Timing is Everything

Thinking of waiting? Don't.

In the community there are a significant number of property owners who are waiting patiently to see if the Scottish Government makes a change.

The Scottish Conservative Party will hold a debate during the parliamentary time, followed by an MSP vote against the Short Term Let Licensing Scheme.

Whilst this is positive news, it will not delay or impact the Application deadline of 1 October 2023.

All it will do is add more pressure to the First Minister, Humza Yousaf.

However First Minister, Humza Yousaf, and the Minister for Housing, Paul McLennan have both reiterated publicly that there will be no delay to the deadline, providing skewed statistics as evidence for their firm stances.

They have the power to push this legislation through as is, and it is highly probable that they are going to do this.

So what is everyone else doing?

Industry leaders, such as Glenn Ford and Anna Morris of the Judicial Review team are preparing for the deadline by applying for licences and arranging Certificates of Lawfulness.

Whilst the Judicial Review team are not in agreement with the implementation of the legislation across the 32 local authorities, and believe in some instances it is unlawful, the idea of boycotting is not an option.

Breaking the law will have serious repercussions for individuals and businesses, including fines and criminal records.

Failure to apply by the 1st of October brings the risk of fines.

I repeatedly talk about the race for the lifeboats.

This isn’t about the crush to get to the lifeboats.

This is about there not being enough lifeboats to carry everyone to safety.

That race for help will happen in Scotland, in the coming two weeks.

You need to take action now - Complete your Licence application, and if need be, apply for your Certificate of Lawfulness over 10 Years continuous trading (10+ Year Col), or a Certificate of Lawfulness for existing use (<10 Year CoL).

Waiting until the final weeks of September will create a rush and companies won't be able to process your application on time.

For help with Licences, please check our help document, downloadable here.

For your Certificate of Lawfulness, click ‘Get Started’ on www.stlsolutions.co.uk and join my weekday Zoom call from 4pm-5pm on this link.