The Welsh government looks set to follow England’s lead by launching a consultation into how HMOs are valued and banded for council tax purposes - meaning that tenants of shared housing would no longer have to foot large bills.

Proposed changes will ensure that HMOs are valued as a single property for council tax banding where appropriate, creating consistency across the sector, and providing certainty for councils, landlords and households. New draft regulations propose that the owner remains liable for council tax.

The government says it is aware of concerns that some HMO properties across Wales are not aggregated for council tax purposes, and the adverse impact this can have on both owners and occupiers.

Liability

Rebecca Evans (pictured), cabinet secretary for finance, constitution and cabinet office, adds: “This will ease administrative burdens on councils and ensure the council tax liability will remain with the owner in the usual way, rather than councils billing individual tenants who may only occupy the property for a short period of time.”

Swathes of landlords in England had railed against the increasing numbers of HMOs that were re-banded by the Valuation Office Agency as containing multiple ‘individual homes’ rather than just one for council tax purposes.

It was claimed that up to three million tenants who rented within HMO properties across the UK were affected. The re-bandings meant that tenants living in an HMO with six bedrooms would see their council tax rise six-fold; instead of paying a shared council tax on a single property, each room was classified as a band A with tenants charged individually and only able to apply for a 25% single-person discount.

After a widespread campaign by landlords and property groups, the UK government ended the practice in England at the end of last year.

The Welsh government wants views from taxpayers, councils, landlords, HMO owners and tenants during the consultation which runs until 26th November.

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