What is the 6 Bed Rule? Advice for B&B Owners

6 Bed Rule Checklist
This article tries to clarify the 6 Bed Rule and how recent charge in legislation affect B&B owners operating under this rule.

Prior to the introduction of the Disability Discrimination Act 2005 anybody could open up as a B&B and escape most of the legislation ascribed to larger accommodation providers. Effectively it meant if you accommodated a maximum of 6 people as paying guests you could legally operate under the radar of nearly all legislation appertaining to the industry.

I am not referring to taxation matters here, any extra revenue brought in to your house/hold requires declaring to the appropriate authorities, I am referring to such matters as insurance, health and safety, business rates, the DDA, Fire Risk Assessment, Food Standards and more.

That is not to say that you could never be inspected even if you offered only 1 bed space, certainly the Fire and Rescue Service, the Environmental Health Officer and the Police had and still have the powers to enter any premises, which they consider presents a risk to the public. 

However most of these statuary bodies did not have the time and resources to go out hunting for business i.e. B&B owners operating quite legitimately under the radar.  Most were only reactive not pro-active i.e. they would wait for a complaint before they would make a response or visit.

Things as you may be aware are changing.

The Government has taken a lead from our European partners when it comes to policing business of any size in the UK.  They have adopted the principle that business owners will be responsible for all aspects of running their businesses and thereby comply with all necessary legislation.

Checks will continue to be performed by the statutory bodies (Fire and Rescue, Environmental Health etc) but they will be done on a risk strategy basis. The larger the risk the more frequent the visits. (one Fire and Rescue Service is talking of a 15-year cycle of visiting all business premises!)

What the statutory bodies now require to see when they visit however will be a document headed Risk Assessment which will evidence that you, the Business Owner have performed all necessary checks and balances and that you operate inside the law.

Getting back to the 6 Bed Rule the Disability Discrimination Act effectively changed the 6 Bed Rule forever (in my onion).  A ruling by Government has determined that if you let one bed for one night you have to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act. This has been followed by the Food Safety Standards legislation and most recently the Fire Risk Assessment Statutory Order both of which will be applied to all business premises and like the DDA if you sell 1 room for 1 night you operate in business premises.

On the next page is a checklist of what rules and regulation you need to comply with irrespective of your size. The list is divided into two parts, in red the legislation you need to be aware of and comply with, in blue the legislation you need to think seriously about especially the ramifications of what might happen if you are not compliant.

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