Legionella for Airbnb & Holiday-Let Hosts
Yes, you almost certainly need a Legionella risk assessment for your short-let — and in Scotland you can't get your licence without one. Here's the plain version.
Yes — Airbnb and holiday-let hosts need a Legionella risk assessment. Any UK short-let with a hot and/or cold water system requires one under COSHH 2002 and ACOP L8, and in Scotland it's a required document for your short-term let licence. The duty covers the whole water system, not just the obvious outlets. Holiday lets often carry higher risk than an ordinary home because the property stands empty between bookings and the water goes still, so flushing through before guests arrive is essential.
When you start letting a property, Legionella isn't necessarily the first thing that springs to mind — so if this is news to you, you're not alone. But it's a real duty, and short-lets carry a particular risk that ordinary homes often don't. The good news: it's very manageable once you understand it.
Do you actually need one? Yes.
A UK short-let or holiday let with a hot and/or cold water system requires a Legionella risk assessment under COSHH 2002 and the HSE's ACOP L8. That's the whole system — not just the outlets that look like they spray. This isn't obscure small print: Airbnb's own responsible-hosting guidance already tells hosts they have a duty to assess water-safety risks and consider HSE guidance on preventing Legionnaires' disease. What Airbnb doesn't tell you is how — which is where this guide, and EASYlegionella, come in.
Scotland hosts, take note: a Legionella risk assessment is one of the documents required for a short-term let licence in Scotland. You literally cannot get licensed without one. England's registration scheme is also rolling out — so for a growing number of hosts this isn't optional, it's part of operating legally.
Why short-lets are higher risk than normal homes
Here's the thing that makes holiday lets special: they sit empty between guests. When nobody's using the water, it sits still in the pipes and drifts to room temperature — which is exactly the warm, stagnant condition Legionella loves. A lived-in home has water moving through it constantly; a let that's empty for a fortnight between bookings does not. That's the core risk, and it's why hosts need to pay attention where an ordinary homeowner might not.
What you actually need — and what the law actually says
Most pages are vague here. It needn't be. There are four things, and it's worth being precise about which are legal duties and which are strongly advised, because the honest answer is more useful than a scare.
- 1. A Legionella risk assessment — this one is absolute. ACOP L8 is blunt: “An assessment of the risk must be carried out.” No exemption, no employee threshold, no size of property. If you let it out, you assess it.
- 2. A written scheme of control. The assessment finds the risks; the scheme sets out what you'll do about them at your property — which outlets, what checks, how often. ACOP L8 asks you to “if appropriate, prepare a written scheme for preventing or controlling the risk”. For a let that stands empty between guests, it's appropriate.
- 3. Ongoing monitoring, on a schedule. Not “flush it sometimes”. ACOP L8: “if control measures are to remain effective, regular monitoring of the systems and control measures is essential”. Legionella control is something you keep doing, not something you had done once.
- 4. Records that prove it. A dated record of your assessment and the checks you carry out. It's what turns "I keep on top of it" into something you can actually show — to a council, an insurer, or anyone who asks.
Can you skip the paperwork? No — and here's the honest reason why. Everyone who matters will ask to see it. In Scotland the council won't licence you without the assessment. Insurers ask. Letting agents ask. And if a guest ever falls ill, the record is the only thing that shows you assessed the risk and acted on it. The duty to assess and control is absolute, whatever the size of your operation. The record is how you prove you met it.
And when records are kept, ACOP L8 says how long. Records should be retained “throughout the period they are current and for at least two years afterwards”, and records of any monitoring inspection, test or check, with dates, for at least five years. Which is a long time to keep a shoebox of notes — and a good argument for something that logs it for you.
The gap in the market, in one line: the industry will happily sell you the first item and leave you to invent the other three. A consultant visits, writes the assessment, invoices, and goes. The scheme, the schedule and the record — the parts that actually keep guests safe — are left to you, usually with no instructions at all.
Got a hot tub, pool or spa? Those are a different, higher-risk category with their own rules — and a self-serve assessment for an ordinary hot-and-cold system doesn't cover them. If your let has one, you'll need specialist help for that part. EASYlegionella covers your ordinary water system and will tell you honestly when something falls outside its scope.
All four, done for you
You don't need to learn any of this. You need something that already knows it.
EASYlegionella walks you round your own let, asking plain questions. What's under the sink. What's in the airing cupboard. That white box on the wall — it'll tell you what it is. From your answers it builds your Legionella risk assessment and produces the document, and it writes your scheme of control from what it found.
Then it does the part nobody sets up for you: it turns that scheme into a dated monitoring schedule — what to check, and when, before an arrival. You work through the list on changeover day, and every check logs itself, so the record builds as you go and is ready the moment anyone asks for it.
- It tells you what to do — clearly, in plain English, no jargon.
- It remembers so you don't have to — the record writes itself, dated.
- It works in the airing cupboard — no signal needed.
- Anyone can run it — you, your cleaner, whoever does the changeover while you're away.
- One let or twenty — same walk-through, each property with its own assessment, schedule and record.
- It's honest about its limits — anything that genuinely needs a professional, it says so.
A one-off assessment gives you a document and stops there. This builds the same document, then keeps the monitoring running every changeover after — for less than the cost of a single visit.
Assessment, scheme, schedule, record — all four, sorted
Build your risk assessment, get your written scheme of control, and have every flush and check scheduled and logged for you. So every guest arrives to safe water, and you can prove it.
Join the launch listThis guide is general information, not legal advice, and does not certify compliance. Your legal duty as the responsible person cannot be transferred. Requirements vary across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — check your local licensing scheme. Always refer to HSG274 Part 2 and ACOP L8 for the authoritative guidance.