nbfiresprite

The landlord is a very nasty price of work who has been getting away with it for years. He well in with local councillors. He been investegated before by Channel 4’s Dispatches and others who have produced a dammning reports of broken windows, rats, cockroaches, damp, dirt and leaking toilets in his 2700 plus properties in Bourthmouth and Boscombe. He exploits the spiralling demand for housing and the money to be made from tenants’ housing benefit. His tenants live in fear, not one tenant has been prepared to speakout in court in the [ast 40 years, yet many have died in his properties.

I'm off to a funeral in tomorrow of lad I went through school with, who died last week alone in a unheated flat from the cold, he had been waiting weeks for the landlord to fix the heating. As he has no family left alive, members of the class of 83 have club together to pay for the funeral and attend. One of the people I'm seeing tomorrow is one of the senior staff in the account payments department at County Hall. So I should get some info on how the rebate will be processed by the council.

The British public don't like braggarts, it tends to put them off a person or group and find them to be annoying, From my old CED Bragger Someone who brags, they talking arrogantly or boastfully. They often exaggerating their talents and accomplishments, or speaking poorly about others in an effort to make yourselves look better than others

It was a duff deal for them, ARP are a law into themselves.

The problem here was that as the marina was in lockdown, nobody was allowed in to the marina. They could not stay and went home. When the law states 'You must not stay overnight on any boat, unless it’s your primary residence' in lockdown. In this case they should not have been charge council tax as it is one of the exemptions listed

Blew their own trumpet to early again.

Wrong bill, the comment was on council tax bills

The law does not require the homeowner to be the one on the council tax bill Whose name should be on council tax bill? Usually one person, called the liable person, is liable to pay council tax. Nobody under the age of 18 can be a liable person. A man and woman living together will both be liable or a family group all over 18 , even if there is only one name on the bill. If you recall in 2020 and early 2021, Civil court cases were held in close session. You could not even attend court. The added problem here was the long delays in replys (12-14 weeks) from ARP and the fact that ARP sent all letters to the marina which were returned to sender. The mistake they made was to stop paying council tax in the lockdown when the marina was closed and not wait for a reply from ARP first.

The Council tax bill was not in their name, but the They charge me and others council tax in the lockdowns on the moorings when no one was there. The residential address council tax bill was in their son's name not theirs.

They still refused to accept that as prove, and still charge the tax for the period while the marina was in lockdown. One couple was taken to court and lost to the ARP's £900 an hour lawyer. They ended up having to sell the boat to pay the court costs and fines.

The Anglia Revenues Partnership (ARP) which collects Council Tax for some councils in the East of England have their own rules as to moorings. The ARP will only accept a Council Tax bill with your name on it from another council to prove the mooring is non-residential. Even if it is clearly stated in the mooring agreement that the mooring is non-residential. The mooring has no post address, any post addressed to a mooring is return to sender. The planning permission states non-residential use only. These are not accepted by the ARP as prove that the mooring was non-residential. The clear prove that the marina was non-residential was in lockdown, when the marina was closed to all and boaters were ordered to go home. Anyone who has had the misforture to deal with the ARP, will know what a pain they are to deal, only two ways to contact them, by phone at one of the rare times that call centre is open or by the contact form on their website followed by a 8 to 10 weeks for a reply thats if you get one and have to send a follow up..

They have been claiming so since 2013 Their twitter profile clear states that

Very proactive in promoting themselves and making song and dance about everything they claim to do. NBTA are moaning, That CRT spends more money on enforcement than on boaters' facilities on the London waterway, When they and their members are the cause of the need for CRT to spend more on enforcement in the first place.

I spoke to the RBOA, RYA and NABO at the Southampton Boat Show in September about the rebate, all three had since June, had been consulted by the Department for Business and Energy on the best way to move forward on. Getting on with the Job is what these organisations do, they had no need to make a song and dance about what they were doing. Unlike the NBTA who make a song and dance about everything they do. I'm sure that the NBTA supporters along the canals in London and the lower River Lee, rather the Government sent someone walking down the towpath chucking bundles of notes, no questions asked on to every boat they pass. Many don't want to be on any database, and may well be in hidding. From what? could be anything from owning money to outstanding warrents. They tend to have a psychological need to hide when ever they see anyone in unform. Some through choice don't have a address where post can be sent or have any form of account. Any application will need to be cross checked over a number of databases to prevent fraud and double payment for some will be temped to try. People whose boats are on legal moorings and pay council tax on the mooring should be a quick and simply process. The NBTA claim to speak for all Liveaboards in the UK. Most Liveaboards are in-fact based on legal moorings in Harbours and river estuary's in Marinas or on swing moorings, far out numbering liveaboards on the canals. Most of the owners of these are either members of the Residential Boat Owners' Association or The Royal Yachting Association or both, Most of them will have never heard of the NBTA.

Taking the credit for the actions of others, nothing new there.

The marina has no choice, but to follow HMRC ruling as laydown in the letter as regards to the charging of VAT.

Not when the mooring is classed as non residential as the letter to Foxes from the HMRC stated.

That was the case with Foxes after a visit from the VATman

That was the case at Foxes, until the taxman ordered them to increase it back to 20 percent as the moorings are not classed as Residential. Tracy show me the letter from HMRC when I asked about it.

They do in Fenland, it very much depends on the local council.

It would be following in the footsteps of more than 40 countries around the world which have introduced a form of daily visitor levy for overnight stays, including Greece, France, Amsterdam, Barcelona, and the US state of California. You should ask Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Camden and Islington councils how much that it is costing them to provide services to these moored on the towpath in their areas.

I contacted the Department and asked What was defined as a 'registered site'? Answer was a site address that was on the Council tax valuation and the Royal Mail address databases.

The marina where I'm moored has a few garages for rent.

The marina bill is not capped, some marinas are now charging their moorers as much as 66p per unit plus vat @ 20%. Many houses in rural areas are not connected to the national grid. I don't just mean remote places in Wales and Scotland, even here in the Fens there are houses which don't have mains power so have to produce their own power.