Owners are being told they need a dozen certificates. Some are law today, some will be licence conditions, some are what the letting agency or insurer wants. Here is the honest list.
The confusion comes from three separate sources pulling in the same direction. The law applies now regardless of any scheme. The Welsh licensing scheme — registration first from October 2026, licensing to follow — will make some of those legal duties a condition of trading. Agencies, insurers and mortgage lenders add their own list, which is usually the legal one plus a few extras. The table below says which is which.
| Document | Law today? | Who asks for it | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fire risk assessment | Yes — Fire Safety Order 2005; recorded in full since Oct 2023 | Fire service, agencies, insurers, the coming licence | Self-catering is not a private dwelling. The one document that covers everything else on this list. |
| Gas safety record (CP12) | Yes if any gas appliance — Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regs | Everyone | Annual, by a Gas Safe engineer. Includes LPG bottles feeding a hob. |
| Electrical (EICR) | Duty to keep the installation safe; five-yearly EICR is the accepted way to show it | Agencies, insurers, the licence | Expect it to be a licence condition. Get it before you need it. |
| PAT testing | No fixed legal interval | Agencies | Kettles, toasters, hairdryers. Annual visual check is reasonable; formal test is what agencies file. |
| Smoke alarms | Yes — the fire risk assessment will require them | Everyone | Interlinked, mains or sealed ten-year, every floor and every escape route. See alarm grades. |
| Carbon monoxide alarm | Yes where there is a solid-fuel, gas or oil appliance | Everyone | One per room with an appliance. Wood burners are the usual gap. |
| Furniture fire labels | Yes — Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regs apply to let property | Fire risk assessment, agencies | Sofas, mattresses, cushions. The labels must be present. |
| Public liability insurance | Not legally required, commercially essential | Agencies, likely the licence | Insurers increasingly condition cover on the fire risk assessment existing. |
| Oil tank / heating service | Duty of care | Insurers | Annual OFTEC service for oil; annual service for any boiler. |
| Registration, then licence | Registration from Oct 2026; licence later | Welsh Government | Registration itself asks for no certificates. The licence stage is where the list above bites. Details. |
Everything else on the list is a single check of a single thing. The fire risk assessment is the document that looks at the building as guests will use it — asleep, upstairs, in the dark, in a place they arrived at six hours ago — and says whether the alarms, the doors, the escape route and the housekeeping add up. It is also the document the fire service, the agency and the insurer all ask for by name. If you only fix one thing this autumn, fix that.
Nobody knows the final licence conditions yet. What is safe to say is that Welsh Government has signalled fire safety, gas, electrical and insurance as the areas it is interested in, and every one of those is already a legal duty or an agency requirement. Owners who assemble the folder now — assessment, CP12, EICR, alarm and furniture evidence, insurance schedule — will have nothing to do when the licence arrives except upload it.
We assess holiday lets across Pembrokeshire, batch-price groups of cottages, and write the assessment so it doubles as the compliance summary your agency wants. Owners in Tenby, Saundersfoot, St Davids, Newport and the rest of the county pay no travel charge.
Related: Holiday let assessments · Airbnb and short-term lets · Registration explained · Caravan and holiday parks
Registration itself does not ask for any certificates — it is a register of who is letting what. The licence that follows is expected to carry safety conditions, and the fire risk assessment is already a legal requirement regardless, so there is no advantage in waiting.
There is a legal duty to keep the electrical installation safe, and a five-yearly EICR by a qualified electrician is the accepted way of demonstrating it. Agencies and insurers ask for it now and it is likely to be a licence condition.
There is no fixed legal interval for portable appliance testing. A yearly visual check and a record of it is a reasonable standard; most agencies want a formal PAT certificate on file.
Yes. Size does not take a let out of the Fire Safety Order or the gas and electrical duties. It does make the assessment quicker and cheaper.
Tell us the building and we will give you a fixed price on the phone. Most assessments are booked within the week.