Buy-to-let owners complain of “a creeping plague” of costs. Trish Fowler says overzealous officials have billed her £2.89 for a single day's council tax

Britain’s swelling army of private landlords say they face “persecution” from local authorities who view them as “cash cows ripe for milking”. They complain that local authorities are applying a range of new and unfair charges, making it harder for them to let properties responsibly and for profit. The fact that there is little public sympathy for landlords, or those involved in buying to let, makes it easier for them to be subject to councils’ “stealth taxes”, they say. Alan Ward, chairman of the Residential Landlords Association, representing 17,000 private landlords, described the new costs as “a creeping plague”. They push landlords to the point where letting is no longer viable, he warned. Another landlord body, the National Landlords Association (NLA), with around 23,000 members, is equally vexed. Chief executive Richard Lambert said his organisation was gathering information toward taking legal action against a number of local authorities, to fight back against the rising costs......Read more here