4^th Oct 2015

Croydon council may be causing the local landlords a VAT headache when introducing their much maligned licensing scheme.

A local newspaper reports that the council has been ‘encouraging’ landlords to sign up early to the scheme, so that they can take advantage of the lower charge of £350.

A mistake by the council allowed invoices to be sent out to show that the £350 included 20% vat, meaning that instead of being able to claim the £58 vat back (to the nearest pence); landlords may have to pay an extra £70 on top of the £350 that they already paid.

The newspaper stated that a council spokeswoman has said that the mistake has been corrected. She was unable to answer whether the council was contacting the landlords to say that they would be wrong if they claimed back the VAT and should pay more.

The council has had its fair share of reported controversies concerning their introduction of compulsory landlords’ licenses, initially a group tried to overturn the mandatory licence; however this was turned down as it was introduced prior to the coalition government’s rule that required councils to be granted permission for landlord’s licenses.


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