Long term county council lease.... rtb/revenue conflicting

rgodard80a

Hi,

As accidental landlords, we rented my wifes house to the county council for 10-20 years. (not as profitable as private/management renting - but don't want the hassle)

Anyways, we've been leasing to the county council for nearly 4 years now and realised a big oversight.... we weren't claiming for mortgage interest relief.
This is a good thing, we should be due a big tax rebate as my wifes 35 year mortgage is hammered by interest.


1. The lease with the county council says the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 is not applicable.
2. The RTB site says that anyone renting to a public housing authority is exempt

But when I talked on the phone to the revenue, they took a quick look at the requirements to claim interest relief, and all instances seem to require RTB registration.

Anyone else long term leasing to a county council and know the story?
Did I just get through to the wrong person in the revenue ?

Or is there some special way to register with the RTB?
They require a name and ideally PPS number of the tenant, but the co. council are basically the tenant.

regards,
rg

Marcusm

The requirements of section 97(2I) are that the registration requirements of the RTA 2004 are complied with. No RTA requirements arise with respect to a letting to a local authority and s97 is framed to grant higher levels of interest relief explicitly in respect of “qualifying leases” to local authorities such that I would construe the section as meaning the “registration requirements [if any]” are complied with.

rgodard80a

Thanks,

yeah, that's what I thought... think the revenue phone support guy just didn't know that specific use case very well and was quoting the public FAQ or the like.

regards,
rg