Landlord’s Ripped Off by Council Tax

Council tax legislation was written with a blinkered approach which only considered property sale and purchase. Consequently in order to avoid shared responsibility on completion day it is determined that an outgoing tax payer should not be liable for their last day which would fall to the ingoing one.

Unfortunately this does not work in the rental sector as AST agreements are never for the same day. So in all cases the last day’s council tax of any rental contract is charged to the landlord/ owner. This is nothing new but has only become an issue this year since most councils have taken up the option they were granted to dispense with any exemptions.
One days council tax may seem a trivial issue, but it is one days council tax for every landlord on every rental property on every tenancy change or termination. 

Plus what a waste of money for the council to be creating accounts, raising bills and chasing debts for just one day. Obviously if there is a void period between tenancies this will not be the case but landlords will still be ripped off for the extra day.

Regards

Mike