When do holiday lets become dwellings and come under housing legislation?

In my view, the better way to frame this question is: when do houses and flats stop being subject to housing legislation because they are currently holiday lets?

The short answer, in most of the scenarios I can think of, is that all such units will remain subject to interventions under housing legislation, provided they trigger the relevant criteria in terms of standards and problems. 

Under section 1(4) of the Housing Act 2004, residential premises are defined as dwellings, HMOs, unoccupied HMO accommodation and common parts of a building containing one or more flats. Section 1(5) defines a dwelling as a building or part of a building occupied or intended to be occupied (my italics) as a separate dwelling. There is also a definition of flat in this sub-section.

Section 4(2), 11(1)(a) and 12(1)(a) all refer to action in respect of ‘any residential premises’.

All the holiday lets I have used or come across, including Airbnb, have been of self-contained residential units with all the usual facilities. They will be equipped as dwellings and let for residential purposes. I can find no case law suggesting they might stop being residential premises for the purposes of the 2004 Act solely because of the short-term nature of the hires.

Other legislation used to deal with substandard premises paints a similar picture. So, under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, section 79(7) states that premises include land and, in England and Wales, any vessel; and private dwelling includes any building or part of a building used or intended to be used as a dwelling. Under the Building Act 1984, section 59 covers four scenarios where a notice must be served in relation to buildings, however currently used. Other enforcement provisions in the Building Act also usually refer to ‘buildings’. Section 76 – which triggers the accelerated statutory nuisance powers – refers to premises. These are in turn defined in section 126 as including buildings, land, easements and hereditaments of any tenure. 

A reasonable question in each case may relate to the unit’s current planning status and the extent to which use can be changed without the need for a new planning permission application. This is covered by the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987 (as amended) and the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 (as amended). Use Class C3 (dwellinghouses) covers three sub-categories, including single-person and single-household units, while Use Class C4 covers HMOs with no more than six residents. Permitted development rights exist for C3 units to become C4 units, and vice versa. Converting into an HMO with more than six residents usually requires planning permission. 

Again, there is no specific reference to the type of tenure. However, a mandatory registration scheme for holiday lets is due to be introduced in England this year under the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, and a new Use Class C5 is to be inserted for holiday lets. The current outline on GOV.UK suggests these will allow local authorities to exert some new controls over the number of such lets in their areas. It is not clear what the permitted development rights for this new Use Class will be. 

Under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, section 48 defines residential premises as any premises occupied or used by persons for residential purposes or otherwise as living accommodation. 

For at least some purposes, cottages that had been condemned as unfit for human habitation, empty for over 18 years and derelict, have come within a statutory definition of dwellinghouse. See Re 1–4, White Row Cottages, Bewerley [1991] Ch 441: just because the cottages were not lived in, did not mean they ceased to exist, they still maintained the same structure, character and nature. Premises must be empty for a long time for their planning use to be deemed to be abandoned. 

In Brent LBC v Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities [2022] EWHC 2051 (Admin), a dwelling house was a unit of residential accommodation providing the facilities for a day-to-day private existence, which was a question of fact. This approach was followed more recently in Sentinel Estates Limited v Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government [2026] EWHC 1122 (Admin).

From all of this, I come back to my opening remarks – it is safer to assume that all the relevant controls under Part 1 of the Housing Act 2004 continue to apply to houses and flats, regardless of whether they are occupied by lessees, tenants or some form of licensee (holiday lets usually count as creating a contractual licence for the relevant period). Whether they will also require HMO or selective licences under Parts 2 and 3 of the act will depend on whether the relevant additional criteria apply.