18th
Sep 2017
Islington Council has become vigilant against landlords operating within the authority's boundaries, who are not paying tax due.
The council is determined that those landlords that have failed to properly disclose to whom they have rented out their student properties to, during the educational break, and getting away with paying their fair share of council tax. Dishonest landlords have claimed that during the summer holidays they have continued in letting out properties to students and not to standard tenants, therefore not paying any council tax.
The council has now made it mandatory that any landlord with student properties must provide a copy of the tenancy and details of the students' occupancies for the whole year to back up their claims. The landlords must provide the details for each week of the year and landlords will then have to pay council tax for any weeks when a property is let out to a 'normal' tenant.
Within the borough there are more than 4,000 student flats and around 25% are let to non-student tenants during summer, this will net the council an extra £121,250 to its coffers.
Islington Council’s executive member for finance, performance and community safety, councillor Andy Hull, commented on the changes: ‘At a time when Islington faces ongoing cuts to its budgets from central Government, it isn’t fair that landlords have effectively been getting a tax break on renting their flats out over the summer. Closing this loophole means that the correct levels of council tax are collected, which is fairer for all our residents and helps to pay for local services in Islington and London.’
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