A short let gets you a furnished home you can move into this week, with bills usually included and no twelve-month commitment. The trade-off is that you have fewer of the protections a standard tenancy gives you — and that a surprising number of short lets are being run outside the rules. In London an entire home can only be short-let for 90 nights a year without planning permission, and enforcement lands on the operator while the person who has to move out is you.
No twelve-month tenancy, no waiting on a chain. If you are between homes, relocating, or here for a contract, this is the fastest route to keys.
Furniture, kitchen, linen, broadband and usually utilities are included in one figure. Nothing to buy, nothing to set up, nothing to sell when you leave.
Extend by the week or the month in most buildings. If your plans change, you are not trying to break a fixed-term tenancy or find someone to take it over.
We establish whether the property is being let lawfully — the 90-night position in London, the licence in Scotland — before we send it. You are not shown a flat that could be shut down halfway through your stay.
When you need to be in, roughly how long for, where you need to be near, and whether you need it serviced or just furnished. Dates rule out more properties than budget does on a short let.
Purpose-built or student house, what notice applies, what is included in the rent, whether a guarantor is required, and — on a house — whether it is licensed and who is liable for the council tax.
If you are staying more than a couple of months we will run the numbers both ways. Sometimes the short let still wins on flexibility. Often it does not win on cost, and we will tell you so.
Most short lets are granted as licences or company lets rather than assured shorthold tenancies. That is exactly why they can be flexible — but it also means the automatic protections you may be expecting do not all apply. Deposit protection rules attach to assured shorthold tenancies, not to licences. Ask which one you are being offered, in writing, before you pay anything.
It also means the Renters’ Rights Act protections that came in on 1 May 2026 — periodic tenancies, the ban on rental bidding, the one-month cap on rent in advance — do not automatically apply to a genuine holiday or serviced letting. If what you are actually being offered is a home to live in, dressed up as a short let to avoid those rules, that is worth spotting. The label on the agreement does not decide its legal character; the reality of the arrangement does.
This matters to you more than most people realise. If a property is being short-let unlawfully, enforcement lands on the operator — but you are the one who has to move out, usually at short notice and often mid-stay.
In London, using a residential property as temporary sleeping accommodation is a material change of use under the Greater London Council (General Powers) Act 1973. The Deregulation Act 2015 creates an exemption, but only where the total is fewer than 90 nights in the same calendar year and the provider is liable for council tax. Beyond that, planning permission is required, and an enforcement notice for unauthorised use can carry a fine of up to £20,000.
In Scotland a short-term let licence is required from the local authority — existing hosts had to apply by 1 October 2023 — and operating without one where required is a criminal offence under the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982. Edinburgh has been a short-term let control area since 5 September 2022, so a property that is not the owner’s principal home also needs planning permission. And Edinburgh’s visitor levy of 5% of the accommodation cost before VAT applies to stays from 24 July 2026, capped at the first five nights.
Short-let rates are usually quoted weekly, which makes them look closer to a monthly rent than they are. Multiply by 4.33, not by 4. Check whether utilities are capped rather than unlimited, whether cleaning is included or charged per visit, and whether council tax is covered — in a serviced building it usually is, in a private short let it often is not.
Then check the exit. Some agreements charge a full cleaning fee regardless of condition, some hold a deposit outside any scheme, and some require notice measured in weeks even where the stay is short. None of that is unlawful on a licence. It is just easier to negotiate before you have moved in.
On 6 April 2025 the Furnished Holiday Lettings regime was abolished. With it went full deduction of mortgage interest, capital allowances on fixtures, the treatment of profits as relevant earnings for pensions, and the capital gains reliefs that attached to FHL status. Interest relief is now given at the basic rate. A serviced accommodation business providing genuine services may still be carrying on a trade under ordinary principles, which is a separate and better position — but that turns on the facts and needs an accountant, not an assumption.
For business rates, a property in England is rated rather than council taxed only where it was available to let for at least 140 nights and actually let for at least 70. Wales requires 252 available and 182 actually let. Get the test right for the jurisdiction, because falling back into council tax can bring a second homes premium with it.
Anything from a week to around six months, though most run one to three months. Below about a week you are usually looking at holiday accommodation priced per night rather than a short let. Above six months a landlord will often prefer a standard tenancy, and you will usually be better off on one — more protection and a lower effective rate. If your dates are uncertain, say so; extending by the month is normal in most serviced buildings and much easier to arrange at the outset than later.
Not necessarily. Deposit protection is a requirement for assured shorthold tenancies, and most short lets are granted as licences or company lets instead. That is not a scam — it is a consequence of the arrangement being genuinely short and flexible — but it does mean you should know which one you are signing. Ask in writing, ask where the deposit will be held, and photograph the inventory on the day you arrive. If a property is being offered as a licence but is really your home on ordinary terms, the label does not settle the legal position and it is worth asking us to look at it.
Usually, but check what ‘included’ means. Many agreements cap utilities at a monthly figure and bill the excess, which matters in winter. Cleaning may be included weekly, charged per visit, or charged once on exit regardless of the condition you leave the property in. Council tax is normally covered in a serviced building and frequently not in a private short let. And remember to multiply a weekly rate by 4.33 rather than 4 — that alone accounts for most of the gap between what people expect to pay and what they do.
On a licence, generally yes, on whatever notice the agreement specifies — which can be short. This is the main practical trade-off for the flexibility you are getting, and it is why the notice period on the operator’s side is worth reading as carefully as the one on yours. The other early-exit risk is enforcement: if the property is being let beyond London’s 90-night limit without planning permission, or without a licence in Scotland, the use can be stopped and you will have to leave. We check both before we send you anything.
Over a stay of a few weeks or more, usually yes, and by a wide margin once you count breakfast, laundry and having a kitchen. Over a few nights, usually not. The more useful comparison for most people is against a standard twelve-month tenancy: a short let almost always costs more per month, and buys flexibility and speed in exchange. If you are staying beyond a couple of months, ask us to run both. We would rather tell you the standard let is better value and keep you as a client than put you in something that costs you more.
