Changes to Short Term Lettings regulations in Scotland

[Crofter]

By the end of April the Scottish Government intends to bring in a mandatory registration system for short term holiday lets, with various requirements attached. Individual Local Authorities may also be able to restrict the number of short term lets in any particular area. It will be necessary to seek planning permission for a change of use from residential to short term letting.

 

This has some pretty significant implications. My understanding was that if you get PP for a house, you can then choose to either live in it or rent it out short-term, with no PP change needed. From what I'm reading it sounds as though perhaps a change of use should have been sought all along?

 

One very specific question I have is whether you can seek PP for the change of use, and then not immediately act on it. A bit like the way you have three years to break ground on a new house. Surely there has to be some period between gaining the permission, and actually moving out of the property to begin running it as a short term let. And what about houses which are dual use?

 

Thanks for any insights

[ProDave]

Was you self build not built with PP as a holiday rental?

 

There are benefits of being a holiday rental, no council tax, business rates instead that will probably be £0

 

Does this new rule apply just to self catering or are there implications for B&B's and guest houses?

 

So it boils down to is this a planning change? Or a business change in the same way as residential landlords need to be registered but you don't need PP to let your house as a rental?

 

There will no doubt be some mandatory standards like there are for residential lettings, e.g. a current EICR, gas certificate, smoke alarms etc.

[Crofter]

5 minutes ago, ProDave said:

Was you self build not built with PP as a holiday rental?

 

There are benefits of being a holiday rental, no council tax, business rates instead that will probably be £0

 

Does this new rule apply just to self catering or are there implications for B&B's and guest houses?

 

So it boils down to is this a planning change? Or a business change in the same way as residential landlords need to be registered but you don't need PP to let your house as a rental?

 

There will no doubt be some mandatory standards like there are for residential lettings, e.g. a current EICR, gas certificate, smoke alarms etc.

 

Our PP didn't specify any particular usage, I didn't think there was any benefit in doing so. It's possible I misunderstood what I was required to do, of course, although nobody has raised it with me in the five years since PP was granted.

 

I believe that the new rules don't apply where you are only letting out a part of the property, so B&B should be unaffected.

 

As you say the standard will cover the areas which you suggest. I've also seen reference to needing to have someone meet each new occupant to talk through safety features- that could be a massive headache for anybody who operates a holiday let remotely.

[ProDave]

1 minute ago, Crofter said:

 

As you say the standard will cover the areas which you suggest. I've also seen reference to needing to have someone meet each new occupant to talk through safety features- that could be a massive headache for anybody who operates a holiday let remotely.

Yes the last holiday let we stayed in, we just got a text with the number for the key safe and there was an instruction book in the property telling you what is what.  Never met anybody in person.

[Stones]

@Crofter  

 

From SG website:

 

The Control Area Regulations will allow planning authorities to designate all or part(s) of their area as a control area. Within such a designated area, the use of a dwellinghouse for secondary letting is always deemed to involve a material change of use and requires planning permission. Outside such areas, the current case-by-case consideration would continue to apply.

 

The requirement to seek planning permission in a control area would not, of itself, imply any predisposition to refuse consent. However, as planning applications are required to be determined in accordance with local development plans, it would be open to individual planning authorities to consider the inclusion of policies relating to short-term lets in their relevant local plans. Whether or not the various adverse impacts that have been cited are material planning matters in respect of any individual application, and what weight to attach to them in considering the application, would continue to be assessed on a case-by-case basis within a control area.

 

As a primary purpose of control areas is to help manage high concentrations of secondary letting, we are proposing that, in a manner similar to advertising hoardings, any planning permission which is granted would be valid for a default period of ten years (unless a longer or shorter period is set by the authority) but that local authorities should have the power to revoke planning permission after that time. Without such a mechanism, the granting of planning permission for use of residential property for secondary letting is a one-way ratchet, in which the number of properties which can be used for this purpose would only ever increase.

 

My reading of that is that local authorities can if they wish, designate areas as a control area (similar I suppose to Conservation Areas in that there has to be justification), which then allow them to apply planning legislation, and in particular specific policies to control the number of lets.  I suspect this is primarily aimed at certain city centre locations where residents (or those that are left) face misery on a daily basis as whole flats are let out to groups of people who consume copious amounts of alcohol and the fall out that follows.  

 

PP would normally specify the period of time it is valid, i.e. time from date of approval to commence development.  The general principle in planning is one of 'use' rather than simply  being - you could have a little cabin in your garden and use it for purposes incidental to the enjoyment of your dwelling with no PP req, but rent it out as holiday accommodation and it's use has changed. The cabin is the same, but the use is different and would require PP.  Equally you could have planning granted and then decide not to implement it.

 

Ultimately it will all depend on your local authority view on the planning side of these measures.  They may be quite content with status quo and just implement the registration side. 

[Stones]

In your case,  the local impacts - traffic, services etc would have been considered when you built it, as you went through the full process of getting PP.  Probably going to be a case of wait and see what the Council does.

[ash_scotland88]

In Edinburgh you need PP to convert a residence to a short term rental, it is a business use after all.

There was a recent study (I've been harping on ages why the inept council couldn't assign an admin junior to trawl the web to do so) the uncovered that only 1 out of 500 properties listed on Airbnb had planning to do so. I think they've now started going after the worse offenders.

 

Edit with further info:

"The council’s position is that commercial short-term letting is a material change of use requiring planning permission. If these results were replicated across Scotland, that would suggest 99.7% of short-term lets in Scotland could be unlawful"

 

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/mar/15/many-short-term-lets-in-edinburgh-lack-planning-consent

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/people/bombshell-report-reveals-only-1-500-airbnb-properties-edinburgh-have-planning-permission-2909921%3famp

Edited January 3, 2021 by ash_scotland88

[Crofter]

Thanks to everyone who's replied.

I knew something might be coming- I took part in the consultations from both Highland Council and the SG. It's quite an emotive issue, and around here there would be a significant number of people who would enthusiastically support a large reduction in the number of short term lets. This is entirely understandable as we have a big shortage of long term letting properties. Personally I think the answer is to increase supply of properties by allowing more sites to be developed, but plenty of people oppose that too.

 

Our plans for this year are to rent out not only the cottage but also our own house whilst we spend some time travelling. I think it might be worth getting in early and applying for PP for change of use of our own house to allow short term letting. Hopefully that would then give us permission to either reside in it or to let it, best of both worlds. This is assuming that the new PP doesn't over-ride the existing residential PP. The downside of doing this straight away would be that I presume the fixed term of the letting PP would be running down from the moment it was granted. If that's a ten year term, then it's unlikely to matter, but if it's only say three years, it could run out before we get back home.

[Guest28]

It will be interesting to see how this is implemented now that it has been approved.

 

I hope they bring in a two-tier system so that people who are not resident in an area have to pay a lot more for a licence than people who are resident in an area.

 

There are lots of local people who live in the Highlands and make a living from renting out pods etc. on short term rental, they might struggle to live in the area if they couldn't and might have to move away. It would be unfair if the people who live and spend money in the rural communities were penalised because of the property speculators who live far away buying up so many properties for short term rentals.

 

It causes problems when you have people living outside of the Highlands operating rental when they don't actually live there. They create problems for rural areas and remove the tourist money from the local economy. But they claim they are helping the rural economy by trying to get cleaners to do their change overs for a very low rate, then complain they can't find cleaners when working class people can't afford to live there anymore.

Edited February 13, 2022 by MBT6

[Guest28]

On 03/01/2021 at 20:17, ash_scotland88 said:

In Edinburgh you need PP to convert a residence to a short term rental, it is a business use after all.

There was a recent study (I've been harping on ages why the inept council couldn't assign an admin junior to trawl the web to do so) the uncovered that only 1 out of 500 properties listed on Airbnb had planning to do so. I think they've now started going after the worse offenders.

 

Edit with further info:

"The council’s position is that commercial short-term letting is a material change of use requiring planning permission. If these results were replicated across Scotland, that would suggest 99.7% of short-term lets in Scotland could be unlawful"

 

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/mar/15/many-short-term-lets-in-edinburgh-lack-planning-consent

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/people/bombshell-report-reveals-only-1-500-airbnb-properties-edinburgh-have-planning-permission-2909921%3famp

 

It is in the news that Badenoch and Strathspey are planning on bringing in a scheme that would require a change of planning permission for short term lets.

 

That is confusing because as some people mention under existing rules people probably should already need to apply for planning permission for short term lets, it seems like they are bringing in a scheme to enforce rules that already exists and not actually bringing in new rules.

 

https://www.northern-times.co.uk/news/is-badenoch-and-strathspey-set-to-become-scotlands-first-sh-265732/

[ProDave]

And talk of a scheme to control it, a bit along the lines of landlord registration, so extra costs and paperwork for property owners.

 

 

[Guest28]

Local authorities are starting to clamp down on properties being rented out on short term lets without the relevant planning permission.

 

This could virtually wipe out all Airbnbs that are in flats with a common access as they say it would be near impossible to get a change of use approved for a residential flat to a short term let property when it has a common access. 

 

https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/scottish-news/20039773.glasgow-airbnb-flat-owners-lose-appeal-councils-plan-stop-lets-complaint/

[ProDave]

When did the law actually change requiring a B&B to have planning permission?

 

When we built our previous house, it had planning as just a dwelling, and at the time I was tol by the planners if you only let 2 rooms for B&B no planning needed.  It has been operating like that for 18 years.  If the law has indeed changed that you require planning for any B&B or short term let, perhaps we need to apply for a certificate of lawful development for that?