"Party Flats" - Institutionalised Anti-social Behaviour?
If you live close to a holiday let flat, you will most likely have been subjected to excessive noise, disturbance and antisocial behaviour. Often these flats will have many more occupants than the house is designed for; using it as a cheap alternative to hotel or B&B in the city.
To date we are powerless. Complaints go unheeded by landlords, even if you can identify them. Directly approaching the revellers, even the morning after, can leave us open to intimidation and threat.
Hopefully this will change - for the better. Residents in nearby Grove Street launched a petition in April calling for landlords to be brought under the same noise, safety and environmental standards as HMO's (houses in multiple occupancy). Basically this means: the owner of the property should have a licence from the local authority which guarantees that the accommodation is safe, well-managed and of good quality.
A petition was raised "
Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to introduce a statutory duty on landlords offering short-term holiday and party flats leases to register the property as such and comply with all necessary House in Multiple Occupation, noise, safety and environmental regulations." While this petition is now closed, you can continue to make your voice heard by writing to Edinburgh Central Labour MSP Sarah Boyack
sarah.boyack.msp@scottish.parliament.uk
Despite the representations of Edinburgh Central Labour MSP Sarah Boyack, the Scottish Government have decided to not include "party flats" in a consultation document on new housing legislation. The Scottish Government's consultation document on its forthcoming Housing Bill covers landlord registration and the licensing of houses in multiple occupation (HMOs), however it deliberately excludes holiday lets.
Like the council they act as if they would prefer no-one to live in the city so that tourism can be maximised without the inconvenience of having to consider the people who pay their wages and elect the councillors, MSPs and minsters. There appear to be no official figures regarding the numbers of these holiday let properties although newspapers recently quoted around 1800 in central Edinburgh. Given the shortage of adequate housing in the city, is it too old fashioned to think that the holiday lets could be put to better use? The Evening News (link here) recently reported that there were around 26,000 households on council waiting lists for rehousing. These people are already in Edinburgh and therefore do not fit the CEC's profile of bringing in additional income so their needs are unlikely to be addressed.
The Scottish Government apparently view complaints about party flats as an issue of antisocial behaviour rather than a matter of housing policy. In addition they say that Local authorities have powers to deal with antisocial behaviour in holiday lets.
You can read the consultation document by following this link - here and can offer your views through an online form - here
Subsequently Edinburgh Councillors in their submission to the consultation, demanded that action was taken to address the issues of party flats (Evening News 17 August 2009 - read the article here)
The process of dealing with these issues through the existing City of Edinburgh council processes iis both confusing and ineffective. On their website they state that The Community Safety Teams are responsible for tackling anti-social behaviour however they are only available during normal office hours. The CEC's document "Tackling Antisocial Behaviour - the Strategy for Edinburgh" makes no mention of holiday lets or anti-social behaviour.
You can try calling the police however, please follow the advice on the Safety & Security page - here
CEC publishes the following contacts on their website: - here
Contact details
Noise - Domestic (antisocial behaviour)
Lothian & Borders Police - Force Control Centre
EH20 9LZ
Telephone: 0131 311 3131
Opening Hours:
This service operates 24 hours / 7 days a week
Noise - Non Domestic
Community Protection
Chesser House
500 Gorgie Road
Edinburgh
EH11 3YJ
Telephone: 0131 529 3030
E-mail: asb@edinburgh.gov.uk
Opening Hours:
0131 529 3030 - Normal business hours, 0131 200 2000 outwith normal business hours