Your renewal deadline
Scotland's short-term let licences run for three years. The first big wave expires from October 2026. Here is exactly what happens on either side of that date — and how to find yours, free, without us.
The dates
Every existing host had to be licensed by 1 October 2023. Licences run three years. So the 2023 cohort begins expiring from October 2026 and rolls through 2027 and 2028 — roughly ten thousand renewals a year, every year.
Some councils grant longer on renewal. Glasgow, for instance, grants a five-year renewal where there have been no objections and no enforcement action. Your council guide says which rule applies to you.
Renewal is not the easy version
Aberdeenshire Council spells it out: "Renewal is not simpler — it requires identical documentation and follows the same way as your original one."
That means all of it, again:
- EICR electrical reportevery 5 years
- Gas safety certificateevery 12 months
- PAT testing certificateevery 12 months
- Fire risk assessmentperiodic Plus the fire safety checklist, held on site
- Scottish Fire & Rescue safety checklistevery renewal
- Legionella risk assessmentperiodic
- Insurance evidence, minimum £2m liabilityevery renewal
- Floor plan and location planevery renewal
- Owner declarationsevery renewal
- Signed Certificate of Complianceevery renewal
- Mandatory-conditions checklistevery renewal
What happens if you file on time
Your application is in before the expiry date, and your existing licence stays in force while the council determines it. You keep trading. You keep taking bookings. Nothing changes while they process it.
What happens if you miss it
Your licence expires. It becomes unlawful to operate the property as a short-term let.
You lose your existing-host status, and you must apply as a new applicant — at the higher new-applicant fee, in most councils.
Operating an unlicensed short-term let has been a criminal offence since 1 January 2025. Fines run to £2,500.
And you cannot take bookings while you wait, because a new application does not carry the protection a renewal does.
Nobody is going to remind you
Councils generally send a reminder about three months before expiry. They are also clear about where the responsibility sits. In their own words: "it is a licence holder's responsibility to check the expiry date."
If the reminder goes to an old address, an old email, or a managing agent you no longer use, the deadline still arrives.
How to find your own expiry date, free
Every Scottish council is legally required to publish a public register of licensed short-term lets. Yours is in it.
- Open your council's public register from the council guides.
- Search for your property address, or for your own name.
- Most registers show the licence status but not the expiry date. If yours does not, work from your grant date and add the licence period.
- If you applied in the 2023 window, assume this autumn and check now.
You do not need to hire anyone for this part. The register is public and the date is free to find.
What we sell is everything between knowing the date and having the pack filed: working out which of your certificates are still valid, booking accredited engineers for the ones that are not, assembling eleven documents in the form your council wants them, and filing before the clock runs out.
Tell us the property and we will tell you the date, the cost and what you still need. Ten minutes on the phone.
0141 241 61959am to 4pm, Monday to Friday Ask us to call you