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Housing associations

Following consultation with public sector and housing association representatives, Land & Property Services (LPS) has taken on board a number of recommendations made regarding arrangements for customers who pay rates for large numbers of properties.

New arrangements are being implemented for Housing Associations with effect from 1st April 2010 and will be phased in for other ratepayers over the coming year. The new arrangements include the following:

Month

Action required

Jan/FebRating Policy Division writes to housing associations registered under Social Standardisation Regulations requesting details of properties owned. This information will be passed to LPS to update records.
AprilLPS issues a one page bill and electronic spreadsheet to report any additional changes to each housing association. Paper schedules covering all properties will no longer be issued at this stage.
JuneDeadline for housing associations to return completed spreadsheets detailing changes to their properties. Changes submitted after 30 June will not be applied to the relevant rates account until after 30 September.
AugustA full rates bill will be issued showing updates provided prior to 30 June for each property. The amount on the bill must be paid in full by 30 September to receive any allowance.  
September

Housing associations must submit a completed remittance advice that was issued with the bill in August, specifying the amount to be paid to each property. This should include reasons why they are not paying rates for individual properties.

LPS will allocate the payment as requested. Any amounts left outstanding will be billed in a supplementary bill and will not be eligible for the 15% allowance.

Failure to provide this information will result in LPS allocating the payment in a specific order and housing associations will be unable to reconcile future bills.

Housing associations should report further changes that have taken place between June and September.

OctoberLPS issues another electronic spreadsheet to each housing association to allow them to report any changes arising since 30 June.
NovemberDeadline for housing associations to return completed spreadsheets of changes to their properties. Changes submitted after 30 November will not be applied to the relevant rates account until the next rating year.
DecemberLPS to issue an updated paper bill showing rates outstanding.

You can find more information on the new arrangements for housing associations in the following link: