Gas safety, EICR, EPC and Legionella for a UK holiday let: what is mandatory and how often

Elena Sitki · operations at GreenSLO and public relations for ReceptionGO
Published 4 November 2026 · 6 min read

General information, not legal or tax advice. Check your own case with your local council, HMRC or the relevant revenue authority, or an accountant.

Holiday accommodation with gas needs every appliance and flue checked every 12 months by a Gas Safe engineer. An EICR is a Scottish licence condition and what insurers expect in England. An EPC is required when you market a letting in scope. A Legionella assessment is required where you control the water. None of these replaces the fire risk assessment.

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Fire is the document hosts have started to write down. The rest of the folder is older, duller, and more often out of date: a gas record from two winters ago, an electrical report that was done when the house was bought, an EPC in a drawer, and no note at all about the shower that stood unused from November to March. Inspections ask for the dates, not the intention.

The folder, and how long each piece lasts

Document	Who signs it	How often	England and Wales	Scotland
Gas safety record	Gas Safe engineer	Every 12 months	Required if you provide gas	Licence condition
EICR	Competent electrician	At least every 5 years	Expected; mandatory for ASTs, not written for holiday lets	Licence condition
PAT	Competent person	A risk-based interval; annually is the usual habit	Not a freestanding statute; insurers ask	Licence condition
EPC	Accredited assessor	10 years	Required when you market a letting that is in scope	Licence applications ask for it
Legionella risk assessment	A competent person	Review when things change, and after a long void	Required where you control the water	Licence condition
Fire risk assessment	The responsible person, or someone competent you appoint	Reviewed regularly and after changes	Required for paying guests	Licence condition

Northern Ireland’s certificate scheme and the Welsh register will ask overlapping questions. The practical point is one folder that is in date, not a different safety standard in each nation. If you are opening, this folder is step two of the startup checklist, after you know you are allowed to let.

Gas

Regulation 36 of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 is the annual check. HSE’s list of who counts as a landlord includes rented holiday accommodation and B&Bs. The record covers appliances and flues you own and provide. Give guests the information; keep the record two years. A let that starts with an expired record is the breach, even if the engineer is booked for next week. Oil and LPG have their own competent-person schemes. Do not ask a Gas Safe engineer to sign for an oil boiler they are not qualified on.

Electrics, EPC, water

An EICR that says “unsatisfactory” is not a document you file. It is a list of things to repair before guests sleep there, coded by urgency. Portable appliances are the kettles and heaters guests touch. In Scotland they are a licence item. In England they are what an insurer’s surveyor looks for.

The EPC is an energy rating, valid for ten years. The government’s guidance for English holiday homes points hosts who let for four months or more in a year toward having one. The separate rule that a rental must be at least band E applies to the tenancies named in the domestic MEES regulations, not to every holiday cottage. The day you also let the house as someone’s home, that rule wakes up. That boundary is the same one as in the tenancy guide.

Legionella risk in a holiday let is mostly unused outlets and water that has sat. Flush them before a guest arrives after a gap, keep the hot water hot, and descale shower heads. A hot tub you advertised is a different system and usually a different contractor. Write down what you do. “We run the taps” is not an assessment until it is a page with a date.

From our own practiceCertificates expire in the week you are too busy to notice, which is the week the house is full. The only system that works is a reminder a month before the date on the paper, not a look through the folder when an inspector emails. Put the expiry in the same place you keep the booking calendar’s blocked dates for maintenance.

Frequently asked questions

Does a holiday cottage need a gas safety certificate?

Yes, if you provide gas appliances or flues. HSE treats rented holiday accommodation — cottages, flats, chalets, caravans — as premises where the landlord’s duties apply. The check is every 12 months, by an engineer on the Gas Safe register, and the record is kept for two years and shown to guests if they ask. A boiler that only serves your own side of a building is still in scope if it serves the guest accommodation.

Is an EICR the law in England?

The electrical-safety regulations that require an EICR for private rented homes apply to specified tenancies, not automatically to a holiday let. Insurers, the government’s holiday-home guidance and, in Scotland, the licence still expect one, at least every five years. Treating it as optional because the tenancy regulations do not name you is how a licence application and an insurance proposal both stall.

Do holiday lets have to reach EPC E?

The minimum-E rule for domestic private rented property applies to assured, regulated and agricultural tenancies. A genuine holiday let is not those. You can still need an EPC in order to market the property, and a house you also let on an AST in winter falls under the minimum standard for that tenancy. The government’s holiday-home guidance tells hosts to have an EPC where the property is let for four months or more in total.

Can I do the Legionella assessment myself?

HSE says a simple water system — a normal cottage, a combi boiler, no stored water or a small cylinder — can be assessed by a competent person, and that can be you if you understand the system. The output is a short record of risks and controls: temperature, flushing little-used outlets, cleaning shower heads. A large tank, a spa or a block of lets is when you pay a specialist. Scotland asks for the assessment as a licence condition.

How is this different from the fire risk assessment?

The fire risk assessment looks at how people get out and how a fire is detected. These certificates look at gas, wiring, energy rating and water. A licence inspection and a buyer’s solicitor will ask for all of them. Start with the fire guide if that document does not exist yet; it is the one that has to be in writing for any paying guest.

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Sources

Rules last checked on 22 October 2026.