to have little sympathy for this landlady facing a £20,000 tax bill

I don’t think there is anything suspicious here, coastal holiday let’s are mainly seasonal trade, most holiday let’s are managed & marketed by professionals letting companies, so the let’s can’t be hidden, once you have paid their commission, cleaners, laundry etc, you aren’t making a lot tbh, been there done that!

They aren't homes. They are tiny little apartments all in a building the size of one very large house.

Again, it's one building. Containing holiday apartments too small for a family to live in permanently. She didn't go and buy 8 houses.

Have you ever been to Blackpool? 😉

8 homes all unoccupied for around 300 days a year each is appalling. She’s snapped up more houses than she has use for, depriving others of homes to live in all year round. I’m glad that she’ll be charged.

She’s known about this change since 2023, so she’s had time to prepare. Brexit had a massive effect on my business as over 50% of the work we do is in Europe, it quadrupled our paperwork and cost us a fortune, things happen in business all the time, then we had Covid that very nearly finished us off.

People who expect preferential treatment like she does ARE part of the reason we have societal issues, there’s nothing wrong in saying that.

It's a business at the end of the day though. People can choose do it or not

It’s difficult to feel sorry for her because she just doesn’t sound like a very good landlord. If her properties were making any money she’d be able to cover her bill. She’d solve all her problems and probably have less stress in her life by just selling up. Saying she hopes it’s bad news if she goes into hospital is such a victim mentality - she’s made a mistake she just needs to take responsibility and rectify it

Thing is though, I bet you're all happy to BOOK a holiday let when you go away. Someone has to own them and look after them - and let me tell you it's bloody hard work, and nowhere near as much profit as you might think.

Aargh! She doesn’t have 8 properties. She owns one property - a hotel with self catering facilities. A hotel that is worth about £250k.

Back in the 80s/90s, when UK seaside holidays were superseded by cheap package tours abroad, a lot of B&Bs and holiday flats were converted to residential property. You could pick up a B&B that was making a loss for less than the value of a similar sized house.

Then it became more profitable to run B&Bs as HMOs.

Councils stopped granting planning permission for change of use to stop holiday accommodation being turned into residential properties or HMOs because holiday resorts need holiday accommodation and tourists don’t want to stay next door to a hostel for drug addicts.

Now, the issue is residential property being turned into Air B&Bs so the council is charging council tax on second properties to protect the supply of residential properties.

The issue is that there are a small number of these old style properties that are holiday flats that can’t be sold as homes and usually aren’t allowed to be let as homes, nor converted to homes, that are being charged council tax as if they were homes. It is kind of ridiculous that hotels that aren’t allowed to be used as homes are being penalised by a rule made to prevent homes being used as holiday lets. I would have thought the obvious solution is that if a property is only permitted to be used as a business by planning restrictions, it should be taxed as a business 🤷‍♀️

I doubt there is anything sinister about the “proprietors” being someone else. They have the same name. She’s 70. Her DC probably do the day to day running of the place.

I could be wrong in this case but it is certainly an issue in many seaside towns. Old B&Bs and holiday flats that haven’t been profitable for decades that aren’t permitted to be converted to homes, in areas full of HMOs (from those that were converted before rules were put in place), often run down because there hasn’t been enough profit to update them for years, and unsellable. Many of the owners are elderly and stuck there because they can’t sell so they keep the business ticking over to cover running costs.

Working hard isn’t an excuse to avoid paying your share and we have a huge housing crisis in this country - mostly funded through inherited wealth - so it’s not an area for tax breaks

Is that you Judith???
😅😅😅

We can't assume people worked hard.

A huge amount of wealth in this country is just inherited/gifted (or even won or obtained by criminal activity)

It's Blackpool

It's not the place it used to be

And another ageist post.

What are these so-called benefits to being born at a particular point in time? What particular point in time? Ah, yes. The Boomers and early Gen X, born in the post war era of 1945-1970. Your parents' age group. What has this got to do with one particular person, age unknown, who has got herself into a bit of a fix? The sensible solution, as suggested earlier, would be to sell one of the properties to fund her tax bill and rent out the others full-time in order to provide people with homes and avoid this problem in future. Age does not come into it.

Said properties will have appreciated significantly in value since she purchased them, if she sells up she'll be financially very comfortable. I can't see that she has anything to complain about.

It's true though, she's claiming not to be renting out the properties for more than 70 days, what kind of holiday let is that? If she's not letting them out, then why not sell them as they are not making her any money?

To continue to be eligible for business rates, from 1 April 2023 your property must be:

available for letting commercially for short periods that total 140 nights or more in the previous and current year.
actually let commercially for 70 night or more in the previous 12 months.

Why, because she worked hard to buy the properties

It’s due to a change in tax rules that’s going to send her business under. I’m sure you’d be pissed if there was a tax change that sent your business under?

I think there is plenty of hatred - saying people like this woman is why society is fucked. That’s not simply a lack of sympathy.

Well then she can sell the lot of us she is barely able to let them out

But I think we have established that this story has more holes than a sieve so it's all a bit academic!

It’s a single building. Not 8 assets really. They are all part of the same building/business.

They could easily have done the following before reporting on the story

• asked to see the CT bills
• asked to see her bookings
• checked the website which doesnt include her as a proprietor
• checked land registry to see who actually owns the building

Well if they’re empty for so long she’ll make money housing long term tenants in them. More income, she’d be able to afford the council tax and people have somewhere to live.

some councils charge full council tax on all holiday properties regardless of occupancy rates which I think is fair.

if there’s no council tax charge then not only are holiday lets causing a shortage of houses to buy for locals it’s also depriving councils of income.

I also don't believe a word she says and think this is a story concocted to gain sympathy
The BBC etc can only report what they can prove but this woman is no poor Granny caught out by a lack of understanding of what her obligations were