Renters in shared housing stand to save up to £1,000 - and the National Residential Landlords Association says it is the reason.
The government has announced it will end the practice of banding individual rooms in shared houses separately for council tax purposes, ending the practice of forcing tenants of shared housing to foot large council tax bills.
Following a long-running campaign by the NRLA, the decision will mean houses of multiple occupation will be classed as a single property, reducing costs and simplifying administration.
As a result of this announcement the NRLA estimates that the average HMO tenant currently charged council tax on single rooms stands to save up to £1,000 a year.
Ben Beadle, the association’s chief executive, says: “We are delighted that the government has listened to NRLA and others and will end the unjust practice of charging council tax on individual rooms.
“Not only will it save tenants money, it means landlords will once again be able to let rooms inclusive of council tax, making it easier for renters to budget.
“We look forward to the necessary changes being implemented without delay.”
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Good news, but when?
Suppose it helps Beadles about with his Student let portfolio. Self serving again.
Students are exempt from c tax.
Don’t if it’s good news or not the C/tax system is so unjust.
2 people like my wife and I pay full C/tax £2’650. which includes £435. to Rogue Mayor of London and we have no say in the matter whatsoever.
Don’t know when Students were exempt. I have seen HMO’s Student sharers renting a house as one joint & several agreement exempted but when they replaced one of the Student Sharers with a worker it made them liable for whole house ?.
The System is so unfair half the people pay nothing while other have pays all. So 2 people in a house pay full Council Tax while similar house houses a larger family often many adults pay just the same or on the other hand say for example 6 (or more) persons living in a Shared house will be paying the same as 2, how is that fair. They will have use of all the Services and several times more rubbish.
Mrs Tatcher poll tax had merits everyone pay something and the balance against property but the ones that never pay wouldn’t pay went marching and got their way.
The Regulators are a long way from sorting this out probably making it worse.
I am glad Ben is making things better for himself whether fixed terms for Students or c/tax exempt. How about addressing the biggest obstacle to Private Sector Housing the Removal of Section 21.
To say I’m a little disappointed that the NRLA is claiming the victory on this win would be an understatement. As chair of the Council Tax Reform Group I know how much we as a group (along with our supporters) put in to make this change happen.
It was we who lobbied government, had meetings with ministers, engaged the HMO community, even wrote the amendment that will become legislation!
We are all volunteers and did this without payment. The NRLA were behind what we did, but frankly did not engage with us one bit. We supported people to reply to the consultation and helped them write to their MPs.
We have sent our own press release to Landlord Today but it has been ignored, as the NRLA uses their power and influence to piggy back over this seemingly small and insignificant voluntary group. Make no mistake it was NOT the NRLA that made this reform happen, it was us.
You can search for HMOs and Council Tax and find our website with a history of our work over the last two years to support my comments.
Wendy I think you should tell Ben Beadle and his merry little band this to their faces. I emailed him and challenged him on S21 and the way in which the NRLA were not reflecting the opinions of majority of Landlords and he basically said he had surveyed the members and they were. Yet unsurprisingly when I raised the question on this forum of how many NRLA members had received a survey and were asked how they felt about S21 it was a big fat zero. He has also been asked this to his face by another member of this forum and apparently would not answer and scuttled away. Mr Beadle presents his opinion and claims to be the voice of Landlords but he isn't. Now he is taking the credit for your hard work. what a sham!
Dear Catherine
Thank you so much for your comment. I have contacted Ben and we’re having a call next week. Let’s see if they retract this press release and offer a much more truthful version of events now.
Many thanks Wendy
Good luck but sadly I think he and the NRLA are very self serving. Well done on your hard work - I am not an HMO landlord but recognise the unfairness of these systems
Then you get people like JT and SBR who wonder why they cannot find a good landlord. They need to take a good look in a mirror.
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