The Compliance Checklist Every Cornwall Holiday-Let Owner Needs

Between 2023 and 2025 the compliance ground shifted hard under English holiday lets: the Fire Safety Order now explicitly covers every short-term let (the small-premises let-off is gone), the business-rates thresholds went occupancy-tested, Cornwall Council switched on its second-home council tax premium, and the FHL tax regime was abolished. Most owners are compliant on some of it and quietly exposed on the rest.

Work through the checklist below. It takes about ten minutes, and it covers what your insurer, your letting platform, a buyer's conveyancer — or Cornwall Fire & Rescue — would ask.

The checklist

• I have a written Fire Risk Assessment. Since 1 October 2023 the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 applies to all holiday lets in England — including small properties sleeping under 8. A documented FRA is mandatory, reviewed at least annually. A competent owner can do their own; professionals charge £150–£500. See our fire safety guide.
• Smoke and CO detection is in place and interlinked. Interlinked smoke alarms on escape routes, heat alarm in the kitchen, and a carbon monoxide alarm in any room with a fuel-burning appliance (log burner, gas boiler, oil boiler).
• Gas Safety Certificate (CP12) is current. If the property has any gas appliance, an annual check by a Gas Safe engineer is a legal requirement — keep the certificate with your guest-facing records.
• Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) is in date. A satisfactory EICR every 5 years is the standard letting benchmark, and insurers and agencies increasingly require it for holiday lets.
• Portable appliances have been sense-checked. Formal PAT testing isn't a blanket legal requirement, but a documented annual check of kettles, toasters, hairdryers and supplied chargers is cheap evidence of duty-of-care — and agencies ask for it.
• EPC in place where required. Holiday lets let for a combined 4+ months a year on FHL-style terms generally need an EPC; buyers and platforms ask for one regardless. Check where you stand via our EPC & MEES guide.
• Public Liability insurance on a proper holiday-let policy. Standard home or landlord policies usually exclude short-term holiday letting. £2–£5m PL is the norm, and platform cover like AirCover is not a substitute. See the insurance guide.
• I know my rates position: 140 days available / 70 nights let. Meet both thresholds and the property qualifies for business rates (often £0 after Small Business Rate Relief). Miss them and you're on council tax — with Cornwall Council's 100% second-home premium doubling many bills. Track let-nights through the year; see the business rates guide.
• TV licence and music use are covered. A holiday let needs its own TV licence if guests can watch live TV, and background music in shared/guest areas can require TheMusicLicence (PPL PRS). Small items, commonly missed.
• Off-mains drainage is compliant (rural lets). If the property is on a septic tank, it must meet the General Binding Rules — no direct discharge to a watercourse — and peak-season occupancy fills tanks two to three times faster than household use. Our sister site's septic tank compliance checklist covers it in five minutes.

Ticked everything? Good — keep it that way

Diarise the renewals (FRA annually, CP12 annually, EICR five-yearly), keep the paperwork in one folder with your booking records, and re-check after any building work, new appliance, or change in how you let. A well-run agency will track most of this for you — that's part of what the commission in our fees guide buys.

Couldn't tick something?

No FRA, or unsure it would stand up: start there — it's the one with unlimited fines attached and it's needed before this season, not after it.

Certificates lapsed or missing: a local agency with an established trades network can usually get CP12, EICR and PAT checks done inside a fortnight, off-season faster.

Rates/tax position unclear: get your let-night numbers together first; the 70-night test is factual, and the difference between business rates and premium council tax can be thousands a year.

Want the deeper background? Our guides cover fire safety legal minimums, insurance, business rates vs council tax and the incoming short-term-let registration scheme.