Hi
we are in the process of getting our house in Northumberland ready for holiday letting-which will be happening year round with us using it for the odd weekend off season. i have loads of questions but my main one at the moment is about the paperwork i need to have? Do i need the following:
Gas safety certificates?
all appliances to be PAT tested and have labels on them-even if they are new?
EPC?
To register with the council?
Furniture to have those fire safety labels on them?
do i pay business rates or council tax?
Thanks for the help Sharon
New owner needing advice
Hi Sharon
There's a raft of stuff to look at, although it may have been rather more for us as we converted an old barn into 3 holiday lets rather than starting with an existing dwelling, and the conversion was regarded as a commercial building and not a dwelling (although I think the main impact of that was on building regs.)
We went into all this in depth as we started only a year ago, and had to jump through all the hoops, and on the safety side we certainly needed all portable appliances, including new, tested and labelled, suitable furniture etc etc.
You will also need to carry out a fire risk assessment as Fire Certificates are no longer issued, the full onus of responsibility now sitting on the owner's shoulders. (Not as bad as it may sound, and you don't need to pay someone to do it for you.)
As a new conversion, we had to have interlinked smoke detectors and emergency lighting, fire doors throughout, fire extinguishers, emergency exit signage - I don't know for sure what you might need as an existing dwelling.
We don't have gas, but I'd be surprised if you didn't need a safety certificate, nor do we have mains water, so we have to have our borehole water tested annually. And so on........
You might do well to have a look at a site called Accommodation Knowhow which is the online version of the Visit Britain "Pink Booklet". This link will take you to a page showing some of the things you need to think about - I believe to get more detail you have to subscribe, which will cost you about thirty quid a year, or free if you go for a VB star rating. I'd suggest the thirty quid is money well spent at this stage.
(There is a forum as well, but wildly frustrating as every post is checked by the moderator before it appears, and that's typically days.)
There is a lot to think about and deal with, but nothing daunting beyond the fact that for most of us it's new ground and outside our comfort zone, and you are certainly not alone - you'll get there!
Good luck with it all.
ps I seem to recall that there is a very recent, or maybe forthcoming, requirement for some sort of inspection (nothing to do with VB, some sort of government thing) for properties that are to be used as holiday lets, but it might only be for long-term letting. Maybe somebody knows, if not I'll see if I can remember where I found it.
There's a raft of stuff to look at, although it may have been rather more for us as we converted an old barn into 3 holiday lets rather than starting with an existing dwelling, and the conversion was regarded as a commercial building and not a dwelling (although I think the main impact of that was on building regs.)
We went into all this in depth as we started only a year ago, and had to jump through all the hoops, and on the safety side we certainly needed all portable appliances, including new, tested and labelled, suitable furniture etc etc.
You will also need to carry out a fire risk assessment as Fire Certificates are no longer issued, the full onus of responsibility now sitting on the owner's shoulders. (Not as bad as it may sound, and you don't need to pay someone to do it for you.)
As a new conversion, we had to have interlinked smoke detectors and emergency lighting, fire doors throughout, fire extinguishers, emergency exit signage - I don't know for sure what you might need as an existing dwelling.
We don't have gas, but I'd be surprised if you didn't need a safety certificate, nor do we have mains water, so we have to have our borehole water tested annually. And so on........
You might do well to have a look at a site called Accommodation Knowhow which is the online version of the Visit Britain "Pink Booklet". This link will take you to a page showing some of the things you need to think about - I believe to get more detail you have to subscribe, which will cost you about thirty quid a year, or free if you go for a VB star rating. I'd suggest the thirty quid is money well spent at this stage.
(There is a forum as well, but wildly frustrating as every post is checked by the moderator before it appears, and that's typically days.)
There is a lot to think about and deal with, but nothing daunting beyond the fact that for most of us it's new ground and outside our comfort zone, and you are certainly not alone - you'll get there!
Good luck with it all.
ps I seem to recall that there is a very recent, or maybe forthcoming, requirement for some sort of inspection (nothing to do with VB, some sort of government thing) for properties that are to be used as holiday lets, but it might only be for long-term letting. Maybe somebody knows, if not I'll see if I can remember where I found it.
Just confirming what's already been said by my near neighbour Greenbarn
Gas safety certificates?
Yes - Landlords Safety Cerfiicate is defo required - get it done at the same time as a service. Shoudl cost you about £80 - £100
All appliances to be PAT tested and have labels on them-even if they are new?
AFAIK you don't need it for new items but you do for existing ones. seems a bit like money for old rope to me as the basically just seem to check the plugs are wired properly and that the wires aren't frayed. Cost me £70 last time!
EPC?
Not aware of any energy perfomance legislation relating to holiday lets myself. Anyone?
To register with the council?
We haven't. I don't think you need to.
Furniture to have those fire safety labels on them?
Absolutely yes for upholstered furniture
Do I pay business rates or council tax?
Gas safety certificates?
Yes - Landlords Safety Cerfiicate is defo required - get it done at the same time as a service. Shoudl cost you about £80 - £100
All appliances to be PAT tested and have labels on them-even if they are new?
AFAIK you don't need it for new items but you do for existing ones. seems a bit like money for old rope to me as the basically just seem to check the plugs are wired properly and that the wires aren't frayed. Cost me £70 last time!
EPC?
Not aware of any energy perfomance legislation relating to holiday lets myself. Anyone?
To register with the council?
We haven't. I don't think you need to.
Furniture to have those fire safety labels on them?
Absolutely yes for upholstered furniture
Do I pay business rates or council tax?
http://www.accommodationknowhow.co.uk/l ... ss%20Rates* Business rates apply to bed and breakfast establishments unless the business does not intend to offer short-stay accommodation to more than six people simultaneously OR the owner occupies part of the property as their only or main home OR their letting out the rooms is subsidiary to the use of the rest of the house as the owner's home.
* Business rates apply to a self-catering establishment unless it offers short-term lets for fewer than 140 days over the period of a year.
* It is only the part of the property used for business purposes that is subject to business rates.
* The business' local authority will calculate the business rates based on the 'rateable value' of the property.
Yes it is money for old rope - mostly. I'm fortunate in that I'm able to do my own, and have the necessary tester. Unless the rules have changed very recently, PAT testing has to be performed by a "competent person", rather than a "qualified person" - which is an important difference as you don't need a paper qualification to be "competent". The easiest way to show competence is to do a course - I think it's only a day - but someone with a sound background in a related engineering discipline should be okay. (But don't take my word for it - I may be out of date.)Windy wrote: AFAIK you don't need it for new items but you do for existing ones. seems a bit like money for old rope to me as the basically just seem to check the plugs are wired properly and that the wires aren't frayed. Cost me £70 last time!
It is easy to get hoodwinked - we had a place that we decided to let as long term, and PAT testing was carried out by the letting agency's approved outfit - they even put a sticker on the built-in, hard-wired electric oven, and there is no way that can ever be considered portable!! The other point is frequency of testing, which varies enormously depending on the type of appliance, so something that is double insulated (has a symbol consisting of one square inside another) may only need a visual inspection, particularly as plugs are generally moulded on and can't be disturbed. That can literally take a few seconds to do properly, plus checking the rating of the fuse. Somewhere out in Googleland the regs are no doubt available, and you'll find the required retest period can be much longer than annual for some types of kit in some types of establishment. That point may conveniently be ignored by some testers who would prefer to charge you for lots of items rather than the essentials.
As for testing new stuff, it should be done, (but that is obviously a pain when you've just bought it), and I have found a significant number of brand new extension leads that failed, although it would be churlish to consider them dangerous. It may - and again, don't rely on me - be sufficient to put some sort of label on a new appliance indicating its purchase date. I'd test it, but as I said before, I can do it myself.
It is, however, a good idea to give anything a common-sense once over occasionally - anyone can see a frayed lead or wires hanging out of a plug - and the fact that it might carry a PAT label would not be regarded as absolving responsibility for something that was obviously damaged. Bit like an MOT on your car.
EPC?
Not aware of any energy perfomance legislation relating to holiday lets myself. Anyone?
I think that's what I was getting confused about earlier - does it only apply to long-term letting? We had to go through it as part of the conversion work of our barn, but that was down to building regs.
Windy - how's the weather where you are? Glorious here in The Howgills - guests enjoying it!
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Paul Carmel
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