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

[cakeorwine]

You need to listen to the story

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0l91m83

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gegkxxlg3o

It sounds like she had 8 holiday lets in Blackpool. If a holiday let is not let for more than 70 nights a year, then it becomes classed as a second home.

Under a second home, she is liable for Council tax.
6 of these now seem liable for backdated council tax and she faces a £20,000 backdated tax bill.

Apparently landlords have been given a year to prepare.

She is worried about the tax bill and says that if she goes to the hospital, she hopes its bad news.

She also talks about famiiles who have come regularly to the lets.

But if the properties aren't being let for more than 70 nights a year, then they aren't very popular holiday lets - and should be occupied by people who need a home.

Maybe she should rent out some of the other properties to people who need a place to live in to pay the tax bill.

As an aside, it's also interesting to read the BBC article which does not mention the details of why a let might become liable for Council Tax payments.

People still visited Blackpool before air b and b. They used traditional b and b’s / hotels / self catering caravans that were licensed and taxed as businesses. They still employed people, they still had tourist cash coming into the area.

Nail on the head. No way was she only letting each out for just 70 days a year. It's just not viable. She's been caught out! I hope HMRC go after her too. It's really time we started attacking the black economy.

No sympathy for the greedy money grabbing piece.

It sounds as if she's trying to portray herself as an impoverished vulnerable pensioner who has been presented with an unexpected and unfair bill.
Truth is she is rather wealthy since she has a property empire but she's been caught out because she thought she could get away with not following the rules.

My violin is so tiny I seem to have mislaid it. ‘The legislation needs to change’ apparently, according to her grandson, no it really doesn’t mate, pay up or sell up, and stop whining.

She has eight properties so not an 'accidental' landlord or naive investor.

If you run a business you should know the rules and pay your dues.

If it needs updating then she should update it! Will no one think of the poor landlady who owns 8 properties, instead of the many people who can’t get a home.

Poor lady, who has 9 properties including her own! Poor lady has to pay a tax bill! I'd like her to switch places with a homeless person for the week. It might reset her priorities. If she doesn't want this to happen again, she simply has to sell most of them off. That would soon release enough money to pay her tax bill. One or two rental properties are enough, 8 is just greedy! Especially when people are struggling to buy a property.

@Nenas

How many business will we be prepared to tax out of existence? Before we realise that businesses employ people and pay tax and we need them.

Businesses need to be professionally run and comply with ALL relevant laws and regulations. They really shouldn't be run for "pocket money" by amateurs. If you run a business, you have an obligation to keep on top of laws/regulations and you should be fully prepared for the consequences of non compliance. The minimum number of days occupancy is a fundamental matter for people claiming to be legitimate businesses - there's no way she didn't know about this unless she lives under a rock. Like far too many people engaged in the black economy/tax evasion, she was just relying on not being caught out.

I’ve seen no hatred, only a lack of sympathy. As a business owner I have to pay the requisite amount of taxes, why should she be exempt? If her business is not making money then she either needs to change her business model or sell the property, I don’t understand why that’s being unfair to her, there are people in a far worse situation than her.

Wow that's pretty shoddy levels of investigation by the bbc then

She’s one of the reasons this country is so screwed, specifically younger generations than herself.

Maybe she should sell one of her eight assets (and whatever else she has accumulated from being born at the correct time)

Hope she enjoys her tax bill.

It would be interesting to do a Land Reg search and find out who actually owns the building.

Exactly, this story has holes in it everywhere

I wish you'd enabled voting on this OP. YANBU.

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

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.

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

-

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

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 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.

Why, because she worked hard to buy the properties

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.

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.

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.