Four gates.
All four must clear.
The most glossed-over part of this category and the one that decides whether your business is lawful, insurable and able to keep operating. A property that passes three of these and fails the fourth is not a business.
Legal in the city is not enough.
People tend to check the council rules and stop. Three other parties can prohibit short letting in a property that local law permits, and any one of them is enough.
The city or council
Registration, licensing, permit caps, night limits, primary-residence conditions, planning and zoning. Public, checkable, and where most people correctly begin.
The lease or title
Most residential tenancies prohibit sub-letting and short-term letting outright. Leasehold titles frequently carry the same restriction. Consent must be in writing from the party entitled to give it.
The building
Homeowner associations, condo boards, freeholders, managing agents and block insurers all impose their own rules, independently of local law. Many now ban short lets specifically.
The lender and the insurer
Residential mortgage terms usually restrict letting, and buy-to-let terms often exclude short-stay use. Standard policies exclude commercial letting. Operating anyway can void cover precisely when you need it.
All four gates are checked before you commit money to a property. If any one fails, we say so and the property is dropped. We will not proceed on a verbal assurance, a silent lease, or a landlord who will "probably be fine with it" — that is not caution, it is the difference between an asset and a liability.
USA and UK compared.
Stated in general terms. Specifics vary by city, county and council, and this sector is changing quickly, so we verify for your chosen location rather than relying on generalities.
| United States | United Kingdom | |
|---|---|---|
| Who regulates | City or county. No national short-term rental law | Varies by nation; councils apply planning, licensing and registration |
| Typical mechanism | Registration or permit, often capped, sometimes conditioned on primary residence | Licensing in Scotland, registration developing in England and Wales, certification in Northern Ireland |
| Night limits | Some cities apply minimum-stay or annual limits | Greater London: 90 nights per calendar year without planning permission |
| Non-resident owners | Generally permitted, unless the city imposes a primary-residence condition | Permitted; overseas entities owning property must register beneficial owners |
| Booking-level tax | Lodging or transient occupancy tax, sometimes collected by the platform | VAT once the threshold is crossed; short-stay is standard-rated |
| Safety certification | Varies; smoke and carbon monoxide requirements are common | Gas, electrical, fire risk assessment and furniture regulations |
| Insurance | Short-term rental or commercial policy required | Specialist short-let cover through FCA-authorised brokers |
| Direction of travel | Tightening in most large metros | Tightening across all four nations |
What we do, and what we are not allowed to do.
We are a setup and operations firm. We are not lawyers, accountants, estate agents, insurance brokers or a licensing authority, and we do not pretend otherwise.
- Research and verify the current position for your specific city or council
- Check all four gates before you commit money to a property
- Assemble registration and licence applications to a standard that gets read
- Request and document landlord or freeholder consent in writing
- Engage and coordinate licensed professionals on your behalf
- Maintain a compliance calendar and escalate before deadlines
- Give legal, tax, immigration, property or regulatory advice
- Hold a licence, registration or permit on your behalf
- Promise that a registration, licence or planning application will be granted
- Place insurance — that is done by authorised brokers
- Operate a property in breach of its lease, building rules or mortgage terms
- Set up an arbitrage venture without the landlord's written consent
A great deal of arbitrage material circulating online treats landlord consent as optional, or suggests wording a tenancy application vaguely enough to avoid the question. That is a breach of contract, a route to eviction and a forfeited deposit, and it voids your insurance. Any firm willing to build a venture on that basis is exposing you to a risk they will not be standing next to when it lands.
Get the regulatory position for your city
We research your specific location and give you the gate-by-gate position in writing before you spend anything.