In this guide
- In England outside London there is no short-let use class. A let needs planning permission only if it changes how the home is used, and councils judge that case by case.
- In Greater London you can let a whole home for up to 90 nights a calendar year without permission, as long as the person letting it is liable for council tax on it. A single stay of 90 nights or more does not count.
- Wales lets councils require permission through Article 4 directions, and Scotland through control areas. A planning breach is not a crime in itself, but ignoring an enforcement notice is.
The rule in England: is it still a home?
Outside London, England has no specific planning rule for short lets. You need planning permission for development, and development includes a “material change of use”. A house or flat lived in as a home falls in use class C3, dwellinghouses. The question for any short let is whether letting it to guests has changed its use enough that it is no longer really a home.
Most owners who let an ordinary home to small groups never need permission. Some do. No night limit or guest number settles it, so the answer depends on how the let is run.
The short-let use class was proposed, not made. In 2023 the then government consulted on a new use class, C5, for short lets, with permitted development rights (changes allowed without an application) to move a home in and out of it. In February 2024 it said the changes would start that summer. They never did. No order creating C5 has been made, and the current government has said only that it continues to consider further action while it sets up a national register.
The register is a separate thing. It will show councils where short lets are, but registering will not make a let lawful in planning terms. Our guide to the short-let register explains what it will involve.
How councils decide if a let has changed the use
The leading case is Moore v Secretary of State, decided by the Court of Appeal in 2012. St Audry’s House in Suffolk had been a family home. Its owner then let it for short holiday stays, advertised for up to 18 guests. It was booked on about 175 nights a year. The court held that whether holiday letting is a material change of use is a question of fact and degree in each case. It is not always a change of use, and not never one. Here, it was.
Councils and planning inspectors compare the character of the letting with ordinary household life. These are the things they weigh.
- Guests per stay
- How often guests change
- Typical length of stay
- Cars, parking and traffic
- Noise and complaints
- Shared entrances or stairs
- How it is advertised
- Whether anyone also lives there
Put simply, the closer each stay looks to a household living there, the safer you are. A two-bedroom flat let to couples and small families for a week at a time looks like a home. A large house sold as a group venue, with a changeover every few days and a drive full of guests’ cars, does not.
No single row decides it, and councils differ. In practice most cases begin with a neighbour’s complaint, so a quiet, well-run let is much less likely to be looked at in the first place.
London: the 90-night rule
Greater London has its own rule, and it is much clearer. Under the Greater London Council (General Powers) Act 1973, using a home as temporary sleeping accommodation is a material change of use. The Deregulation Act 2015 added an exception, so you can let a home anywhere in Greater London for up to 90 nights in a calendar year without planning permission, as long as the conditions are met.
The conditions are short.
- The person providing the accommodation must be liable for council tax on the home. A home assessed for business rates instead does not qualify.
- Every night of short letting in the year counts, whoever let the home and wherever it was booked. Nights on different platforms and direct bookings all add up.
- Only stays of under 90 consecutive nights count. A guest who stays 90 nights or more in one go is not in “temporary sleeping accommodation”, so those nights sit outside the limit.
Take a London flat let for 85 short nights by October, then booked from November by a contractor for 13 weeks. The 13-week stay is 91 nights by one guest, so it does not count, and the flat stays within the rule. Longer work stays and insurance stays, which can run for months, are one way we fill a London calendar without using up the 90.
The rule is aimed at letting the whole home; renting a spare room while you live there is generally treated as normal home life. Airbnb caps entire-home listings in Greater London at 90 nights a year unless the host confirms they have permission, but it cannot see nights booked elsewhere, so the count is yours to keep.
Go over 90 nights and the letting becomes a material change of use that needs planning permission. Councils judge applications against the London Plan and their own local plan, and many, including the City of London, resist losing permanent homes, so permission is hard to get. A council can also switch off the 90-night exception for a particular home or area to protect local amenity, with the government’s consent.
A quick check for your home
For a home in England, four questions get you most of the way. If an answer points to a problem, take advice or ask the council before you go live.
Planning is only one permission. A lease can ban short lets where planning allows them, and so can a mortgage. Our guides to leasehold flats and mortgages cover those.
Getting certainty: a lawful development certificate
If you want a firm answer, apply to the council for a lawful development certificate for a proposed use. You describe exactly how the home will be let, and the council decides whether that needs permission. If it grants the certificate, the use you described is lawful and the council cannot take action against it, as long as you stick to it. The fee is half the normal planning fee for the same change.
- Write down how you will letGuest numbers, typical stay, likely nights a year, and how cleaning and keys are handled.
- Check the planning historyLook up past permissions and any conditions on the council’s planning website.
- Apply for a certificate or for permissionA certificate if you think no permission is needed, a change of use application if you know it is.
- Let the home as describedA certificate only covers the use you set out in it.
There is also a certificate for an existing use. It confirms a use that has gone on long enough to be immune from enforcement, which for a change of use like this generally means 10 years of continuous use.
What a council can do
Breaching planning control is not a crime in itself. Ignoring an enforcement notice is. Councils choose whether to act, and most start by asking questions, often after a neighbour complains.
- FirstInvestigationThe council checks listings, may visit, and can send a planning contravention notice asking how the home is used.
- ThenEnforcement noticeIf it decides the use needs permission that it would not grant, it can order the short letting to stop by a set date.
- Before it takes effectAppealYou can appeal to the Planning Inspectorate, which puts the notice on hold until the appeal is decided.
- If ignoredProsecutionFailing to comply with a notice in force is a criminal offence, and courts can impose heavy fines.
Councils can also ask a court for an injunction. Action can be taken against whoever owns or runs the home now, so a buyer takes on any breach the seller left behind. A council generally cannot act once the use has carried on without a break for 10 years.
Article 4 directions are not used for short lets in England. An Article 4 direction removes permitted development rights in an area. England has no permitted development right to turn a home into a short let, so there is nothing for a direction to remove. They would matter if the proposed use class ever arrived, as they already do in Wales.
Wales: separate use classes
Wales has gone further than England. Since 20 October 2022 its planning rules have split homes into three use classes: C3 for main homes, C5 for second homes and C6 for short-term lets. Moving between them is permitted development, so by default you can turn a main home into a short let without applying.
The catch is that a council can remove those rights in an area with an Article 4 direction, backed by local evidence. Turning a main home into a second home or short let there, or switching between those two, then needs planning permission. Changing back to a main home does not. Eryri National Park Authority brought one into force on 1 June 2025. Gwynedd Council made the first in Wales, from September 2024, but the High Court quashed it in 2025 and the council’s bid to appeal failed in February 2026, so the default rights apply again in its area for now. Check with the council before you buy or convert.
Planning sits alongside Welsh registration, the visitor levy and the council tax and business rates tests. Our guide to holiday lets in Wales covers all of them.
Scotland: control areas
Scotland uses short-term let control areas. Inside one, turning a whole home that is not your own main home into a short let counts as a material change of use, so it always needs planning permission. Outside them, the same case-by-case test as England applies.
Two are in force: the whole City of Edinburgh council area, since September 2022, and Badenoch and Strathspey in the Highlands, since March 2024. In September 2026 Highland Council agreed to send two more to Scottish Ministers for approval, one for central Inverness and one covering large rural areas including Skye and Raasay, Lochaber and Wester Ross. Argyll and Bute has also consulted on one.
Every short let in Scotland also needs a council licence, which is a separate process from planning. Our guide to short lets in Scotland explains it.
| Where | Main planning test | Extra local control |
|---|---|---|
| England, outside London | Material change of use, case by case | None specific to short lets |
| Greater London | Up to 90 nights a year without permission | Switching off the 90 nights for a home or area |
| Wales | Separate use classes C3, C5 and C6 | Article 4 directions |
| Scotland | Material change of use, case by case | Short-term let control areas |
The position in October 2026. Local policies vary, so check with the council for your home.
Questions owners ask
Do I need permission to let my own home while I am away?
Outside London, letting the home you live in now and then is very unlikely to be a material change of use. In London, nights when the whole home is let still count towards the 90.
Does registering or licensing my home make the let lawful in planning terms?
No. England’s planned register and the schemes in Wales and Scotland are separate from planning. You can be registered or licensed and still be in breach of planning control, so check both.
I am buying a home that is already a short let. Does its planning position pass to me?
Yes. Planning permission and lawful use stay with the property, and so does any breach. Ask the seller for any permission or lawful development certificate, and for evidence of how long the letting has run.
Can a planning condition stop short lets?
It can. Some permissions for new homes, and some neighbourhood plans such as the one for St Ives in Cornwall, require new homes to be someone’s main residence. Check the permission for your home on the council’s planning website.
- legislation.gov.uk: Deregulation Act 2015, section 44 (short-term use of London accommodation)
- The National Archives: Moore v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government [2012] EWCA Civ 1202
- UK Parliament: written statement HCWS264, short-term lets (February 2024)
- UK Parliament: written question HL6627, holiday accommodation (April 2025)
- City of London Corporation: short term letting
- Welsh Government: changes to planning legislation and policy, second homes and short-term lets
- Eryri National Park: Article 4 Direction
- Scottish Government: short-term lets, planning circular
