{"id":534994,"date":"2025-10-29T07:57:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T07:57:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/534994\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T07:57:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T07:57:13","slug":"edinburgh-launches-huge-crackdown-on-short-term-letting-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/534994\/","title":{"rendered":"Edinburgh launches huge crackdown on short-term letting market"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-189345 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Cllr-Neil-Ross-Edinburgh.jpg\" alt=\"Cllr-Neil-Ross-Edinburgh\" width=\"730\" height=\"455\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Edinburgh Council has secured its first conviction in its long-running battle against unlicensed short-term and holiday lets, with a landlord fined \u00a3600 and ordered to pay \u00a3500 compensation to a neighbour.<\/p>\n<p>And the council says another 12 cases of unlicensed STLs have been reported to the Procurator Fiscal.<\/p>\n<p>The case is part of an escalation in enforcement activity since the city became Scotland\u2019s first designated short-term let <a href=\"https:\/\/www.edinburgh.gov.uk\/planning-13\/proposal-designate-short-term-let-control-area\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">control area<\/a> in September 2022, requiring all landlords to obtain licences amid concerns over housing shortfalls, rising rents and anti-social behaviour.<\/p>\n<p>heavy criticism<\/p>\n<p>The council, though, has faced heavy criticism from <a href=\"https:\/\/thenegotiator.co.uk\/news\/regulation-law-news\/mock-street-court-tries-cowboy-landlords\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">campaign groups<\/a> over a lack of action against rogue landlords, with Living Rent protesting earlier this month, accusing it of failing to enforce the rules.<\/p>\n<p>And campaigners Living Rent claim the \u00a3600 fine amounts to less than a week\u2019s stay and will do nothing to deter rogue landlords.<\/p>\n<p>Convener of the Regulatory Committee, Cllr Neil Ross (pictured), however, says the conviction sends a clear message that operating without a licence is illegal.<\/p>\n<p>According to Deadline News, the landlord of the property was reported to the Procurator Fiscal after a neighbour in the flat below experienced repeated loud noise and disruption and, on one occasion, witnessed 19 people staying at the property.<\/p>\n<p>Future applications affected<\/p>\n<p>The council says the conviction is likely to affect any future licence applications by the same owner, as landlords must be deemed a fit and proper person to operate as a registered landlord or licence holder.<\/p>\n<p>Operating as an unregistered landlord carries a maximum fine of up to \u00a350,000, while the maximum fine for an unlicensed STL is currently \u00a32,500.<\/p>\n<p>As of March 2025, the council had received 5,441 Short Term Let licence applications, of which 4,654 have been granted.<\/p>\n<p><br clear=\"all\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Edinburgh Council has secured its first conviction in its long-running battle against unlicensed short-term and holiday lets, with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[15484,748,1102,4884,712,172941,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-534994","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-airbnb","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-edinburgh","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-scotland","13":"tag-short-term-lets","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115456393390632578","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}