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

8. Glossary of terms

8.1. 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^[52]:

"the 1982 Act"
means the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982;

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

"the Licensing Order"
means the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (Licensing of Short-term Lets) Order 2021 (SSI 2021/[xxx]);

"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;

"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] only or 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;

"property" (or "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;

"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 property"
means the entering of an agreement between a guest and a host in the course of business for the use of the property as residential accommodation by a guest in circumstances set out in chapter 2^[53];