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Introduction of the Short Term Lets Licensing Scheme in Scotland
A brief introduction to the new short let licensing scheme
From 1st October 2022, anyone offering a property as a short stay let in Scotland will now need to apply for a license from their local authority.
If you’re an existing host, you should apply for your license before 1st April 2023. You can continue offering your property to guests whilst the council consider your application. The council have up to 12 months to process your application.
For new hosts, you must be granted a license before you can start offering short lets. The council have up to 9 months to process your application.
Each council will have set their own fees, but as an example, here’s a list of Fife Council’s fee structure (taken off of their website today).
Table of Fees
| Occupancy | Temporary Exemption* | Temporary Licence | First Full Licence | Renewed Full Licence |
| 1 – 2 | £190 | £215 | £264 | £264 |
| 3 – 4 | £190 | £243 | £292 | £292 |
| 5 – 6 | £190 | £272 | £320 | £320 |
| 7 – 8 | £190 | £300 | £348 | £348 |
| 9 – 10 | £190 | £328 | £377 | £377 |
| 11 – 12 | £195 | £356 | £405 | £405 |
| 13 – 14 | £195 | £385 | £433 | £433 |
| 15 – 16 | £195 | £413 | £461 | £461 |
| 17 – 18 | £195 | £441 | £490 | £490 |
| 19 – 20 | £195 | £469 | £518 | £518 |
**Where hosts and operator have a greater occupancy than those noted above the charge for each 1-2 additional guests is £28; 3-4 additional guests would be £56; 5-6 additional guests would be £84 and so on. (*Excludes Temporary Exemption)
A complete list of fees
A complete list of fees can be found here: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.assc.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/FEES-v7.pdf (Extracted from ASSC website).
To find out what type of license you need to apply for you can use the tool below:
https://www.mygov.scot/short-term-let-licences/apply-for-short-term-let-licence
Mandatory conditions
A variety of conditions have been put in place.You can find the list here chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.fife.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0015/410631/STL-Mandatory-Conditions.pdf
Public notices
As part of the licensing application process, hosts will be expected to put a public notice on or near the property for 21 days, to allow it to be easily read by the public.
Link to the public notice form here: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.fife.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0013/410620/STL-Public-Notice.pdf
The Scottish Government has said that it had committed to working with local authorities, as well as organisations such as Airbnb, Booking.com and the Association of Scotland’s Self Caterer’s (ASSC) to review the levels of short term let activity in hotspot areas of Scotland next summer. It added that it would monitor the impact of those measures on the wider tourism sector and assess whether further measures may be necessary in due course.