APPROXIMATELY 850,000 people in the UK are lucky enough to own a buy-to-let property, but now these canny mini-property-magnates are to be hit with a £200 green tax.
The Government is set to introduce compulsory energy performance certificates from next year, a key part of the much-debated Home Information Pack, with buy-to-let landlords forced to employ energy inspectors to examine and then give their property an energy rating between A and G.
With the cost of the overall Home Information Packs reaching up to £600, including the cost of the energy certificate, many homeowners are putting their properties on the market before the June 1st deadline.
However, despite the extra costs, market research organisation Mintel predict to the number of buy-to-let homeowners could double to around two million in the next three years.
Empty houses - very green…
Posted: 9th, May 2007 | In: Money Comment (1) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
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May 16th, 2007 at 10:29 pm
I suppose council housing won’t be included in the ‘buy to let’ definition.
We pay councils to buy a load of houses. They put shit families in (for the most part - yes, yes, I know, seventeen people in British council houses actually work hard for a living instead of eating pizzas and knocking out ASBO kids) and then charge them 10 pence a week rent.
Not that I like buy to let landlords; they fill houses up with druggies and scum, and the neighborhood gets run down. But they are both Buy to Lets; and one gets hit - as it should be - while the other is there to help those who can’t help themselves; like the lazy bastards on the dole.
Think about this, fellow workers… Most dole scum, according to recent government figures, own a plasma screen television. Do you?