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Showing posts with label council tax exempt student property. Show all posts
Showing posts with label council tax exempt student property. Show all posts
Monday, 1 July 2019
Should Broxtowe be considering further HMO licensing before an Article 4 Direction?
This is a copy of the response I am sending to Broxtowe Borough Council's Chief Executive. I hope it is self-explanatory!
Click on each page to enlarge.
Click on each page to enlarge.
Understanding HMOs — a Nottingham Manual and learning from others
The fact that Broxtowe Borough Council is taking an interest in Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs), thanks to its recently elected Labour/Liberal council, is to be celebrated.
I had hoped they would spend the rest of 2019 gathering together what data they already have, whilst delving deeper into their records for even more. The fact that I have not asked for such data, even though I know it exists, is because I have been, and remain, mindful of the extra workload I place on diligent council officers who get the job of responding to my Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.
To give you just one example. The Council's student council tax exemption form requires the property owner applying for the exemption to list the names of the tenants/occupants of the property in question as I show below (click on image to enlarge):
The owner is not always a landlord. Parents of students buy houses for their children or the students buy them. For some the fact that they become landlords is almost accidental. 'Our Mark can live with his friends, they can all have a room each, and they can help pay the mortgage and running costs too'.
A landlord, on the other hand, is always on the lookout for a chance to make money. His move into renting out houses to students is calculated. Look at the form below. My next FOI will ask for the number of names on every student council tax exemption form (not individual names). This will enable me to say how many of the exemptions are for small, unregistered, HMOs and how many are for large HMOs (the latter should equal the number of HMO Register entries, excluding the exceptions). The following pages from Nottingham City Council's HMO Manual should help you understand the process. Broxtowe Borough Council should be publishing something similar.
Remember, Nottingham also require small HMOs to register. Broxtowe doesn't.
I had hoped they would spend the rest of 2019 gathering together what data they already have, whilst delving deeper into their records for even more. The fact that I have not asked for such data, even though I know it exists, is because I have been, and remain, mindful of the extra workload I place on diligent council officers who get the job of responding to my Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.
To give you just one example. The Council's student council tax exemption form requires the property owner applying for the exemption to list the names of the tenants/occupants of the property in question as I show below (click on image to enlarge):
The owner is not always a landlord. Parents of students buy houses for their children or the students buy them. For some the fact that they become landlords is almost accidental. 'Our Mark can live with his friends, they can all have a room each, and they can help pay the mortgage and running costs too'.
A landlord, on the other hand, is always on the lookout for a chance to make money. His move into renting out houses to students is calculated. Look at the form below. My next FOI will ask for the number of names on every student council tax exemption form (not individual names). This will enable me to say how many of the exemptions are for small, unregistered, HMOs and how many are for large HMOs (the latter should equal the number of HMO Register entries, excluding the exceptions). The following pages from Nottingham City Council's HMO Manual should help you understand the process. Broxtowe Borough Council should be publishing something similar.
Remember, Nottingham also require small HMOs to register. Broxtowe doesn't.
Thursday, 14 March 2019
Council Tax exempt student housing in Beeston map now showing numbers
The earlier map just showed locations and not how many properties at that location as defined by the postcode. These are overwhelmingly in Beeston.
I have now entered a number in the postcode pin on the map and entered an explanation on the map itself. The map is a good guide and I make no other claim for it. Six months from now the number will have increased as private landlords buy up more houses in Beeston to let to students, given the continuing restrictions in Nottingham. My aim over the last few years has been to demonstrate that you can map what is happening. At 70 I stopped doing committees and at 75 in a few weeks time I will let others worry about Beeston as I move onto more personal interests. I will help if asked but my self-volunteering days are really coming to an end after 60 years!
I do not doubt for one moment that the Lentonisation of Beeston continues apace.
I also believe Broxtowe Borough Council should work closely with students and other young people needing housing in the Borough to develop innovative housing schemes, which the young tenants would co-manage with others, ideally funding by a levy on landlords equal in value to any council tax exemptions they receive for existing properties. This money could be used to help secure funding to build housing in partnership with students and other young people. The way the present council tax exemption system works just means extra unearned income for landlords. Decent homes for all trump landlord profits.
Click on the map to enlarge:
I have now entered a number in the postcode pin on the map and entered an explanation on the map itself. The map is a good guide and I make no other claim for it. Six months from now the number will have increased as private landlords buy up more houses in Beeston to let to students, given the continuing restrictions in Nottingham. My aim over the last few years has been to demonstrate that you can map what is happening. At 70 I stopped doing committees and at 75 in a few weeks time I will let others worry about Beeston as I move onto more personal interests. I will help if asked but my self-volunteering days are really coming to an end after 60 years!
I do not doubt for one moment that the Lentonisation of Beeston continues apace.
I also believe Broxtowe Borough Council should work closely with students and other young people needing housing in the Borough to develop innovative housing schemes, which the young tenants would co-manage with others, ideally funding by a levy on landlords equal in value to any council tax exemptions they receive for existing properties. This money could be used to help secure funding to build housing in partnership with students and other young people. The way the present council tax exemption system works just means extra unearned income for landlords. Decent homes for all trump landlord profits.
Click on the map to enlarge:
Tuesday, 12 March 2019
Mapping Council Tax Exempt student property in the Broxtowe Borough Counccil area
The six maps below have been created using data listing 567 properties I received from Broxtowe Borough Council today. I will add comparative data in a few days.
If I can create these maps (and the earlier Beeston HMO Map below) with my very limited I.T. skills then it should be easy enough for others to do it better than me. For now I publish my maps without comment (click on a map to enlarge):
If I can create these maps (and the earlier Beeston HMO Map below) with my very limited I.T. skills then it should be easy enough for others to do it better than me. For now I publish my maps without comment (click on a map to enlarge):
At best the data has to be taken as a guide and needs more attention than I can presently give it. Compare the map of Beeston council tax exemption properties above with the map of Beeston HMOs below. Broadgate (pin showing 10) and Low Road (pin showing 14) in particular. This may a case of where multiple entries for the same postcode do not show up on the council tax exempt map — in other words my council tax exempt property map for Beeston should have more 'pins' than it does.
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