HMO landlords urged to share views on controversial council tax re-banding consultation

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Leaders of a campaign seeking to change the law on unfair HMO property council tax re-banding are urging landlords to input into the ongoing Government consultation on the matter due to end on the 31^st March.

As LandlordZONE has reported, many HMOs that originally were classified as single residential units for council tax purposes are now being re-banded as multiple units, which is being classed as an extra tax on tenants who live in HMOs.

Many tenants are now facing paying much higher and sometimes backdated demands for council tax where in the past their landlord paid their share of the single annual council tax bill.

But a concerted and well-organised campaign by the HMO Council Tax Reform Group to lobby Ministers on the issue and how unfair it is to tenants has been successful in moving minds in Whitehall.

This has included raising £7,000 to fund the effort, a popular Facebook site and dozens of letters written to MPs, several of whom have now backed the campaign.

Bill amendment

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities recently invited the group’s lawyer Alan Murdy to craft an amendment to the Levelling Up bill going through parliament to severely limit when and how HMOs can be reclassified.

This is now being consulted on and Wendy Whittaker-Large (main image), the co-founder of the group, says it is now imperative that as many HMO landlords as possible get involved to persuade Minister to carry through on their promise to reform how HMOs are classified for council tax purposes.

Give your views to the consultation.

The call has made by Whittaker-Large during an interview with co-campaigner Neil Chadda by Vanessa Warwick of Property Tribes, during which it was underlined how HMO landlords “have less than a month now to put their views forward for the consultation”.

Watch the whole video.

Pic credit: PropertyTribes/YouTube

View Full Article: HMO landlords urged to share views on controversial council tax re-banding consultation

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