hazards and who is at risk. If you are unsure what to do, you can get a qualified fire consultant out to do the assessment for you, our friends over at Mon Fire Management recommend a competent person carries out the assessment “many insurance companies won’t pay out if there is an incident and the Fire Risk Assesment was carried out on a DIY basis, they will want to see a competent person has carried out the assessment”. It is however the homeowners responsibility to ensure this assessment up to date. 

We recommended an assessment every 12 months or whenever the property changes, such as the addition of new furniture or a fireplace. 

During your fire safety risk assessment, there are certain things which need to be evaluated and identified. The assessment will focus on the following areas:

  • Identify and remove/reduce fire hazards
  • Identify people who are at risk

It’s a legal requirement for you to install a smoke alarm on every floor of your holiday let that is used for living space. Make sure alarms are placed in rooms that are most likely to cause a fire such as a kitchen or any room with a fireplace. 

We recommend you install alarms that are wired into your property with a battery back up. Try to include testing your alarms as part of your changeover process, this way you can ensure they are in full working order before every guest arrives. 

 

Carbon Monoxide

You are legally required to fit a carbon monoxide alarm in every room containing a fossil fuel appliance (oven, boiler or log burner). 

Please ensure you have your boiler and oven serviced and inspected regularly by a professional. 

A log burner or open fire is an extremely desirable feature. If you have an open fire or log burner in your holiday let, then here are a few things you need to consider. 

  • Having your chimney swept annually
  • An adequate hearth
  • A suitable fireguard especially for children and pets

Swimming Pools and Hot Tubs

Hot tubs and swimming pools are fantastic additions to a holiday let.

When considering whether to install either of these, it’s really important to ensure these are cleaned and maintained and are safe to use at all times.

A hot tub can increase revenue for a holiday let up by up to 37%. Hot tubs do require emptying, cleaning and re-filling after every visit.

As the safety of your guests should be at the very top of your priorities, it’s important that the hot tub is compliant with (HSG) 282. For more information on hot tubs and holiday letting, check out this blog by our friends over at Concept Spa.

The most important precaution to take when offering a swimming pool to guests is their safety.

Providing life-saving information, equipment and warning signs is a good place to start. Failure to do this could lead to a potentially serious legal matter if an accident occurs. Here is a helpful guide on health and safety around swimming pools.

 

Holiday Let Rules & Regulations | Menai Holiday Cottages

Gwelfor Barn – 1057992


Financial Responsibilities

Insurance

It’s vital that you take out specialist insurance for your holiday property. We highly recommend that you take out a policy that is designed specifically for holiday letting. You will not be fully covered if you only carry a standard home insurance policy.

Whilst there are many holiday let insurance specialists to choose from, our group preferred supplier is Pikl .

 

Mortgages

Whether you are thinking of buying a holiday let or taking out a mortgage on an existing property to holiday let, its important that your mortgage allows you to do so. If your property has a standard mortgage, it’s highly likely you will need permission from the lender to turn that property into a holiday let.

If you are considering buying or re-mortgaging a property for holiday letting, there are many lenders out there who offer specific holiday let mortgages. Take a look at our guide to holiday let mortgages for further details.

 

TV Licensing

Did you know you need a specialist TV license for a holiday let?

If you have a holiday let you will need to apply for a Hotel and Mobile Units Television Licence. It’s vital to remember that a license is needed even if programmes are watched on mobiles, laptops or tablets.

 

Taxation

Council tax rates for holiday letting differ from standard residential letting.

For example, if your property is available to rent for at least 140 days in a tax year, then you should register for business rates tax rather than council tax.

However, you can also register your property as a FHL (Furnished Holiday Let).

If you qualify as a FHL you can apply for small business rates relief therefore reducing your tax liability.

Our in-depth guide to furnished holiday letting taxation goes into great detail on the tax benefits of owning an FHL

As you will be earning income from the property you must declare all earnings when filing your annual return to HMRC.

Good record keeping and a qualified account are must-haves! A good accountant will almost certainly pay for itself as they will ensure you are making the most of the allowances on offer for holiday letting. Our furnished holiday letting tax guide linked above will give you a glimpse into the allowances you may make use of to reduce your income tax liability.


Planning Permission

Before deciding whether to let out and/or make improvements to your property, you need to ensure you do not need planning permission and your deeds/leasing agreement allow commercial letting. Since 2023, some local authority councils require you to apply for planning permission before changing the use of your property into a second home or short-term holiday let. We would advise contacting your authority/solicitor and your letting agent if you are unsure of any of these facts.

A little digging now could save a lot of time and money down the line.


As you can see there are a lot of things to consider and keep track of. However, don’t worry a good letting agent will be able to advise with all of this.

If you need any advice on anything discussed above, we’re more than happy to help!


Please Note: The information contained in this article was accurate at the time of writing, based on our research. Rules, criteria and regulations change all the time, so please contact our prospective new owner team if you’d like to hear how. Nothing in this article constitutes the giving of financial, tax or legal advice to you; please consult your own professional advisor (accountant, lawyer etc). in this regard. If we have referred within the article to a third-party provider of unregulated holiday let mortgages, this is due to the fact that such mortgages aren’t currently regulated by the FCA. 

As a helpful reminder, your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on a mortgage, so again anything you decide to do in this particular area this is one on which you should take your own professional advice on too, as we aren’t providing and can’t provide you with this.

As a holiday letting owner you are responsible for compliance with health & safety laws, regulations and guidance, and for having suitable insurances in place (not Sykes Holiday Cottages or its brands). From time to time, Sykes shares information with you on the topic of health and safety and insurance. When it does so, it is not providing you with advice (legal, financial, tax or otherwise); please seek your own as you see fit. In addition, it is not making any representations or warranties about the information being complete or free from errors or inaccuracies. Sykes shall not be liable for any loss or damage arising under or in connection with your reliance on it.

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