HMO rooms rated as Band A?

Reply to the comment left by Ian Narbeth at 15/09/2021 - 16:53
aaahh I understand. Still a hell of a problem if the HMO is only in benefit tenant areas if you know the tenants can't pay the top ups as it is without accounting for voids going forward where A banding now applies. If you can't get the money out of the tenant then you risk longer voids. So essentially you can't factor band A voids in or you end up with no tenant and a longer void period. Dammed if you do, dammed if you don't.

I would rent the whole house out on one AST if possible, do not allocate tenants an exclusive right to occupy a particular room. This provides each tenant the right to occupy any part of the property, they can of course agree between themselves which room they wish to occupy and pay a share of the rent on that basis. This is possible with student lets but more problematic if your tenants are transient.

A landlord successfully challenged the voa https://www.property118.com/landlord-defeats-voa-land-tribunal-ruling-banding-individual-hmo-rooms-council-tax-purposes/

Read through this article And watch the video And see how many the criterion match your situation

Reply to the comment left by Earlsdon at 17/09/2021 - 13:04
Would a single AST still apply when room doors have locks? Tenants obviously want their own "protected" space. I'm sure the locked doors was one of the triggers for such a ridiculous idea originally.

Reply to the comment left by Tony Clements at 27/09/2021 - 22:15
The VOA visit the property.

They look at is this a standard house - they dont look at the paperwork unless challenged.

Do you have locks on your lounge door, dining room door, every bedroom - if so the VOA would say its a normal house

Reply to the comment left by Earlsdon at 17/09/2021 - 13:04Whether you rent on one AST to seven tenants jointly and severally or on seven ASTs will not affect how the VOA treat the house for Council Tax purposes. It is the configuration of the house.
Given that Martin "recently carried out a renovation of a large house into a 7 bedroom HMO with all the rooms benefitting from their own en-suite" it is unlikely he will find seven people to share unless they are students and he has probably over-spec'd the house for that market. Having seven en suites is not a good idea because you have seven separate rooms which could be used as bedsits. In other words the house looks like seven separate dwellings.

Band A Council Tax is a nightmare and ruins profit forecasts. I cancelled a house purchase and HMO conversion precisely because it became clear that (a) Councils and the VOA can decide for themselves what qualifies for Band A; (b) the application of Band A is so uneven across the town for similar properties that clearly any landlord with Band A is at a commercial disadvantage when trying to attract renters. In-depth analysis revealed that some Assessors classified rooms as Band A just because each bedroom had a personal door lock - even when they had no other facilities in the room. It is the Wild West and incredibly prone to corruption.

Reply to the comment left by Des Taylor & Phil Turtle, Landlord Licensing & Defence at 12/09/2021 - 10:04Excellent information thank you so much. Forgive me I am not certain on one aspect. When you say bedsit, does this refer to the bedrooms in an HMO with shared facilities or are you referring to bedsits, which have cooking and washing facilities?
If an HMO with one AST for all tenants, would this mean that individual bedrooms, could not be locked with a key? would the VOA considered this a separate unit?

Reply to the comment left by Stephen Johnson at 11/12/2021 - 13:35
Hello Stephen
Good question
The is no legal definition of bedsit!
However it’s most common useage is of a bed/sitting room let on it’s own AST in an HMO . It may just be a bedroom with (hopefully) enough room to also sit. It may sometimes contain kitchen facilities and it may sometimes contain an en-suite. Sometimes it can be a completely self-contained unit within an HMO where other residents share a bathroom or kitchen.

Hope that helps?

Reply to the comment left by Des Taylor & Phil Turtle, Landlord Licensing & Defence at 10/09/2021 - 15:03
Hello, may I ask if an HMO can be rented on a licencing agreement, on a single or group basis so the tenant could stay short or long term.