Landlords Warned Off Bedroom Tax Loophole

Landlords risk breaching loan agreements if they reclassify properties to protect their tenants from the ‘bedroom tax’.  The possibility that social housing providers could redefine a three-bed home as a two-bed property to protect their tenants from the bedroom tax arises in new regulations, due to come before parliament in June. The regulations do not define what counts as a bedroom for the purposes of the under-occupation penalty.  The bedroom tax will see social housing tenants of working age with a spare room docked an average of £14 a week from April 2013.  Crossbench peer Lord Richard Best said the wording of the draft regulations created an opportunity for landlords to reclassify some larger properties as homes with fewer bedrooms to allow tenants to escape the penalty.  Read more on Inside Housing.