What Highland Council actually asks for at licence renewal
Every Scottish STL licence needs the same core electrical evidence. Highland Council in particular wants:
- A valid EICR — current version of BS 7671, coded to C1/C2/C3/FI, with all C1 and C2 items rectified before the certificate is issued as satisfactory. Dated within five years of application.
- Annual PAT records — every portable appliance on the inventory tested and logged. That includes kettles, toasters, hair dryers, lamps, the microwave, the dishwasher power lead — anything a guest touches.
- Interlinked smoke and heat alarms — one smoke alarm in every circulation space (hall, landing), one in the main living area, and a heat alarm in the kitchen, all interlinked. Long-life sealed battery (Ei3016) or hardwired (Ei3018) both meet the standard. A CO alarm anywhere with a fuel-burning appliance.
Get this stack right first time and the licence renewal is a paperwork exercise. Get it wrong and you're back to square one with a fresh visit, fresh certificates, fresh delay on the licence. We do it right first time so you don't.
Why RCBOs matter more for a holiday let than for a family home
In your own house, if the whole power side of the board trips at 2am, you get up, find the torch, reset it. Annoying, not the end of the world.
In a holiday let at 2am with a family of five from Manchester, one tripped RCD takes out the fridge, the freezer, half the sockets, sometimes the immersion. The guests can't reset it because they can't find the board. You get a phone call. Bad review the next day.
Every board we fit is full RCBO — one protective device per circuit. A fault on the fridge circuit only trips the fridge. Everything else keeps running. And with surge protection as standard, a lightning strike on the overhead line doesn't take out every appliance in the cottage. Cheap insurance for a property that has to earn its keep every week.
Bookings we work around, not against
Most of our holiday-let visits happen between 11am and 3pm on a changeover day — after the cleaner's finished, before the next guests arrive. We're in and out with the compliance stack in a single trip. If your property is booked solid through the season, send the availability screenshot and we'll find a way. Winter is our quiet time and yours — that's the ideal window for a bigger job like a board change or a rewire remedial.
