Do I need a Legionella risk assessment for my Airbnb in Scotland?

Yes. If you let a property short-term in Scotland through Airbnb or any other platform, you need a short-term let licence from your council, and assessing your Legionella risk is a mandatory part of the process. Some licensing authorities also require the written assessment to be submitted with the application. The requirement to assess applies whether or not the property has a private water supply.

Do I need a Legionella risk assessment for a Scottish short-term let licence?

Yes. Assessing your Legionella risk is a mandatory part of applying for a short-term let licence in Scotland, and some licensing authorities require the written assessment to be submitted with the application. The requirement to assess applies whether or not the property has a private water supply.

Does a professional have to carry out the assessment?

No. Scottish Government guidance for hosts and operators states that the Legionella risk assessment does not need to be carried out by a professional and that you can do it yourself, provided you are competent to do so. Note that the guidance describes most residential settings as low risk because water is used regularly and does not stagnate — a holiday let standing empty between bookings does not meet that description, so the checks between guests matter more, not less.

Is the council's template form enough?

A template may be enough to submit with your application, but it is a snapshot of one day. The licence carries ongoing mandatory conditions, and failing to maintain them is a breach that can result in a fine or loss of licence. Because a let stands empty between bookings, the flushing and temperature checks between guests are where the real risk sits — so you need a dated ongoing record, not just the one-off assessment.

What happens if I don't have one?

An incomplete application can be refused. Without a licence you cannot legally operate a short-term let in Scotland.

EASYlegionella

Scottish Airbnbs & Short-Term Lets:No Legionella Risk Assessment, No Licence

Scotland is tough on compliance. No Legionella risk assessment, no licence, no guests. Here's how to sort it yourself — for a fraction of what it usually costs.

In Scotland you cannot get a short-term let licence without assessing your Legionella risk. The Scottish Government is explicit: “You must assess the risk from exposure to Legionella within your premises, whether or not it has a private water supply.” You are advised to keep a record of what you did, as your licensing authority may want to see it — and some require the completed assessment among the documents you submit (Stirling Council, for one, asks for it and provides its own form; others, such as Fife, ask only for the date it was completed). It is equally clear you can do this yourself — no professional is required.

Airbnb and short-term let host outside a Highland stone cottage in Scotland

You've got the granny flat done up. Or the cottage that came with the croft. Or the second bedroom that pays for itself over the summer. Maybe it's your mum's old place, and selling it felt wrong.

So you put it on Airbnb. And it works — because Scotland is one of the best places in Britain to run a holiday let. Walkers heading for Skye. Skiers into Aviemore. Couples doing the NC500. Festival crowds in Edinburgh. There are now more than 31,000 licensed short-term lets in Scotland, and roughly four out of five belong to people just like you — one property, run alongside a job, not a company with a portfolio.

You do the changeovers yourself. You know the place — which taps get used every visit, and which sit untouched for weeks between guests. You've got a folder somewhere with the gas certificate in it.

And that folder needs one more thing in it. To let legally in Scotland you need a licence from your council, and assessing the Legionella risk is a mandatory part of it — and some licensing authorities want the written assessment handed over with the application.

It's set out plainly on the application — listed alongside the fire safety and electrical checks. What catches people out isn't finding it. It's what it turns out to involve.

Letting without a licence is a criminal offence. It carries a fine of up to £2,500, enforced by Police Scotland, and every short-term let has needed a valid licence to operate lawfully since the scheme came fully into force — the deadline for existing hosts to apply passed on 1 October 2023. Miss the Legionella assessment and your application can be refused — which means no licence, no listing, and a summer's bookings gone. For a one-cottage let, that's the whole season.

Here's where it usually stalls. You have to assess the Legionella risk yourself, and most people have no idea where to start — so it gets put off, or a generic template gets filled in that was never written for a property that stands empty between guests. Neither protects you. Done properly, though, it's far less trouble than it sounds, and nothing like a consultant's price.

The requirement, plainly

You must assess the Legionella risk in your property. Mains water or private supply — no exemption. It covers all four licence types: home sharing, home letting, secondary letting, and both together. Between them, that's virtually every Airbnb in Scotland.

And it doesn't matter where you are or what you've got. The Highlands alone hold more than 8,000 licences, Edinburgh over 3,000. The converted steading up a farm track, the flat above the shop in Portree, the lodge at the bottom of the garden, the tenement two floors up in Leith — same requirement, all of them.

There's no "too small to bother" exemption. One room or six bedrooms, mains or private supply, city flat or Highland cottage — the council wants the same assessment either way.

You don't need to pay anyone

Here's what the assessment companies would rather you didn't know. The Scottish Government says so itself: the risk assessment doesn't need a professional. You can do it yourself.

That's hundreds of pounds saved. But there's a catch, and it catches people out.

The guidance calls most homes low risk because the water gets used every day and never sits still. Read that again. It describes a family home — not a cottage that's been locked up for a fortnight.

The reassuring line is actually the warning. Low risk depends on water moving. In an empty let, it doesn't move. You can absolutely do this yourself — just don't assume the "low risk" comfort blanket covers a property like yours.

The bit that catches people out

Getting the licence is the start, not the finish. It carries conditions you have to keep meeting for as long as you hold it — and breaching them can cost you the licence. Not a warning letter. The licence.

That's the trouble with a one-off form. Boxes ticked, filed away. It proves nothing about what happened in the eleven months after.

Think about February. The place is empty for three weeks. Nobody's run a tap. The water's sitting in the pipes going tepid — which is exactly what Legionella wants. Then someone books, you go up on the Friday, and they're in the shower by teatime. Running those taps through before they arrive is the most important thing you do all week. Being able to prove you did it is what protects you.

What the law actually asks

Stripped of the jargon, ACOP L8 and HSG274 ask for four things: assess the risk in your property, control it, keep it under review through ongoing monitoring, and record what you've done so you can prove it. That's the whole duty. The hard part isn't any single step — it's knowing what applies to your property and doing it in the right order, which is exactly what the app is for.

You don't have to know any of it

The knowledge is the hard part, not the walking. EASYlegionella holds the knowledge, so you don't have to.

EASYlegionella walks you round your own property and asks simple questions about what it finds. You don't need to know what anything is called — it works that out for you, builds your risk assessment, and hands you the document your council wants.

Then it does the part nobody warns you about. It turns that assessment into a monitoring schedule you just follow, with every check dated and logged automatically. So on changeover day, you're not wondering whether you've done enough. You just work the list.

It tells you what to do — clearly, in plain English, no jargon.
It remembers so you don't have to — the record builds itself, dated and ready if the council asks.
It saves a day's work with no signal — do the whole walk-round in a basement or plant room, every reading and photo saved on the phone, uploaded automatically once you're back online. Nothing lost to a dead spot.
It flags what's beyond it — if something falls outside an ordinary hot and/or cold water system, or needs a professional, it tells you plainly, so you can rely on it to say when to stop rather than pressing on unsure.
Anyone can run it — you, your cleaner, whoever does the changeover when you're away.

A one-off assessment gives you a document and stops there. This builds the same document, then keeps the monitoring running month after month — for less than the cost of a single visit.

Get licensed. Stay licensed.

Build your Legionella risk assessment yourself, produce the document your council wants, and keep every check logged so you're always covered. All FREE — you pay only for the ongoing monitoring.

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Written by Janine Bull AIWFMFounder · Legionella compliance specialist and health, safety & water hygiene engineering professional

This guide is general information to help you understand your responsibilities, not legal advice, and does not certify compliance. Your legal duty as the responsible person cannot be transferred. Licensing requirements are set by your local licensing authority and may include additional local conditions — always check with your council and refer to the current Scottish Government guidance for hosts and operators, HSG274 Part 2 and ACOP L8.