Pest control certificate for short-term rentals in Halkidiki and Thessaloniki

What Greek law 5170/2025 requires

Law 5170/2025 sets minimum standards for every home that is rented out short-term in Greece. Among them, article 3 sets out: daylight and ventilation, civil liability insurance, a check of the electrical installation, and an obligation for the property to have a pest and rodent control certificate (in Greek, πιστοποιητικό μυοκτονίας και απεντόμωσης). The article has been in force since 1 October 2025.

The Ministry of Tourism issued circular 19567/25-09-2025 with the details of how article 3 applies. It repeats that the certificate is issued by licensed companies and that each property rented short-term must have a valid pest and rodent control certificate.

Many foreign owners have not heard about this rule, because the law and the circular exist only in Greek. If you rent out an apartment in Thessaloniki or a villa, a studio or rooms in Halkidiki, it applies to you.

The fines

The fines are set by the same article and are imposed on the manager of the property, that is, the person or company that runs the short-term rental. In many cases this is the owner.

• First violation: €5,000
• New violation within one year: the fine doubles to €10,000
• Each further violation: four times the original fine, €20,000

Which properties need a certificate

The obligation covers every property listed in the Greek short-term rental register, the one that gives each property its registration number (AMA). It does not matter where you advertise: the law and the circular make no distinction between Airbnb, Booking or any other platform. The obligation is tied to the property itself.

This includes apartments, houses, villas, studios and rooms. If several rented units share the same plot but each has its own registration number, each one is a separate property.

How long is the certificate valid?

This is the question we hear most, and the honest answer is that the law does not say. Neither law 5170/2025 nor circular 19567/25-09-2025 sets how often the certificate must be renewed or how long it lasts. What they ask for is a valid certificate issued by a licensed company.

Our certificate states the date of the treatment. At the inspection we tell you how often we would repeat the treatment for your particular property, based on what we find there. Be careful with anyone who tells you that the law fixes a specific validity period: it does not.

One certificate for each address

If you manage more than one property, each address needs its own certificate with its own date. One shared document for several properties will not stand up to an inspection. When several properties are in the same area, we inspect and treat them in a single trip, and each one still receives its own certificate.

What our certificate contains

An inspector does not ask whether a treatment was done. They ask for the paper. That is why our certificate includes everything that may be requested:

• The date of the treatment and the address of the property
• The points that were treated
• The products used, each with its approval number
• The signature and licence number of the responsible agronomist, Athanasios Fotiou, licence no. 8191 of the Greek Ministry of Rural Development and Food
• The ventilation time before the next guests arrive
• Prevention instructions
• A paper copy and a PDF copy, so you can also send it to your accountant or management company

What the treatment includes

Inspection, pest control and rodent control are done in the same appointment. We treat only where the pests live, not the whole property:

• Inspection of the rooms, kitchen, bathroom, storeroom and any areas that belong to the property, including mattress seams, headboards and sofa beds, where bed bugs hide
• Targeted spraying of perimeter points, joints, drains and stairwells
• Gel in cracks in the kitchen and bathroom, behind the fridge, the washing machine and the cupboards
• Closed bait stations for mice and rats in storerooms, boiler rooms or stairwells
• Nothing is ever applied to surfaces that come into contact with food: worktops, dishes, food cupboards and the fridge are left out

How we do it between two bookings

Your property does not need to close for days. We work on checkout day, with the property empty, usually together with the cleaning:

• You tell us the checkout time and we book the visit right after it, so you do not lose a night
• The treatment takes about one hour in a two-room apartment
• We leave the windows open and write on the certificate how long the property must stay empty before the next guest arrives; this ventilation time depends on the product used
• If the cleaning is also booked for checkout day, the treatment comes first and the cleaning afterwards
• You receive the certificate on paper and as a PDF

Halkidiki: before the season opens

A holiday home in Halkidiki usually stays closed from October to April, often has a garden, a yard or a pool, and fills up quickly as soon as the season starts. Pests settle in during the months when nobody is there: mice in closed storerooms and boiler rooms, cockroaches coming up through drains that have dried out, wasps building nests under awnings and roof tiles, mosquitoes in standing water.

That is why, for Halkidiki properties, we usually schedule the treatment before the season opens, while the property is still empty and can be aired without pressure from bookings. Properties that also take guests in winter are treated in a gap between two bookings. Our Halkidiki base is in Kassandreia, and from there we cover Kassandra, Sithonia, Moudania, Polygyros and the Mount Athos side.

Price

You pay for the treatment; the certificate itself costs nothing extra. In Thessaloniki, the price starts from €30 for an apartment up to 50 m². The final price is given after a free inspection, because it depends on the number of rooms, the floor, and whether there is a storeroom, a yard or a garden. Prices for individuals include VAT. For Halkidiki, send us the address, the number of rooms in each property and the date of your first booking, and we will give you a price and a date.

What to prepare before our visit

• Access to every part of the property, with keys for the storeroom, boiler room, pool plant room and any other auxiliary space
• Empty kitchen cupboards; food, coffee and spices you leave for guests packed in closed boxes outside the kitchen
• Linen, towels and pillows collected in bags
• The registration number (AMA) and exact address of each property, so they are written correctly on the certificate
• If you have already seen insects, a photo, so we know in advance what we are looking for