Why holiday let owners claim they are due £1m compensation from Edinburgh Council

Members of the Justice for Scotland’s Self-Caterers group insist they should be entitled to compensation payouts for the “maladministration” of the short-term lets licensing scheme, which they say has led to them paying thousands of pounds of “unlawful” planning fees. They are said to have lodged a formal claim.

In 2022 all holiday let owners in the capital had to apply for a licence from the local authority to continue operating legally.

The council created a short-term lets control zone over the entire city, meaning all holiday let owners also had to apply for a planning permission as well as a licence, incurring additional costs.

However the Court of Session later ruled that planning permission was only necessary for properties which had changed use into a holiday let after the control zone came into force.

Edinburgh Council insists some properties may still be required to submit planning permission to operate a holiday let.

Justice for Scotland’s Self-Caterers say their claims total £300,000, but they expect further claims to come forward taking the total to £1m.

Ralph Averbuch, spokesman for the group, said: “Edinburgh Council’s recent actions have caused immense distress and in some cases loss of employment to self-catering operators that had historically been advised no action was required other than moved from council tax rolls to non-domestic rates.

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“Now that we have a new regime in place, it has never justified the retrospective hounding of those that traded prior to the introduction of short-term let licensing and the opportunities the council took to use this as a pretext for closing down a sector that accounts for well under 1 per cent of all homes in the capital.”

Fiona Campbell, CEO of the Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers, added: “The mishandling of short-term let regulations by the Scottish Government was evident from the outset.

“We continuously warned that they were not fit for purpose and now we are seeing the consequences unfold.

“With the shambolic rollout of licensing across the country, it is only a matter of time before further compensation claims emerge throughout Scotland.”

Last year it was reported Edinburgh Council spent £400,000 of taxpayers’ money defending short-term let policies after losing two separate court cases.

The legal fees totalled £342,470 and the expenses paid out to petitioners was around £150,000.

Edinburgh Council has been approached for comment.