Consultation on short term lets

[baldelectrician]

Just a heads up

The Scottish Government are consulting on short term let regulation.

They are going ahead with it and are looking for inro

Short-Term Lets Licensing Scheme and Planning Control Areas in Scotland

 

[pc1966]

The underlying problem is the AirBnB model has moved from "occasional guest" in a person's home into a business with properties being bought up for rent, but bypassing the rules normally applied to landlords & hotels.

 

[Vortigern]

Regulation of what you do with your own property must always be subject to scrutiny the government want to pick our pockets and get a piece of any action we do. We need less regulation, especially now as our economy needs all the boosts it can get. We do not need more rules to regulate enterprise. It needs to be positively encouraged. Too may decisions to regulate are being made by the government suppressing free enterprise.

 

[pc1966]

While I am, generally speaking, in favour of the "small government" of low regulation, the issue here is one of some businesses (hotels and traditional landlord) having lots of regulations on safety & hygiene, etc, and others (AirBnB, etc) doing essentially the same job but not having to follow the same standards.

Same applies to the likes of Uber for taxis, trying to pretend they are not a taxi company and so should not have to vet drivers' criminal records, check their MOT/insurance status, etc, as they are "contractors".

On this forum the equivalent would be the professional qualifications, scheme membership, insurance, etc, that a professional electrician has, compared to dogy Dave DIY doing the job for a tenner, no test / no certification.

Society should decide on what is necessary and sufficient, and that should be applied uniformly.

 

[snowhead]

I understand what they're trying to achieve but the problem with all legislation is those who want to abide by it will, those who don't won't.
And it's really the ones who won't and don't that are more likely to be the issue.

Legislation like this could make the situation worse if for example people who live near sporting venues or other large events only let their houses out for the duration of the event, decide it's not worth going for the licence then others with no licence may step in and fill the gap.
So what was probably a repectable and safe house is now replaced with one that may be not so.

There's no way the Licencing authority will be able to keep up with it.
Shut one down, another one opens up somewhere else.

Alchohol prohihition in the U.S is still the best example of a failure of legislation.

 

[pc1966]

Very true, prohibition was a spectacular failure.

What is needed is reasonable and proportional regulation, good enough to protect the public, but not so onerous as to become a deterrent to businesses following the right path.