General information, not legal advice. Covers England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Checked October 2026.
The rules for holiday lets differ in each of the four nations, and a lot of advice online mixes them up or applies rules written for long-term tenancies. The holiday let compliance checker shows only what applies to your let, labels each item as a legal requirement, official guidance or good practice, and links every one to the official page it comes from. Add the dates of your last checks and it works out when each one is next due, with a calendar file to download.
How to use the compliance checker
- Choose the nation your holiday let is in, and the area if it's listed. Some councils have their own rules, such as a visitor levy or planning controls.
- Tick everything the property has, such as gas appliances, a wood burner, a private water supply or a TV.
- Add the date of each last check, such as the gas safety check and the electrical inspection. You can leave any blank and add it later.
- Download the calendar file to put the due dates in your calendar, or print the checklist for your compliance file.
See which rules apply to your let and when each one is due
Choose where your holiday let is to see the rules that apply.
A worked example
Say your holiday let is a cottage in Gwynedd with a gas boiler, a wood burner and a TV. The last gas safety check was in March, and the electrics were last inspected four years ago.
The checker lists the legal requirements first: the gas safety check due next March, the fire risk assessment, the Legionella risk assessment, furniture fire safety, the Welsh visitor accommodation register with its 31 March 2027 deadline, the Article 4 planning direction, the business rates test and the TV licence. The electrical inspection appears under good practice, due in about a year, because the 5-year rule for rented homes in Wales doesn't cover holiday lets.
Legal requirement, official guidance or good practice
A legal requirement is set in law for holiday lets in your nation. Official guidance is something a government body or regulator tells hosts to do where the law itself doesn't require it for holiday lets; England's alarm and electrical rules are the main example, because GOV.UK tells self-catering hosts to follow the landlord rules even though those regulations are written for tenants' main homes. Good practice covers checks with no official source that protect your guests and your insurance cover, such as testing the appliances guests plug in.
The label is about where a rule comes from, not how much it matters. An electrical fault is just as dangerous in a nation where the inspection is good practice as in one where it's a licence condition, and insurers often ask for the same reports either way.
Why the rules differ across the four nations
Gas safety, fire safety and Legionella work in much the same way everywhere, but licensing and registration are devolved. Scotland licenses every short-term let and writes most safety checks into the licence conditions. Wales has a visitor accommodation register and a visitor levy, with licensing to follow. Northern Ireland requires a Tourism NI certificate before you let, and England's registration scheme hasn't started yet. Holiday let registration and licensing: why England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland differ explains the background to each scheme.
How the due dates are worked out
Each due date comes from the interval the law or official guidance sets: 12 months for gas, 5 years for the electrical inspection, 10 years for an EPC and 4 years for a Tourism NI inspection. The fire risk assessment uses a yearly review, and the Legionella risk assessment a review every 2 years, unless something changes sooner. Where the law sets no interval, as with PAT testing, the date comes from your own report. Gas and electrical safety certificates for holiday lets: what they prove and when to renew covers how to book renewals early without losing time on the certificate.
The calendar file adds each due date as an all-day event with a reminder 8 weeks before, which leaves time to book a contractor in a busy month.
What the checker leaves out
The checker doesn't know the conditions your council has added to a licence, local planning rules beyond the areas it lists, or anything about tax. It covers the rules that apply to most self-catering holiday lets, not hotels, bed and breakfasts where you live on site, or caravans. Nothing you enter is saved or sent anywhere, so print or copy your checklist before you close the page.
Keeping every certificate together in one file
Keep each certificate, report and risk assessment together, with the checklist printed at the front. Building your holiday let compliance file before your first guest sets out what goes in the file and how to keep it current. For what the fire risk assessment involves, fire safety for holiday lets explains the responsible person's duties.