Short term lets - licensing scheme part 1: guidance for hosts and operators

7. Glossary of terms

7.1. In this guidance, the following terms are used. Please note that this is not a complete list of terms used and defined in the Licensing Order^[39]

“the 1982 Act”: means the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (references to the 1982 Act are to the provisions of that Act read with the Licensing Order and Amendment Orders);

“the Control Area Regulations”: mean the Town and Country Planning (Short-term Let Control Areas) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 (SSI 2021/154);

“accommodation”: means any building or structure, or any part of the building or structure, and includes rooms in a home, a whole home or something more unusual like a yurt or a treehouse;

“control area”: means a short-term let control area designated following the process set out in the Control Area Regulations;

“dwellinghouse”: means, for these purposes, an independent dwelling (with its own front door, kitchen and bathroom) such as a house, flat, cottage etc.;

“existing host”: means a host or operator who has used their premises to provide short-term lets before 1 October 2022 and who will apply for a licence to continue the same use;

“guest”: means a person occupying property for the purposes of a short-term let;

“home letting”: means using all or part of your own home for short-term lets whilst you are absent;

“home sharing”: means using all or part of your own home for short-term lets whilst you are there;

“host” or “operator” or “you”: means a person or company providing property for short-term letting, including commercial landlords (note that the host may not be the owner or person who lives at the property);

“letting agency”: means an organisation which facilitates the agreement between the host or operator and the guest for use of the property as a short-term let and which may additionally provide other services (marketing, bookings, queries, cleaning etc.);

“licensing authority”: means an authority responsible for running the licensing scheme, usually a council;

“mandatory conditions”: means conditions which licensing authorities must apply across Scotland;

“neighbour”: means, for our purposes, someone whose permanent residence is in close enough proximity to a short-term let to have a legitimate interest in its business, e.g. potentially affected by safety, noise, litter, nuisance;

“[your] own home”: means [your] principal place of residence, the place where you normally live;

“platform”: means an online letting agency;

“premises”: means the property and land on one site, normally premises have their own postal address;

“secondary letting”: means a short-term let involving the letting of property where you do not normally live, for example a second home;

“short-term let of a premises”: means the entering of an agreement between a guest and a host for the use of residential accommodation by a guest in circumstances set out in Annex A^[40]