B&B Legal Requirements

Written by

Head of Marketing

Reviewed by

Content & Digital Marketing Executive

There are a number of legal issues you need to be aware of if you are thinking about starting your own bed and breakfast. These are not just limited to the obvious (such as having appropriate guest house insurance, public/employers liability insurance and health and safety responsibilities), but also the legal issues you might encounter on a day-to-day basis during the normal operation of your business.

1. Permissions including planning permission

One of the first things you need to be aware of when you’re planning how to start a bed and breakfast in your home is that you probably need to obtain planning permission from your local District or Borough Council, as this may be regarded as a ‘change of use’ for your property. When deciding whether or not to grant this, the planning committee may take into account if there are already a number of other B&Bs operating in your area.

You may also need to get planning permission if you want to do any kind of building work to convert a residential property to a B&B. Even if the work doesn’t require planning permission it may need  building regulations approval. This can apply to non-structural projects such as installing an extra bathroom or adding radiators. If these works are carried out by a tradesman on the government’s Competent Persons Register, you won’t need to apply for ‘building regs’ approval yourself, though.

2. Fire and regulations

Setting up a B&B means that your home changes from being a purely residential property to being business premises and this means you need to comply with fire safety legislation. This involves carrying out a fire risk assessment to identify whether there are any actions you need to carry out to help prevent fires and also what you need to do to keep you and your guests safe. You can either do this yourself or use a professional assessor.

Different regulations apply depending on the size of your property and the number of guests you’re able to accommodate, but generally you should expect to have to install things like fire alarms and fire extinguishers, and put up Fire Action notices in bedrooms as well as Fire Exit signs where appropriate.

Some B&B owners may need to replace existing internal doors with fire doors (which include mechanisms that close the door automatically and are of a particular construction) for given locations, and emergency lighting.

Before opening a bed and breakfast you should also make sure that all of your furnishings, such as mattresses, and upholstered chairs and sofas, conform to current fire regulations too, and if your property has any gas appliances you must have a gas safety check carried out every year.

3. Smoking regulations

Remember that smoking is also banned in public indoor areas and so you’ll need to make sure that guests are aware they cannot smoke in communal indoor areas such as a shared kitchen, hallway or living room. Whilst this legislation has been in place the UK since 2007, visitors from overseas might be unaware or visitors travelling within the UK might not realise this applies to B&Bs. You have a legal obligation to make it clear where smoking cannot take place by displaying appropriate signage. If you do not want to permit smoking in bedrooms, then signs must be displayed within each bedroom.

4. Food hygiene regulations

Because you’re providing your guests with breakfast you must register with your local Environmental Health Officer who will arrange for your premises to be inspected.

When starting a B&B you need to prepare for this inspection by making sure that your kitchen is suitably designed and equipped for implementing safe working practices. This means following good health and hygiene practices, with a particular focus on avoiding cross contamination (i.e. keeping raw meat separated from cooked food items to prevent food poisoning). Your kitchen also needs to be structurally safe, with surfaces that are easy to keep clean. This applies to walls, floors, units and all food preparation areas which should be smooth, non-absorbent and wipe-clean. Catering kitchens must be well lit and well ventilated, with constant supplies of hot water and cold, drinkable water.

Make sure you provide suitable hand washing facilities to enable you (or your staff) to decontaminate your hands before/after handling raw meat and whenever else as required. A plentiful supply of antibacterial soap located prominently next to a hand washbasin is required. Clothing in the kitchen must be clean, and should ideally take the form of chef’s whites/blacks, and loose or long hair is best covered by caps or hairnets. 

Food storage is a vital part of keeping your kitchen safe, particularly with high-risk food types such as cooked meat. Everything in your refrigerator needs to be stored appropriately, with everything suitably covered by cling-film or in a sealable lidded container. Raw meat needs to be kept at the bottom of the fridge to avoid cross contamination through drips or leakage. High risk foods are required to be refrigerated at temperatures of 8°C or lower by law. You must keep written records of your food safety management system, such as temperature check-sheets and day-dotting, though the extent to which you need to implement this depends on the size of your business and the number of customers you serve. Further advice and implementable packs are available from the Food Standards Agency website.

People with sickness and diarrhoea must not handle food until they are fully recovered. Frozen foods must always be defrosted in the fridge and not on a counter overnight. You are advised to store eggs in the fridge and you should always keep an eye out for signs of pest infestation (droppings or teeth marks in packaging and the like). If you spot signs of pests, it is vital that you take immediate action to take care of them. Keep pets out of the kitchen at all times. If your washing machine is in your kitchen, only use it outside food service hours.

Although it’s not necessary for you to get a formal food hygiene qualification, you may find that doing some training is useful when you are setting up a bed and breakfast. You can easily take a Food Hygiene Certificate course online, and most are very reasonably priced.

5. Gas Safety

All B&Bs must have an annual gas safety check carried out for any gas appliances serving the guest accommodation – even if the boiler or appliance itself isn’t located within the guest area.

Make sure yours is carried out by a company on the Gas Safe Register and that you keep a copy of the certificate in case you need to prove you’ve had the appropriate checks made.

6. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

Since you’ll be holding personal data (i.e. name, email address) about guests, the Data Protection Act of 2018 will apply to you and you’ll need to make sure you comply with it. It applies to any business regardless of its size and makes clear that personal data can only be used with consent, must be kept accurate and up to date, and only used for the purpose for which it was obtained – amongst other items.

The Visit Britain website has a very thorough and informative run down of the GDPR legislation and how it applies to small business owners.

7. Get the appropriate TV licence

A standard TV licence doesn’t cover a B&B and instead you’ll need a different kind of licence which comes at an extra cost, but covers up to 15 units. The TV licencing website gives a full run down of this, including options for if you have more than 15 guest units.

8. Consider if you’ll need an alcohol or music licence

If you plan on playing music or serving guests alcohol – even if it’s a simple free drink on arrival or background music in the entrance – you’ll need to make sure you have appropriate licences for each.

To serve any kind of alcohol you’ll need both a personal and premises licence and to play music you’ll need a Performing Right Society (PRS) licence.

9. Detail your terms and conditions

Your terms and conditions are an important part of your business operation and must be developed to protect your interests without interfering with the statutory rights of your guests.

BOOKINGS T&CS

You need to decide on a policy for deposits and whether or not they are refundable for any reason. Deposits are not usually refundable at all within a fortnight of the booked date of arrival, perhaps operating on a sliding-scale for cancellations with more advanced notice. If you only take a partial deposit and your guest cancels without giving notice, then the onus will be on you to persuade them to pay the rest.

UNPAID BALANCES

Assuming you made your terms and conditions about deposits abundantly clear to your guests at the time of booking (either by sending them a written copy by post or email, or by publishing them on your website) then your legal position for obtaining an outstanding balance, both from ‘no shows’ and guests who leave without paying, is quite strong, but you may have to take legal action to recover the debt. If this is the situation you find yourself in, you should always seek professional legal advice. It often comes down to a business decision as to whether going to a small claims court is in your best interests or whether it could ultimately do you more harm than good.

BAD BEHAVIOUR

When it comes to guests behaving badly, it might become necessary for you to call the police to eject them on your behalf. You should only use this action as a last resort or if you fear for your safety or the safety of others. It is best to resolve a matter amicably wherever possible, but there are occasions where you may have no choice left but to defer matters to the relevant authorities. If you can, it might be better to keep the matter as discreet as possible, particularly if you have other guests in residence at the time.

MALICIOUS DAMAGE 

If guests leave the accommodation in a damaged/unacceptably soiled state and you are unable to convince them to pay what they owe, your only likely recourse might be legal action. Again, there are several considerations you will have to make when contemplating suing; weighing the time and money it will take to see a case through against the potential reimbursement you might obtain.

10. Check your home insurance is still valid and that you have the right cover

Whilst not necessarily a legal matter, some mortgages are contingent on home insurance being in place and not all insurers will cover a property with staying guests. You’ll need to let your home insurer know that you are converting your home into a B&B, they will inform you how this impacts your cover. Whilst some insurers are unable to cover homes with paying guests this is something offered by Homeprotect – see our page on home insurance for B&Bs.