Government finally listens on Council Tax for HMOs

Over the past few years, the VOA have been slowly disaggregating HMOs into separate council tax entries causing a huge uplift in council tax and a shift in liability from the landlord to the tenant.

Some landlords and tenants have banded together to try and stop this and the main leaders of the group have successfully had the issue raised in parliament with Michael Gove issuing a public consultation to decided on the best course to fix the issue.

The consultation is now live and running through to the 31st of March. You can view the consultation using the below link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/council-tax-valuation-of-houses-in-multiple-occupation-hmos/council-tax-valuation-of-houses-in-multiple-occupation-hmos-consultation

Anyone can respond to the questions in the consultation and I'd urge you and your tenants to respond to it (as it directly effects them as well).

The aforementioned group have created some standard responses to the consultation which you are more than welcome to use:

Tenant version: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bnCIcDXA9qyR90Z3y4XfNzB6gXakNJ7M/view?usp=share_link

Landlord version: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bos7kFRTK_rJoDDCtCmJDY4X55ELBlLh/view?usp=share_link

Each version also includes a pre-drafted email for you to use if you wish.

The barrister who is part of the group has said that the outcome of this consultation will affect all HMO landlords and tenants across England, not just the ones that have had their HMOs re-banded (like us), so it’s worth sending this to all of your HMO landlord friends and tenants so we can ensure a positive outcome. It’s likely if they don’t get many responses that this reform will go the wrong way and have a negative impact on all HMOs as the VOA will then start re-banding all HMOs.

The consultation has a deadline of the 31st of March 2023 and we're expecting the results of this to be put into law by the end of May.