Home Beauty Salon: Sanepid Requirements

You have a spare room, skilled hands and clients who ask whether you would see them at your place. A small beauty studio at home is for many stylists the first step towards their own business. The question is whether what is enough in a rented unit is enough in a flat. Sanepid (State Sanitary Inspection) requirements for a beauty salon at home come from the same rules as for a commercial unit. On top of them come matters Sanepid does not decide: the building, the owners' association, the lease and tax. Below we separate one from the other and say plainly what we did not check.

Key takeaways

• The duty to implement infection-protection procedures (Article 16 of the Act on preventing infections) applies to you whether you work in a unit or in a flat.
• The sanitary inspector has the right to enter a dwelling where service activity is or is to be carried out (Article 26(1) of the Act on the State Sanitary Inspection).
• The GIS recommendations allow a "separated space" instead of a separate room and give no minimum area. They do require clean, washable surfaces, ventilation, a hand hygiene station and decontamination kept apart from the treatment.
• Beyond Sanepid, check: whether it is a change of use (Building Law), what the local plan says, the rules of the owners' association or the lease, and how the municipality taxes the part of the flat used for business.
• Where the outcome depends on your premises, we say "it depends on the premises" and refer you to the authority that decides.

A home studio vs a mobile salon

These are two different situations. In a home studio clients come to you, you have a permanent place of work and can have the whole tool-processing line on site. In a mobile salon you travel to clients and decontaminate tools away from where the service is provided. Mobile work is described in the article on the mobile cosmetic salon and Sanepid. Here we stay with a fixed place in your flat or house.

Do you have to register such a studio with Sanepid? In the Act on preventing infections (Article 16) and the Act on the State Sanitary Inspection (Articles 26-27) we found no duty to notify or register a salon with Sanepid. We did not search all legal acts, so this finding covers only those two acts. If you want certainty, you can file a request for an opinion on your procedures (Article 16(3)). It is voluntary.

Sanitary requirements for a beauty studio in a flat or house

There are no separate requirements "for a home" and "for a unit". The GIS recommendations (May 2026) speak of a place where services are provided, which can be a room or a separated space. This matters for small studios, because you do not need a separate room. The recommendations give no minimum area in square metres and no requirement for a toilet for clients. We searched the whole text and found no such figures.

Area	What GIS recommends
Surfaces	Easy to wash, smooth, hard, resistant to damage and to disinfectants; the place kept clean
Ventilation	Continuous air exchange (supply-exhaust), airing after disinfecting surfaces, periodic inspections of the system
Workstation	Washed and disinfected before each client; surfaces for treatments that break tissue continuity washed and disinfected before and after each client
Hand hygiene	Minimum: a basin with running cold and hot water, a soap dispenser, a disinfectant dispenser, single-use towels, a bin
Decontamination	Three areas (contaminated, clean, sterile) or decontamination off-site; not during a treatment
Waste	Sharp waste in rigid, puncture-resistant containers; removal at least once a day, secured against third parties

At home two things cause the most problems: soft furnishings and shared spaces. A carpet, an upholstered chair and a wooden countertop are hard to disinfect, so the recommendation on smooth, washable surfaces limits your choice of furniture. The GIS recommendations do not say where the basin should be or whether it can be the flat's bathroom. We also found no ban on using a domestic basin for this purpose. Our assessment: if the same basin is also used for washing dishes or by children, it is harder for you to show that the dispenser, single-use towels and bin are available and kept in line with the recommendations. Describe in your procedure which basin you use.

Ventilation for studios is covered in more detail in the article on ventilation in a beauty salon, and technical requirements for rooms in the article on technical requirements of a salon. Read them together with the GIS recommendations and check whether a given value has a source in a provision or in the recommendations.

Formalities beyond Sanepid: what depends on the premises

This is where the knowledge that fits into one article ends. The points below are a list of questions worth asking before you buy equipment.

Business

Providing services to clients as a business requires the appropriate form: an entry in CEIDG (the Central Register and Information on Business) or staying within the unregistered business limit. The rules and the limit are covered in the article on unregistered business for nail stylists. We did not check the rules on entering a flat's address in CEIDG.

Change of use

The Building Law (consolidated text: Journal of Laws 2026, item 524) treats as a change of use in particular taking up, in a building or part of it, an activity that changes, among other things, hygiene and sanitary conditions (Article 71(1)(2)). Such a change requires a notification before it is made. The notification must include, among other things, a certificate of conformity with the local plan, and the authority objects if the intention breaches the plan or threatens an unacceptable worsening of health and sanitary conditions or nuisance for neighbours (Article 71(2) and (5)). A notification filed after the change has no legal effect (paragraph 7).

The provision gives no size thresholds, so we cannot tell you whether one room in your flat is such a change. That is decided by the architectural and building administration authority. Ask the architecture department at the county office or city hall before you start seeing clients. It depends on the premises and on the local plan in your area.

Owners' association, housing cooperative, lease

An owner of a unit in a community is to use the common property in a way that does not hinder others and to observe house rules (Article 13(1) of the Act on Ownership of Premises, consolidated text: Journal of Laws 2026, item 232). Clients on the staircase and in the lift fall exactly into this area. We do not know your community's rules, so read them. If you rent the flat, the tenant may not, without the landlord's consent, make changes to the property contrary to the contract or to its purpose (Article 667 § 1 of the Civil Code). Ask the landlord for consent to run a business, preferably in writing.

Property tax

The Act on Local Taxes and Fees (consolidated text: Journal of Laws 2025, item 707) provides a separate maximum rate for residential buildings or their parts used for business (Article 5(1)(2)(b)). The specific rates are set by the municipal council. We do not give amounts because they depend on the resolution in your municipality. Ask the municipal office or your accountant how to account for the part of the flat used for the studio.

Documentation and sterilisation in a small space

A small space does not exempt you from procedures. Article 16(2) of the Act lists what they must regulate: how activities that break tissue continuity are carried out, rules for using equipment that is sterilised, and methods of disinfecting skin and decontaminating rooms and equipment. The GIS recommendations add that procedures are to be adapted to the place and type of services. For a home studio this means the procedure describes your particular corner: where the basin is, where the dirty zone ends, where you keep packs.

In a small space you have three realistic solutions:

1. Separation in time. The GIS recommendations allow separation in space and/or time between the treatment and decontamination. Tools wait in a container and you process them after the client leaves, not during the treatment.
2. Three worktops in one line. A contaminated, a clean and a sterile area on one built-in run. The layout is described in the article on the decontamination workflow in a beauty salon.
3. Sterilisation off-site. GIS allows sterilisation at an external provider with a quality management system (ISO or GMP). You need documents: a contract, invoices, a log of tools collected and returned, and you wash and disinfect the transport containers after each use.

Your own autoclave in a flat means extra records, which we describe in the articles on choosing an autoclave for a salon and the sterilisation log. With few clients the calculation often looks different than in a large salon. Work it out for your own situation.

What an inspection may check

The state sanitary inspector has the right to enter dwellings if service activity is or is to be carried out in them (Article 26(1) of the Act on the State Sanitary Inspection, consolidated text: Journal of Laws 2024, item 416). After finding breaches of hygiene and health requirements, the inspector orders by decision that the defects be removed (Article 27(1)). Where a breach causes a direct threat to life or health, the inspector may order, among other things, that a workstation be shut down (Article 27(2)). Whoever fails to implement or apply the procedures under Article 16(1) is liable to a fine (Article 50(1) of the Act on preventing infections).

During an inspection you can expect questions about:

• written procedures adapted to your place and services,
• disinfection and sterilisation records and equipment inspection records,
• safety data sheets of disinfectants, available to the person working,
• how waste is collected and secured.

How an inspection runs is described in the article on what Sanepid checks in a nail salon. The documents you put together for a studio are in the NailsReady Foundation package: a sanitary and hygiene procedure, a disinfection plan, a sterilisation procedure and card, and a waste procedure. You adapt them to your corner.

Frequently asked questions

Can I run a beauty studio in my flat?

The sanitary rules we checked do not ban services in a flat, and the inspector has the right to enter a dwelling where service activity is carried out. What decides whether it is allowed in your premises are matters beyond Sanepid: the local plan, a possible change of use, the community rules or the lease. It depends on the premises.

Do I need a separate room for the studio?

The GIS recommendations speak of a room or a separated space and give no minimum area. We found no requirement for a separate room in them. They do recommend separation in space and/or time between the treatment and decontamination.

Do I need to register a home studio with Sanepid?

In the Act on preventing infections and the Act on the State Sanitary Inspection we found no duty to notify or register a salon with Sanepid. What is mandatory is implementing and applying the procedures (Article 16(1)). You may voluntarily submit the procedures to the county state sanitary inspector for an opinion.

Can I sterilise tools in the kitchen or bathroom?

The GIS recommendations do not specify a location, but they require a clean, washable place and contaminated, clean and sterile areas with movement from dirty to sterile. When you use domestic rooms it is harder to show that the areas are separated and maintained. The alternative is external sterilisation with documents.

Does a home studio change property tax?

The Act provides a separate maximum rate for the part of a residential building used for business (Article 5(1)(2)(b)). Rates are set by the municipality, so check the resolution in your municipality or ask your accountant.

A salon in a container is a separate legal situation. We describe it in the article beauty salon in a container: the rules.

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Legal status as of: 2 November 2026
Legal basis: Articles 16 and 50(1) of the Act of 5 December 2008 on preventing and combating infections and infectious diseases in humans (consolidated text: Journal of Laws 2025, item 1675, amendments published after this text were checked); Articles 26-27 of the Act on the State Sanitary Inspection (consolidated text: Journal of Laws 2024, item 416); Article 71 of the Building Law (consolidated text: Journal of Laws 2026, item 524, changes from items 605, 646, 1161 and 1347 were checked); Article 13 of the Act on Ownership of Premises (Journal of Laws 2026, item 232); Article 667 of the Civil Code (Journal of Laws 2026, item 795); Article 5(1)(2) of the Act on Local Taxes and Fees (Journal of Laws 2025, item 707); "Hygiene and sanitary recommendations and requirements of the Chief Sanitary Inspector for beauty services" (GIS, May 2026). Not checked: local development plans and municipal resolutions (including tax rates), rules of owners' associations and housing cooperatives, rules on entering an address in CEIDG, technical building rules on ventilation and installations in residential buildings, fire regulations, interpretations of tax authorities and building supervision.
Last reviewed: 2 November 2026