Holiday Home support

DavidJohnElliott

We have owned a holiday home in Cornwall for more than 20 years. It has always been rented out for more than 20 weeks a year and we submit a tax return every year.
Unfortunately we paid Council Tax rather than Business Rates which has cost us a lot extra over the years.
Owners who paid Rates now get a Corvid-19 grant of £10000.00 but because we paid Council Tax we are apparently due nothing.
This seems grossly unfair.
Is there anything we can do about this?

Jeremy535897

I don't understand why you didn't get it rated years ago, as you would probably have paid no rates at all due to SBRR? You cannot claim something is unfair, when the remedy has been in your hands for decades.

elmer

You will also have been receiving domestic waste collections, which dont apply to holiday homes

elmer

lincroft1710

You will have to approach the VOA to have the property assessed for business rates rather than CT, but it won't happen overnight

Jeremy535897

lincroft1710 said:

You will have to approach the VOA to have the property assessed for business rates rather than CT, but it won't happen overnight

Yes, and unfortunately it's too late for getting the grant, as that required the property to be on the rating list at 11 March 2020.

diggingdude

DavidJohnElliott said:

We have owned a holiday home in Cornwall for more than 20 years. It has always been rented out for more than 20 weeks a year and we submit a tax return every year.
Unfortunately we paid Council Tax rather than Business Rates which has cost us a lot extra over the years.
Owners who paid Rates now get a Corvid-19 grant of £10000.00 but because we paid Council Tax we are apparently due nothing.
This seems grossly unfair.
Is there anything we can do about this?

Plenty of people either rightly or wrongly in Cornwall will say it's unfair so much property is second home/holiday property.  Many more will say it is unfair people have been claiming the bailout money for their holiday homes, some rented only a few weeks a year.  I doubt tax payers will be willing to help out at all on this situation

Mickey666

The OP has had 20 years to sort it out but continued to pay CT because presumably they benefitted from that option.  Seems a bit rich to complain about it now.

Mickey666

diggingdude said:

DavidJohnElliott said:

We have owned a holiday home in Cornwall for more than 20 years. It has always been rented out for more than 20 weeks a year and we submit a tax return every year.
Unfortunately we paid Council Tax rather than Business Rates which has cost us a lot extra over the years.
Owners who paid Rates now get a Corvid-19 grant of £10000.00 but because we paid Council Tax we are apparently due nothing.
This seems grossly unfair.
Is there anything we can do about this?

Plenty of people either rightly or wrongly in Cornwall will say it's unfair so much property is second home/holiday property.  Many more will say it is unfair people have been claiming the bailout money for their holiday homes, some rented only a few weeks a year.  I doubt tax payers will be willing to help out at all on this situation

I've never really understood the argument that 'incomers' buy up all the houses for holiday homes and thereby inflate local house prices to a level that the locals and their children can't afford.  Well yes, that's one half of the equation but what about the other half?  It's the locals who are quite happy to sell their homes for the inflated prices that only 'incomers' can afford.  Physician heal thyself!

DavidJohnElliott

We have not benefited from this option. In fact we have had to pay significantly more in Council Tax than we would in Rates.
The reality is that St Ives Holidays who is looking after the property never advised us that we should pay rates not Council Tax so we have ended up paying significantly more than we should have for 20 years benefiting St Ives Council Tax payers.
We have also rented this out for 20 - 30 weeks + each year so this was run by us as a genuine business.
We now immediately refunded all bookings up to and beyond the end of the lockdown and did it immediately, no questions asked.
Our concern is that neighbouring holiday homes which are rented out far less than ours and which avail themselves of Council Waste collections pay no Council Tax and no Rates yet receive a grant of £10000 whereas we, who have fully supported the Council apparently receive nothing. This seems to us slightly unfair and our question is whether anything can be done about it.
Slagging off 2nd home owners as you have a grudge against them is not useful. This is our pension and we rely on it.



 

Fire_Fox

DavidJohnElliott said:

We have not benefited from this option. In fact we have had to pay significantly more in Council Tax than we would in Rates.
The reality is that St Ives Holidays who is looking after the property never advised us that we should pay rates not Council Tax so we have ended up paying significantly more than we should have for 20 years benefiting St Ives Council Tax payers.
We have also rented this out for 20 - 30 weeks + each year so this was run by us as a genuine business.
.... we, who have fully supported the Council apparently receive nothing. This seems to us slightly unfair and our question is whether anything can be done about it.
Slagging off 2nd home owners as you have a grudge against them is not useful. This is our pension and we rely on it.

Your language is contradictory throughout. Either this is your holiday home or it is a buy-to-let investment property. Either it is your pension or your registered business.  Either it was run by you or run by an agency.

If your holiday letting agent is contracted to prepare all your accounts and advise you on tax you may have a legal claim against them. 

Jeremy535897

I would repeat my original observation. It was in your hands, and has been for the last 20 years, to switch over to business rates. It is not the council's duty to tell you how to reduce your bills. They would not have known that you were meeting the letting week requirement. I have never heard of a letting agent whose responsibilities extended to advising on tax (council tax or income tax), but it depends on the terms of your contract with them.