Of Bedrooms That Aren’t

A First Tier Tribunal decision on a bedroom tax appeal has overturned the landlord’s assertions on bedroom numbers.  The decision accepts that it is reasonable for the benefit authority to rely on the landlord’s description of the property. But, significantly, the landlord’s description is not determinative. The FTT is quite happy to determine whether a ‘bedroom’ as described by the landlord actually is a bedroom, and to replace the landlord’s description of the property with its own. In this instance, from 3 bedrooms to one.  While this is only an FTT decision, and not binding at all, the approach does raise the interesting prospect of, for example, those with adapted properties where a bedroom has been physically changed in purpose, or those with small box rooms, making successful appeals which overturn the landlord’s own designation of bedrooms.  Read more on the Nearly Legal blog.