Congestion tax

[Bak]

We own a flat in St Kilda that we lease to Quest. We have recently received notice of a new Congestion Tax Levy of $950 for our apartment. Should the leaseholders be responsible for this? They can control the rent they charge whereas we are locked into an agreement with them, but paying the tax certainly impacts on our bottom line. Has anyone had experience with this?

 

[Terry_w]

We own a flat in St Kilda that we lease to Quest. We have recently received notice of a new Congestion Tax Levy of $950 for our apartment. Should the leaseholders be responsible for this? They can control the rent they charge whereas we are locked into an agreement with them, but paying the tax certainly impacts on our bottom line. Has anyone had experience with this?

Whats your lease say - unlike the government you can't just go charging people without any legal basis.

 

[Bak]

The Congestion tax wasn't mooted when the lease was structured. Quest rent out the property and others in the building and in other properties on a nightly basis. They have options every 5 years and the return adjusts periodically according to a formula from when we first purchased the property about 15 years ago.
I'm just wondering if anyone has a similar situation.
ETA from State Revenue people:
Passing on the cost

If you own a parking space and do not use it, you may pass on the cost of the levy to the person using the parking space.

For a private car park, the owner will be able to pass on the levy to another person who has the right to use the parking space under a lease, licence or other arrangement

 

[dr house]

we have a metropole car park leased out, which by the way, is a miserable investment.
I received some sort of notice months ago and have chosen to ignore it.
the paper work compliance for this car-park is already out of proportion for the return, so yet more compliance!
Stuff them.

 

[neK]

Interesting....

http://www.sro.vic.gov.au/SRO/srona...0441F59-EFC160ABBE873990CA2575B70020FC3B?open

If you own a parking space and do not use it, you may pass on the cost of the levy to the person using the parking space.

For a private car park, the owner will be able to pass on the levy to another person who has the right to use the parking space under a lease, licence or other arrangement.

Based on what you said Bak (which is also in the link above), it sounds like you can pass it back onto Quest for them to pay.

It wouldn't surprise me if they are trying to pull one over you and hoping you will pay it instead of them.

 

[Bak]

Thank you for that. We are trying to contact other owners to see if they know more about it.
We are waiting for the current managers to get back to us.

 

[Bak]

It is now resolved and we will be exempt as it is a serviced flat. I'm not sure of the technicalities but happy to have followed it through.

 

[neK]

Please post details on how you went about it?

Did you approach the management team and they caved straight away? Were their discussions back and forth etc?