# Holiday-rental electrical safety in Croatia: what the owner is responsible for

> What Croatian rules ask of a holiday-rental owner: lighting and sockets for categorisation, a working installation, regular inspections, test records and camera signs.

Source: https://electroaccessdubrovnik.com/blog/holiday-rental-electrical-safety-croatia/

Holiday rentals

By the [Electro Access team](https://electroaccessdubrovnik.com/about/)

Electrical installations at every height

Published November 2026 · Updated November 2026

*Image: Junction box with hand-labelled circuits on a cable tray, the work of an electrician in Dubrovnik — Junction box with labelled circuits on a cable tray*

In short

- Categorisation asks for electricity, good lighting in every room and fittings kept safe and working.
- The approval document list has no test report, but new installations must be tested and changed ones inspected, each with a record.
- Regular inspections are due at least every 15 years for homes and every 4 years for other buildings; which applies to a let flat is unsettled.
- Cameras may cover only your own property, with a sign visible on entering the recorded area.

If you let rooms, a flat or a holiday house in Dubrovnik or anywhere else in Croatia, the electrics are your responsibility as the owner, wherever you live. The duties sit in several rules: the categorisation rulebook, the technical regulation for low-voltage installations, the fire-protection and building acts and, once cameras go up, the data-protection act. This guide covers holiday rentals (apartman za iznajmljivanje) let as household accommodation (smještaj u domaćinstvu), which the [Hospitality Act](https://narodne-novine.nn.hr/clanci/sluzbeni/full/2015_08_85_1648.html) reserves for a private host with at most ten rooms or 20 beds.

## What does the categorisation ask for electrically?

Less than you might expect, and no test. The [categorisation rulebook for household accommodation](https://narodne-novine.nn.hr/clanci/sluzbeni/2016_01_9_241.html) asks in Article 8 for electricity with lighting that gives good visibility in all rooms, and in Article 5, on guest safety, for fittings, equipment and appliances that are not worn out or damaged and are kept working at all times.

The rulebook’s main text (NN 9/2016) contains no provision on testing the installation or on safety lighting, and the 1999 [rulebook on fire protection in hospitality venues](https://narodne-novine.nn.hr/clanci/sluzbeni/1999_10_100_1665.html), which asks venues for safety lighting, expressly exempts rooms for rent, holiday flats and holiday houses. When you apply for approval, a committee of at least two officials from the competent office carries out an on-site inspection (očevid), unless the shortened procedure on documents applies, and either way the rulebook prescribes no electrical measurement.

The details guests notice sit in the [category annexes](https://narodne-novine.nn.hr/clanci/sluzbeni/dodatni/439161.pdf). Among the furniture and equipment conditions they list:

- a night lamp beside each bed, one per guest;
- main lighting (rasvjeta) that can be switched on and off from the bed;
- one free electrical socket (utičnica);
- a socket for an electric shaver in the bathroom, with a 110–120 V adapter available on request;
- for apartments and holiday houses, an illuminated switch (prekidač) at the entrance, for the bathroom and beside the bed.

Cooling with individual regulation and air-conditioning (klima-uređaj) with individual regulation are listed as two separate items. Which items are compulsory depends on the star category, marked in the annex with shaded cells, so check the printed annex for yours before planning new wiring.

## Do you need an electrical test report (atest) to register a rental?

Not for the approval. Croatia’s [single point of contact](https://psc.hr/ugostiteljske-usluge-u-domacinstvu/) lists the documents for a household-rental approval as the application, proof of ownership, proof that the building may be used under the Building Act and compliance with the conditions for its type and category. No electrical test report appears on that list.

That does not make testing optional. The [Technical Regulation for Low-Voltage Electrical Installations](https://narodne-novine.nn.hr/clanci/sluzbeni/2010_01_5_132.html) (Tehnički propis za niskonaponske električne instalacije, NN 5/2010) makes a final inspection and test compulsory for every new installation, carried out with measuring instruments to the HRN HD 60364-6 standard, and requires a record of it. That record is the test report for the installation (zapisnik o ispitivanju), the document people usually call the atest.

In a residential building with a gross floor area of more than 400 m², the [Hospitality Act](https://narodne-novine.nn.hr/clanci/sluzbeni/full/2015_08_85_1648.html) also asks for a positive opinion of the fire-protection authority before approval, and since 1 January 2025 [the 2024 amendment](https://narodne-novine.nn.hr/clanci/sluzbeni/2024_12_152_2514.html) has required the prior written consent of any co-owners to short-term letting, which matters in apartment buildings. Neither is an electrical document.

## How often must the installation be inspected?

The 2010 technical regulation sets the longest gaps allowed between regular inspections: 15 years for buildings or parts of buildings used as homes, and 4 years for public-use buildings, for installations that serve safety purposes and for all other buildings. Any change to the installation calls for an extra inspection in between.

| Building or installation | Longest interval between regular inspections |
| --- | --- |
| Residential building, or the residential part of a building | 15 years |
| Building of public use | 4 years |
| Installation for safety purposes | 4 years |
| Any other building or part of a building | 4 years |
| After any change to the installation, an event that may have affected it, or an inspector’s request | An extraordinary inspection, whatever the interval |

Source: Annex C of the [technical regulation, NN 5/2010](https://narodne-novine.nn.hr/clanci/sluzbeni/2010_01_5_132.html). It does not say which line covers a flat let to tourists, and we found no official interpretation that settles it, so if you are unsure, plan for the shorter cycle. The design and the contractor’s written statement on the works can also set the interval, so read them first if you have them.

Each regular inspection includes at least a visual check and measurements to HRN HD 60364-6, with the results entered in a record. In a rental, the triggers for an extraordinary inspection are easy to miss: a new air-conditioning circuit, a replaced distribution board (razvodni ormar) or water that has reached the board or a junction box (razvodna kutija). If the board trips on summer evenings, [why the power trips in summer](https://electroaccessdubrovnik.com/blog/why-power-trips-dubrovnik-apartments-summer/) explains the usual causes.

## What does keeping the installation in working order mean?

It is a legal duty, not a courtesy. The [Fire Protection Act](https://narodne-novine.nn.hr/clanci/sluzbeni/2010_07_92_2588.html) obliges owners and users of buildings to keep electrical installations in working order and to hold documentation of that maintenance, and the 2025 Building Act asks owners to maintain the building so that its fundamental requirements, fire safety and safe use among them, are preserved.

Under the [Building Act](https://narodne-novine.nn.hr/clanci/sluzbeni/2025_12_155_2316.html), in force since 1 January 2026, maintenance follows the programme drawn up by the contractor and is entrusted to qualified persons, and an owner who fails to ensure it can be fined. The 2010 technical regulation stays in force under the new act until new rules replace it, and it adds that the owner keeps the inspection and maintenance documents permanently.

Between inspections, a few checks before each season are within any owner’s reach:

- Press the test button on each residual current device (RCD; zaštitna strujna sklopka, or FID): it should switch off at once.
- Look for warm, discoloured or scorched sockets, switches and plugs.
- Check that every circuit (strujni krug) on the board is labelled, so guests can find the right switch.
- Replace chains of extension leads with sockets where they are needed, and note in the house guide where the board is.

Anything behind a cover or inside the board is work for an electrician. If the board has no RCD at all, put that right first. The technical regulation makes the HRN HD 60364 series of wiring standards the basis for design: its part on protection against electric shock, [HRN HD 60364-4-41](https://repozitorij.hzn.hr/norm/HRN+HD+60364-4-41:2017), covers additional protection by RCDs, and the checklist for verifying a new installation in [HRN HD 60364-6](https://repozitorij.hzn.hr/norm/HRN+HD+60364-6:2016) lists RCDs of no more than 30 mA for socket-outlets up to 20 A used by ordinary people, for outdoor circuits supplying mobile equipment up to 32 A and for cables concealed less than 50 mm deep in walls.

## What changes when the rental has cameras or keyless entry?

Cameras add data-protection duties to the electrical ones. Croatia’s [act implementing the GDPR](https://narodne-novine.nn.hr/clanci/sluzbeni/2018_05_42_805.html) allows video surveillance (videonadzor) only where it is necessary to protect people and property, requires a sign visible at the latest on entering the recorded area, and caps how long recordings may be kept at six months.

The sign must say that the area is under video surveillance, who the controller is and how people can contact them to exercise their rights. According to [AZOP’s guide for private houses and apartment buildings](https://azop.hr/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/videonadzor-gradani.pdf), a private owner may cover only their own property, such as their own entrance or yard, never a neighbour’s property or public space, and needs no permit from AZOP, the data protection agency.

AZOP has applied the same rule to a holiday rental. In a [decision of 7 February 2020](https://azop.hr/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Videonadzor-apartmana-snimanje-javne-povrsine.pdf) it found that two facade cameras in an apartment owner’s six-camera system recorded part of a public street unlawfully, prohibited the recording and ordered the footage deleted, even though the owner had a compliant sign, a 24-day overwrite cycle and a password-protected recorder in a locked cabinet.

The system must also be protected from unauthorised access and log who viewed the footage and when, so the recorder (NVR) belongs in a locked cabinet, ideally on a UPS (uninterruptible power supply). For access control (kontrola pristupa), decide early whether each door stays locked or opens in a power cut. [CCTV at a rental property in Croatia](https://electroaccessdubrovnik.com/blog/cctv-rental-property-croatia-gdpr-signage/) covers signs and camera angles; [keyless entry for holiday rentals](https://electroaccessdubrovnik.com/blog/keyless-entry-holiday-rentals-dubrovnik-access-control/) compares access control with smart locks.

## Who should do the work, and which documents should you keep?

An electrician, with paperwork to show for it. Croatia’s [rulebook on safety at work with electrical energy](https://narodne-novine.nn.hr/clanci/sluzbeni/2012_08_88_2019.html) requires installation, maintenance and testing to be done by workers with an electrotechnical qualification, and every new or changed installation needs its record. Keep the records, the circuit list and any drawings with the property file.

The file worth asking for at every handover (predaja radova):

- the record of the final inspection and test for new work, or of the extraordinary inspection after a change;
- the contractor’s written statement on the works and the maintenance programme, which the [Building Act](https://narodne-novine.nn.hr/clanci/sluzbeni/2025_12_155_2316.html) asks the contractor to draw up;
- a labelled distribution board and a list of circuits that matches it;
- the records of every later inspection, kept permanently.

[The handover documents you should insist on](https://electroaccessdubrovnik.com/blog/handover-documents-labelled-boards-test-reports/) goes through each of them.

Electro Access works on holiday rentals, flats, houses and venues in Dubrovnik from the Old Town to Mokošica, and outside the city on request. Every circuit on a board we build is labelled, every job is quoted in writing after a description or a site visit (pregled objekta), and at the handover we explain what was done and how to use it. If the property is let, say so in your message and give the dates when it is free. Calls and messages are answered Monday to Friday, 07:00–16:00: write on [WhatsApp](https://wa.me/385955068145), call +385 95 506 8145 or use the [request for a written quote](https://electroaccessdubrovnik.com/#quote).

## Need an electrician for this?

Describe the job and where the property is. We reply on the same working day for messages received before 16:00 with a written quote or a site-visit time.

[Request a written quote](https://electroaccessdubrovnik.com/quote/) [WhatsApp us](https://wa.me/385955068145?text=Hello%20Electro%20Access%2C%20I%20need%20an%20electrician%20in%20Dubrovnik%20for%20) [+385 95 506 8145](tel:+385955068145)

## Quick answers

### Do I need an electrical certificate (atest) to rent out my flat in Croatia?

Not for the approval itself. Croatia's single point of contact lists the application, proof of ownership, proof that the building may be used and compliance with the category conditions, and since 2025 the Hospitality Act has also required any co-owners' prior written consent to short-term letting. A new installation still needs a final inspection and test, and a changed one an extraordinary inspection, each with a written record that belongs in the property file.

### How often should the electrics of a holiday rental be inspected?

The 2010 technical regulation sets the longest gaps between regular inspections: 15 years for residential buildings and 4 years for public-use and all other buildings, unless the design asks for more frequent checks. It does not say which applies to a flat let to guests, so if in doubt, plan for the shorter one. Any change to the installation calls for an inspection in between.

### Does a holiday flat need emergency lighting?

Not under the 1999 fire-protection rulebook for hospitality venues: it asks venues for safety lighting but expressly exempts rooms for rent, holiday flats and holiday houses. The categorisation rules still ask for lighting that gives good visibility in every room, and well-lit stairs and entrances are simply good practice for guests who arrive after dark.

### Can I put a camera at the entrance of my holiday rental?

Yes, if it covers only your own property, such as your own entrance, yard or terrace, and a sign is visible at the latest as someone enters the recorded area. A private owner may not film the street, a public passage or a neighbour's property. Recordings may be kept for at most six months, and no permit from the data protection agency is needed.

### Who may do electrical work in a rental property?

Croatia's rulebook on safety at work with electricity requires installation, maintenance and testing to be done by workers with an electrotechnical qualification, and the Building Act asks owners to entrust maintenance to qualified persons. In practice that means an electrician rather than a handyman or the cleaning team, and a written record of what was done.

Related guides

- [Keyless entry for rentals: smart lock or access control?](https://electroaccessdubrovnik.com/blog/keyless-entry-holiday-rentals-dubrovnik-access-control/)
- [CCTV at a rental in Croatia: GDPR, signs and camera angles](https://electroaccessdubrovnik.com/blog/cctv-rental-property-croatia-gdpr-signage/)
- [Why the power trips in Dubrovnik apartments in summer](https://electroaccessdubrovnik.com/blog/why-power-trips-dubrovnik-apartments-summer/)

## About this article

- **Published**: 2026-11-06
- **Last reviewed**: 2026-11-06
- **Reviewed by**: [the Electro Access team](https://electroaccessdubrovnik.com/about/)

Based on the Croatian laws, rulebooks and AZOP guidance linked in the text, read on 6 November 2026: the Hospitality Act and the household-accommodation categorisation rulebook, the 2010 technical regulation for low-voltage installations, the fire-protection and building acts and the CCTV chapter of the data-protection act, together with everyday electrical practice in rental flats.

Rules, procedures and equipment change. If something here is out of date, tell us at [elektroaccess8@gmail.com](mailto:elektroaccess8@gmail.com) and we will correct it.

Planning the work itself?

- [Quote](https://electroaccessdubrovnik.com/#quote)
- [Electrical inspection before you buy](https://electroaccessdubrovnik.com/blog/buying-an-apartment-in-dubrovnik-electrical-inspection/)
- [How a job runs, from message to handover](https://electroaccessdubrovnik.com/#how-it-works)
- [Request a written quote](https://electroaccessdubrovnik.com/quote/)

## Need an electrician in Dubrovnik?

Describe the job and where the property is; we reply with a written quote or a site-visit time.

[Request a written quote](https://electroaccessdubrovnik.com/#quote) [WhatsApp +385 95 506 8145](https://wa.me/385955068145?text=Hello%20Electro%20Access%2C%20I%20would%20like%20a%20quote%20for%20electrical%20work%20at%20)