Reclassification ‘Will Not Hit Rent Hard’

A leading academic has claimed that landlords reclassifying their properties to protect tenants from the bedroom tax would only suffer ‘very limited’ losses.

Professor Steve Wilcox, associate at the University of York, speaking at the Social Housing finance conference in London last week, said he is ‘surprised’ more landlords are not re-designating homes.  Under the bedroom tax, landlords can reclassify properties as having fewer bedrooms so tenants avoid the average £14-a-week under-occupation penalty.  To date, the majority of landlords have ruled this out, citing the resulting loss in rental income and concerns about how it would affect existing lending agreements.  Read more on Inside Housing.