News from the Residential Property Investor, the bi-monthly magazine for RLA members other artilces from the December 2001 / January 2002 issue RPI news archive

Reader win rates refund - December 2001 / January 2002

An RPI reader has received a rates refund of nearly £1,000 after using a case reported in the magazine to prove that his Blackpool property could not be classed as a house in multiple occupation.

David Middlehurst had been arguing for well over a year that this was not the case and that the council was wrong to hold him liable to council tax. His claim that the tenants held a joint tenancy fell on deaf ears until he was able to point to the 1995 case of Barnes v Sheffield City Council, reported in the July/August issue of RPI. The circumstances were identical to his own, he pointed out. Although tenants paid rent separately, they had come as a single group.

Blackpool Borough Council caved in and sent Middlehurst a refund totalling £990.
 

other artilces from the December 2001 / January 2002 issue

• 'Joined up' thinking overdue
• RLA launches assurance schemes
• Jail term for landlord who raped tenant
• Electronic gas certificates
• Byers promotes limited licensing
• 'Cancer risk' with roofing felt
• Government changes law to reverse court benefits loss
• Deprived areas have stamp duty 'abolished'
• Reader win rates refund
• In brief
• Evicting the 'Rigsby' image