Insurance and permits
Insurance
When deciding to use your property as a holiday rental you will need to talk to your insurance company as soon as possible. A number of insurance companies will not provide insurance cover for houses that are used as holiday rentals. Some insurance companies offer specific products for holiday rental landlords.
As a bare minimum you will need to have public liability insurance. You do not want somebody hurting themselves on your property and being out of pocket millions of dollars!
Home insurance is also sensible as you would hate to be out of pocket if your house burnt down after a tenant forgot to turn the stove off!
Contents insurance can get pricey for holiday rentals! The insurance companies see the risk of a tenant taking or breaking items as high and charge accordingly. One of the ways you may be able to reduce the premium is to charge a bond. You may also do a risk analysis yourself and decide that you would be willing to bare the cost of the TV being broken etc.
The information provided here is general in nature and not authorative advice. This website or the author is not an insurance broker and therefore cannot and will not offer advice on insurance products.
Permits
Whether you need a permit or approval to run your property as a holiday rental varies from state to state and local council to local council. For example, in Victoria all holiday rentals that accommodate 6 or more people are meant to be recorded by local council as 'Prescribed Accommodation' as part of the State Government's Public Health and Wellbeing Act. The best place to go to for advice on permits that may be required in your area is the local council.