Accessibility and the Equality Act 2010: a holiday let owner's duties

Part 3, not Part 4, and the Act settles that itself

Part 4 of the Act governs premises: disposal, management, letting. Part 3 governs services. Section 32(3)(a) lifts holiday accommodation out of Part 4 in a single line, saying that Part does not apply to the provision of accommodation where the provision is generally for the purpose of short stays by individuals who live elsewhere.

The small premises question, answered rather than hedged

This is the point owners most want resolved, so here is the finding. The Act does contain a small premises exception. It sits in Schedule 5, paragraph 3, and covers the disposal, occupation or management of part of small premises where the person or a relative lives in another part and shares rooms with residents outside their household. Paragraph 3 disapplies sections 33(1), 34(1) and 35(1) except so far as they relate to race, and paragraph 4 disapplies section 36(1).

Every one of those sections belongs to Part 4, and Schedule 5 is headed Premises: exceptions. It cannot reach a holiday let, because section 32(3)(a) has already removed short-stay accommodation from Part 4 altogether. We then searched the whole of Schedule 3, which carries the exceptions to the services provisions, for any small premises or private household let-off. There is none. The one holiday entry there is paragraph 30B, and that concerns age discrimination in age-related holiday services, not disability. So the answer is no: there is no small premises or private household escape for a holiday let. Size does not help, and nor does the place doubling as your own weekend house.

Your listing is a statement about access

In practice that argues for numbers instead of adjectives. Step heights, doorway widths, the count of stairs, the walk from parking, whether the shower has a lip. The bare word accessible tells a wheelchair user nothing and exposes you to a complaint you could have headed off by typing three measurements.