Bastard Landlords VI

[albion]

Reads as if the tipping point gas been passed and that mass extraction fully beckons.
If that data was wrong for permafrost emissions all those years then the 1.5C tipping point might also have been too high.
https://www.newscientist.com/articl...s-now-a-net-source-of-major-greenhouse-gases/
Anyway, more temperature records in the next months ahead likely confirm we are all noosed.

 

[fozy tornip]

I eat agents for breakfast,

She is The One.

 

[theclaud]

She is The One.

I couldn't manage a whole agent today as I had a wild boar burger for breakfast.

 

[theclaud]

Reads as if the tipping point gas been passed and that mass extraction fully beckons.
If that data was wrong for permafrost emissions all those years then the 1.5C tipping point might also have been too high.
https://www.newscientist.com/articl...s-now-a-net-source-of-major-greenhouse-gases/
Anyway, more temperature records in the next months ahead likely confirm we are all noosed.

Qué?

 

[theclaud]

You said she's 'coming to the end of her university course'? Perhaps she should write to the council and they might agree that there is no council tax liability, given that the other tenants are all students, until her course ends, presumably June this year?

Then, armed with this in writing, get ready for a small claims court application for the 'council tax' she has been charged from the landlord to be refunded, plus reasonable costs, after she's left the place. As it's an HMO flagging this up to the council might give the landlord and agent some questions to answer, depending on the local council's HMO regulatory/inpection practices. Or to save them this a simple refund demand, backed by a renters' union? Or she could withhold a suitable amount from her last payment if she's leaving anyway and doesn't need a reference.

I don't think she'll be persuaded to do anything unorthodox, however justified. There's a deposit in the protection scheme which she'd risk losing if she withholds the last month's rent. She's just decided to suck it up but get out after three months. I'll just have to defer to her on that for now, but yes I'll be bringing it to the attention of the council, UKALA, and social media. Not sure about small claims court - I've no experience in that area but I'll be interested to see if there's any evidence that the landlord has paid the Council Tax, and if she hasn't then it'll be time to go nuclear.

Since the changes over HMOs are recent, I imagine this particular type of fuckery is largely unlitigated. I would think that the more common kind of scam to date would be landlords telling joint tenants that their rent included council tax, and then not paying it, knowing that the liability lies with the tenants and the council will therefore pursue them and not the landlord.

 

[theclaud]

While I'm as keen as the next Socialist to, come the glorious day, have landlords up against the wall I'm a bit conflicted on this one.

The rate being charged for rent is less than the LHA ceiling for shared accom in Swansea, £86.30 week wheres most Bastard Landlords, use that as a start point. Given how LHA is set you're always likely to pay more for a nice place in a nicer part of town.

If the Landlord had previously let exclusively to students then, presumably, no CT; rent set accordingly. The Claude's friend moves in creating a liability of full CT less single occupier discount. Should the landlord (a) take that on the chin (b) divvy it up amongst all 5 tenants even though the rest are bona fide students or (c) do what she has done here?

How far off what you'd expect for a nice place etc is the total sum passing?

I'm assuming the LL is passing the money to the Council and not pocketing it..

Not keen enough, clearly!

The rent of £320 is fairly standard for a room in a house into which the landlord has crammed as many tenants as possible. I wouldn't describe it as a 'nice place', although students are resigned and resilient about shit housing as the price of independence and life experience. Old houses that would make nice family homes if they were in better condition do not usually translate into 'nice places' when used as student HMOs.

It's entirely within the landlord's/agent's control to decide who to let to - if they want to let only to students to maintain an exemption on the property, that's their call. Likewise if they calculate it's worth losing the exemption to fill an empty room, that's on them. My friend hasn't created a liability - the landlord had forfeited an exemption which applies to her liability, for gain. What they have done in this case is deliberately obfuscated and misinformed my friend - she assumed there would be a legitimate bill applying to her room, and simply didn't understand that she would be paying the landlord's council tax bill on her whole five-bedroom HMO. And that's before you get to the likelihood that the landlord is not paying anything at all and is simply extorting a vast sum from a young person in a vulnerable situation - which is not, in my view,a moot point.

 

[albion]

éh?

 

[Ian H]

A few years ago I made a small claim against 123-Reg on behalf of a farmer (who has a tiny sideline, online business). Two suits with large briefcases turned up to defend. I won, though my client was disappointed by the amount of compensation (their fault for having inadequate financial records). As I recall it was a simple, inexpensive procedure.

 

[Bromptonaut]

Not keen enough, clearly!

I assume the fact she's working means the student exemption from CT is lost.

If so she's liable, or at least creates a liability. If the LL had told the Council she was a liable occupant would she have been billed?

I agree it's unfair but I'm not sure the landlord is to blame. It's yet another iniquity of Council Tax which was cobbled together in a hurry 30+ years ago becuase the Poll Tax was even more indefensible.

Is either party going into the GE committed to reform it?

 

[theclaud]

I assume the fact she's working means the student exemption from CT is lost.

She was working the same amount of hours when she was a student. It's her visa conditions that limit her working hours. I'm not sure when the official end date of her course is/was, but it certainly falls within the tenancy. The only way the LA is going to know that the house is not 100% student occupancy is by the landlord actively submitting details of the change of tenant, after a zero C Tax bill has already been issued. I would place the chances of her volunteering that information as somewhere between zero and fat.

If so she's liable, or at least creates a liability. If the LL had told the Council she was a liable occupant would she have been billed?

No, because it's the landlord who is liable. That's the whole point of the change in December, which would quite obviously have prompted any responsible agent (yeah, I know, but it's a rhetorical point) to consider its implications. There is no provision for billing HMO tenants. The HMO definition for C Tax purposes is simpler and more straightforward than its definition for other purposes.

I agree it's unfair

Thank you.

I'm not sure the landlord is to blame

The poor dears obviously can't be expected to understand that it's unfair for a young person just outta university in a country far from home in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis to pay the tax on a five-bedroom home of which she is renting a squalid corner, when the cost could simply be borne by the liable individual who is extracting £20K per annum from each of the properties in her slum empire.

It's yet another iniquity of Council Tax which was cobbled together in a hurry 30+ years ago becuase the Poll Tax was even more indefensible.

Well, yes, but the change in liability in December was clearly meant to a) simplify things and b) place the liability on the party best placed to shoulder the risk. But of course landlords didn't get where they are without a colossal sense of entitlement to other people's wages, and agents didn't get where they are without an insatiable hunger for tenant-robbing wheezes and loopholes.

Anyway, here are some landlords.

View: https://youtu.be/5h8bcp3HNc4

 

[AndyRM]

Seems like the most appropriate place for this bit of news:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68885243

 

[Fab Foodie]

Seems like the most appropriate place for this bit of news:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68885243

If Gove's mouth is moving - he's lying....