Loft conversion (Merged)

user1977

lycane said:

CIS said:

lycane said:

CIS said:

How that works with the case of an illegally subdivided building I don't know but you need to ask the question in case council tax liability comes your way and you are left with a hefty bill.

The legality of it is ignored when making the determination.

Can you elaborate on it?

The VOA simply look at whether there is an dwelling for council tax purposes - in basic terms,  a unit of accommodation that can be lived in. Whether or not that unit of accommodation is legal or not makes no difference (otherwise any illegally constructed property would escape council tax).

but if it is not safe will they not do anything about it?

Whether it's safe is nothing to do with them. Their job is to charge the correct amount of council tax.

MaryNB

almanak said:

user1977 said:

lycane said:

CIS said:

lycane said:

CIS said:

How that works with the case of an illegally subdivided building I don't know but you need to ask the question in case council tax liability comes your way and you are left with a hefty bill.

The legality of it is ignored when making the determination.

Can you elaborate on it?

The VOA simply look at whether there is an dwelling for council tax purposes - in basic terms,  a unit of accommodation that can be lived in. Whether or not that unit of accommodation is legal or not makes no difference (otherwise any illegally constructed property would escape council tax).

but if it is not safe will they not do anything about it?

Whether it's safe is nothing to do with them. Their job is to charge the correct amount of council tax.

so who can verify its proper construction and make the landlord liable for modifying it or not allowed to rent?

Report it to your council as a potential planning breach.

I presume based the phrasing of your comment and your previous threads, you are the OP on an alternative account. 

lycane

MaryNB said:

so who can verify its proper construction and make the landlord liable for modifying it or not allowed to rent?

Report it to your council as a potential planning breach.

Apparently according to the previous posts here and our search online planning breach becomes legal after some time

MaryNB

lycane said:

MaryNB said:

so who can verify its proper construction and make the landlord liable for modifying it or not allowed to rent?

Report it to your council as a potential planning breach.

Apparently according to the previous posts here and our search online planning breach becomes legal after some time

I've lost track of things in this thread. 

If you're saying it is unsafe, that's still something you report to the council. You can report it as an unsafe building or report it as an issue with a rental property. They can send someone out to inspect. 

Do you have an EPC for your flat?

lycane

MaryNB said:

lycane said:

Apparently according to the previous posts here and our search online planning breach becomes legal after some time

I've lost track of things in this thread. 

If you're saying it is unsafe, that's still something you report to the council. You can report it as an unsafe building or report it as an issue with a rental property. They can send someone out to inspect. 

Do you have an EPC for your flat?

I've lost track myself, complain to moneysavingexpert, they've merged it without my consent.

you would get EPC if the house was properly subdivided, so no.

MaryNB

lycane said:

MaryNB said:

lycane said:

Apparently according to the previous posts here and our search online planning breach becomes legal after some time

I've lost track of things in this thread. 

If you're saying it is unsafe, that's still something you report to the council. You can report it as an unsafe building or report it as an issue with a rental property. They can send someone out to inspect. 

Do you have an EPC for your flat?

I've lost track myself, complain to moneysavingexpert, they've merged it without my consent.

you would get EPC if the house was properly subdivided, so no.

You were supposed to be provided with an EPC at the start of your tenancy (if your tenancy started after October 2015 that is). Without one you cannot be evicted, not having an EPC makes an S21 notice invalid. If your tenancy agreement started before October 2015, your landlord still needs one to let the property, but lack of one may not affect an S21 notice.

In addition to contacting the council over concerns about the condition of a rental property, you can complain to trading standards about the lack of EPC. If he does do an EPC and the results is F or worse, the landlord is not legally allowed to let the property. 

anselld

MaryNB said:

lycane said:

MaryNB said:

so who can verify its proper construction and make the landlord liable for modifying it or not allowed to rent?

Report it to your council as a potential planning breach.

Apparently according to the previous posts here and our search online planning breach becomes legal after some time

I've lost track of things in this thread. 

If you're saying it is unsafe, that's still something you report to the council. You can report it as an unsafe building or report it as an issue with a rental property. They can send someone out to inspect. 

Do you have an EPC for your flat?

The OP has been advised to report various issues to various relevant authorities however has declined to do so until after leaving property due to fear of harassment.  There is therefore little or nothing which can be done to progress matters at this time.

lycane

MaryNB said:

t. 

Do you have an EPC for your flat?

I've lost track myself, complain to moneysavingexpert, they've merged it without my consent.

you would get EPC if the house was properly subdivided, so no.

You were supposed to be provided with an EPC at the start of your tenancy (if your tenancy started after October 2015 that is). Without one you cannot be evicted, not having an EPC makes an S21 notice invalid. If your tenancy agreement started before October 2015, your landlord still needs one to let the property, but lack of one may not affect an S21 notice.

In addition to contacting the council over concerns about the condition of a rental property, you can complain to trading standards about the lack of EPC. If he does do an EPC and the results is F or worse, the landlord is not legally allowed to let the property. 

oh thank you, ha ha! Another thing on him! I literally can't stand him anymore. We are planning to move anyway as dealing with such insecure person affects our mental health as well. And I am pretty sure that if there was such situation he would find a way to create an unbearable nuisance as he is already doing now to force you to move out anyway

lycane

anselld said:

MaryNB said:

Do you have an EPC for your flat?

The OP has been advised to report various issues to various relevant authorities however has declined to do so until after leaving property due to fear of harassment.  There is therefore little or nothing which can be done to progress matters at this time.

not a fear but care about our own mental health. We reported a noise to environmental health.They promised to call back and come here.Nobody contacted us back. This is how Council deals with it. We are also already using Noise app sending noise recordings to the council but you have to do it for several months so they even start investigation.

lycane

MaryNB said:

It is illegal this is right. If they find out we will have a perfect case for compensation. We might be exempt from paying council tax soon though

You need to find out if you owe any council tax to date then. If you report him and it's deemed to be a separate property on the eyes of the council they could come after you for the council tax owed. It could be a lot of money depending on how long you've lived there. The councils are pretty ruthless when it comes to unpaid tax. Regardless of the illegal conversion issues, you should have known you were liable from the start if you understood you were renting a separate flat. Any issue between you and the landlord with regards to the tax won't be their problem. Going after him for monies owed will be a separate issue.

we have just reported him. Now the question is. In case of potential  payment required, is it better to stay in the flat to deal with it or move and deal while living somewhere else.  I guess it will be easier for us to get money back from the landlord while staying here (at least one of us)  by for example not paying the rent.