Regulations and insurance for your Holiday Cottage

Regulations

There are three main areas regarding regulations and all are concerned with the safety of your guests:

• Fire – all furniture needs to comply with fire resistance regulations.  You will also need to carry out a fire assessment which can be carried out by yourself or a professional
• Gas – all gas appliances and flues within your holiday cottage need to be annually checked by a certified
• Electrical – all electrical appliances need to be checked by a certified person

Insurance

The most important point in relation to the insurance of self catering cottage businesses is to ensure that you are covered for normal building and content insurance as well as public liability insurance.  It is best to look at insurance of your holiday cottage through an insurance broker who will ensure that you received cover via a specialist self catering policy.   Public liability insurance will cover you against any claims made against you by guests if they are injured whilst staying at your self catering accommodation.  You may also need to consider if this will also apply to any of your cleaning or gardening staff.  A common amount of indemnity is £3 million and you must ensure that the various facilities on your site are not excluded from this cover (eg a swimming pool).  With regard to building and content insurance this is similar to your normal home but you should allow for that fact that your guests may cause the damage and not just yourself and your guests may not employ all the normal security features (eg leaving window and doors open).