Bedroom Tax affecting private landlords?!!!

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8:44 AM, 14th August 2013, About 11 years ago 35

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As everyone knows bedroom tax is not tax, but the above is a handy way to refer to it.

Earlier this year I received a simple very clear brief about this, written by the chief housing officer of Purbeck District Council.. The essential features of the measure are:

It only applies to people of working age.
It only applies to people who are receiving Housing Benefit/Local Housing Allowance or whatever else it may be being called to pay their rent.
It only applies to those living in social housing, i.e. Council Housing, housing provided by a Housing Association, or by some other Registered Social Landlord.
It is concerned with “spare” bedrooms. Thus for example a household of one or two parents and one child is considered to need a 2-bedroom dwelling. If this family is living in a 3-bedroom dwelling it has a “spare” bedroom. The benefit paid will be reduced by, I think, 14%. The same principle applies to smaller families, larger houses, etc.

The purpose of this measure is to free up publicly funded accommodation which is under occupied for households who need larger dwellings, as we all know.

In the light of this I have been surprised to read and hear of private landlords whose tenants are having their benefit payments reduced, essentially on the grounds of under occupation. Now it is happening to me!

This has prompted me to contact the local councillor who is Chairman of Housing at our local council who in turn asked the chief housing officer whether the rules had changed since early in the year. The answer is that they have not. They remain as outlined above.

What is going on?

Best wishes,

Michael Bond.

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Tags: Advice requested by readers, discussion, Forum, Housing Association, Housing benefit, Landlords, Local Housing Allowance, Private Landlords, Property, questions, readers question, Readers Questions, social housing, Tax, tenants

Comments

Barbara Thorning

12:23 PM, 18th August 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Anon " at "17/08/2013 - 13:54":

I think you’ve misunderstood what I was trying to say, in fact I can tell by your response that you have and whether this is due to the way I wrote it or your interpretation I couldn’t say.

Your 1st paragraph – . I’m not being pedantic here, I’m trying to clarify to be sure I’m understanding what you are saying and I assume where you refer to LHA tenants you mean PRS tenants, although LHA is the amount of rent anyone on HB is entitled to have paid for them, irrespective of whether the landlord is PRS or SH. If you do mean PRS tenants, I don’t understand the point you are making because that is what I previously said anyway and you are agreeing with me here.

2nd paragraph – I live in the North and as I said previously, I’ve never known of a PRS landlord, who was willing to have HB tenants, set the rent below the LHA rate. You may well know of areas where this is done differently but I would be very surprised at any local authority allowing a tenant to make a profit this way and their Council Tax payers might have something to say about it. The ‘penalty’ or reduction cannot reduce their HB below the accepted rate for the number of bedrooms they need and it might not be linked to them having an extra room, it might just be a house with larger rooms which commands a higher rental value, so not necessarily a ‘bedroom tax’. It’s not the spare room that attracts the penalty/reduction per se, but the fact that the rental amount typically correlates with the number of bedrooms, ergo a spare bedroom = paying more rent than they are entitled to receive for their HB.

3rd paragraph – “cutting back on their 70 a day” was a tongue in cheek reference to someone else’s earlier comment, hence the ‘lol’; it never occurred to me that anyone wouldn’t recognise it as such because it was such an exaggerated figure. This was also the spirit in which he wrote it IMO.

Regarding your comment about my ‘unfounded prejudice against SH tenants’ – I’m fairly middle of the road politically, but I believe the selling off of council houses was one of the worst socially damaging pieces of work at the time, and there was some pretty stiff competition for this dubious accolade. I have no prejudice whatsoever against SH tenants at all, in fact I was on their side about the matter of reducing available SH for them and have every support for the ‘working class’, of which I am one, but we do seem to have an ‘unworking class’ now. If anyone had dealt with some of the scenarios I had with some tenants then I would defy them not to be astonished and not only that but disappointed as well.

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Barbara Thorning

13:15 PM, 18th August 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Mary Latham" at "18/08/2013 - 11:19":

I am half-way through this book and I just delight in reading something that has been written in such a straightforward way. No messing, no grey areas, factual and straight to the point. It is written in the same manner in which Mary posts on here, it is clear and concise with no waffle.

Whatever anyone's role in the property industry is I would recommend they read it - and I don't even know her.

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Mary Latham

14:13 PM, 18th August 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Tilly Mint" at "18/08/2013 - 13:15":

Thank you Tilly Mint I really appreciate your comments. I would very much like to have your feed back when you have finished reading my book and if you have time a review on Amazon please.

There are very, very few people who I engage with on line who I have actually met but some how I fee that I do get the know them - this is why I love posting on the three sites where I post. One of the things that motivate me to write a book was the fact that so few landlords visit sites like this and that means that they remain blissfully unaware of what is happening until it bites them on the bum.

Follow me on Twitter@landlordtweets

My book, where I warn about the storm clouds that are gathering for landlords is here >>> http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1484855337

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Jay James

16:44 PM, 18th August 2013, About 11 years ago

Hi Mary, that's all cleared up then.
--
Separately, can your book be bought other than from Amazon?

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Mary Latham

17:05 PM, 18th August 2013, About 11 years ago

Jay Jay This book can only be bought on Amazon for £4.64 paperback and £1.36 for kindle.

I am very flattered that you want to read it and I would love your feed back if you do.

Follow me on Twitter@landlordtweets

My book, where I warn about the storm clouds that are gathering for landlords is here >>> http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1484855337

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