Who we are

Thistle Compliance does one thing: gets short-term let licences renewed on time, for the people who own them.

Why we exist

Scotland licensed its short-term lets, then made renewing one exactly as much work as applying for the first time — and made getting it wrong a criminal offence. There is software that will remind you the date is coming. There are consultants who will advise you by the hour. Nobody was doing the actual work: booking the electrician, chasing the gas engineer, assembling eleven documents and filing them before the clock runs out.

Who you will deal with

One person handles your renewal from the first call to the filing confirmation, and it is the same person each time — not a ticket queue, and not a different name on every email.

Call the number at the top of this page during working hours and someone answers. If they are on another call, leave a number and you get a call back the same working day.

What stays yours

Three things sit with you rather than with us, by design:

• Your certificatesin your name You contract with and pay the electrician or gas engineer directly, so the certificate is issued to you and stays valid on its own terms
• Your licenceyour council The relationship is between you and them. We file on your behalf; we never stand in the middle of it
• Your moneyuntil it is filed No deposit and no retainer. You pay once the pack is lodged with the council

You are never locked in, and you never have money sitting with us.

What we are, on paper

The engineers

We do not employ electricians or gas engineers. We contract accredited local trades and coordinate them, so you get someone who works in your area rather than someone driving three hours to reach you.

Every trade we use must be, and must stay:

• SELECT or NICEIC registered for electrical work
• Gas Safe registered for gas work
• Carrying their own professional indemnity and public liability insurance, with evidence on our file

We verify registration when we take a trade on, and again every year. You contract and pay the engineer directly, so the certificate is properly theirs and properly yours.

Where we work, and where we do not

We currently take work across the Central Belt, Fife, Perthshire, Stirling, the Borders and Dumfries & Galloway.

We are not taking work in the islands or the far North-West yet. Short-term let density there is the highest in Scotland — Na h-Eileanan Siar has more than seventy times the density of East Renfrewshire — but we cannot yet guarantee a Gas Safe engineer on Lewis within a fortnight, and what we sell is a filing date.

If you are in one of those areas, our council guides still publish everything you need to file it yourself.

What we do not do

We complete and file licensing paperwork and assemble the supporting evidence. We are not solicitors. We do not give legal advice, we do not advise on planning control areas, and we do not appear at licensing board hearings. Where your situation needs that, we will say so and point you at someone who does.