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Short-term let registration in England: what the March 2027 register means for holiday let owners

Sergej Sitki · founder of ReceptionGO and host
Published 17 October 2026 · 7 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.

England is getting a national short-term let register. The government says it will be running by March 2027. Owners will register each property, get a registration number to show on every listing and confirm they meet existing safety rules. Fees, penalties and the exact scope are not final yet, but the paperwork it will check already applies today.

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For years, England was the part of the UK where anyone could list a holiday let without telling anyone. Scotland has licences, Wales has opened its register and Northern Ireland has required certification since 1992. England is next. This guide sets out what has actually been confirmed, what is still open, and a checklist you can work through now, so that registering takes ten minutes rather than a weekend.

What has been confirmed so far

The legal basis is already on the statute book: the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 gives the government power to set up a register of short-term lets in England. What was missing was the system itself and a date.

• Timing: on 3 September 2026 the Culture Secretary told the Commons the register will be “up and running in full by March” 2027. Updated guidance on 2 October 2026 repeats March 2027.
• How it works: online. You register the property, receive a unique registration number and show it on every listing and advert.
• What it checks: the register is meant to help councils enforce the rules that already apply (fire safety, gas and electrical safety) rather than to create new standards. Reports on the latest plans say hosts will confirm compliance when they register.
• Why: councils will get data on where short-term lets are and how many there are, to plan housing and enforce safety rules.

What is still open

The date has already slipped twice (first 2024, then April 2026), so don’t plan around a single day. Aim to be ready whenever the portal opens.

Who is likely to be in scope

The register is aimed at short-term lets of homes: entire houses and flats let as holiday lets, second homes let part of the year and, possibly, rooms in a host’s own home. The government’s 2024 statement is explicit on one point: the register “will not affect hotels, hostels or B&Bs”. Those already sit inside other systems — planning use classes, business rates, licensing.

Two questions are still open. First, a threshold: the government said it would consider exempting people who let only occasionally, such as a family letting their home for a fortnight in summer. Second, serviced apartments and units on holiday parks, which sit between the two worlds. If you let a home to paying guests for short stays, assume you are in scope until the regulations say otherwise.

London: the 90-night rule still applies

In Greater London, letting a whole home for short stays is treated as a change of use — except that the Deregulation Act 2015 lets you do it for up to 90 nights per calendar year without planning permission, as long as you pay council tax on the property. Over 90 nights, you need planning permission from the borough.

• The limit counts nights, not bookings, and runs from 1 January to 31 December.
• Airbnb caps entire-home listings in London at 90 nights automatically; other platforms do not, so a property on several channels can go over without anyone noticing — except the council.
• Renting a room while you live there is not limited by the 90-night rule.

The register will make breaches far easier to spot: councils will see which properties are let and, combined with platform data, roughly how often.

Planning outside London and the C5 proposal

Outside London there is no night limit. Letting your own home now and then is not a change of use. Converting a house into a full-time holiday let can be, and councils in Cornwall, the Lake District and coastal Yorkshire have taken enforcement action. The government proposed a new C5 “short-term let” use class in February 2024, with permitted development rights to move between homes (C3) and C5. As of October 2026 it has not been brought into force.

A checklist to finish before March 2027

1. Fire risk assessment, in writing. Required under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 for any paying guest accommodation. See our fire safety guide for holiday lets.
2. Gas Safe certificate every 12 months if the property has gas appliances.
3. Electrical installation condition report (EICR) and checks on portable appliances. Not yet a statutory duty for holiday lets in England, but insurers and the register’s safety declaration will push you there.
4. Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms on every floor and wherever there is a fuel-burning appliance.
5. EPC if the property is let for four months or more a year in total.
6. Permissions: mortgage lender consent, lease or freeholder consent for flats, insurance that covers paying guests.
7. Your numbers: bedrooms, maximum occupancy, nights let in the last year, the platforms you list on. The same nights count matters for business rates or council tax.
8. Guest records: names and nationality of guests aged 16+, passport details for overseas guests — the law has required this since 1972. Our guide to the guest register covers what to keep.

How England compares with the rest of the UK

If you let in more than one nation, you will need to satisfy each system separately — one registration does not travel across the border.