UK COMICRON GRANT ISSUE

[Robbie54]

I have applied for the Omicron grant and my local council have asked for "named letting agreements".  The problem I have is the only thing Airbnb supply are the names of guests, the date of their booking and arrival, the price paid to me, the letting description and a booking reference, I don't have an agreement as such to show the council, even though I feel what I have given them is enough. Has anyone in the UK who has applied for the grant encountered this issue? 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Robbie54 There seem to be different requirements depending on whether he property is business rated or not and also which council you are dealing with. If it is business rated (as ours is) then our council requires next to no details - Just telling them we rent through Airbnb seemed to be enough. If not business rated then I believe they want to see a loss of revenue associated with Omicron.

The great thing about our council is you can actually talk with a human being on the phone to iron out any issues. 

[Robbie54]

@Mike-And-Jane0  I am business rated, I just don't understand why they're being so pedantic. They have my rates account number, they know I'm a holiday let owner, I've sent them a list of all of my bookings with details of who booked, when etc, and yet they are insisting on me giving them something I cannot give. 

I spoke to Airbnb and they told me although they don't have a written agreement per se the actual booking itself is the named letting agreement, as when a guest books they are accepting the host and Airbnbs policies.  Unfortunately my council fails to see this. They seem to think it's the norm for when I get a booking I have some sort of agreement in writing with the guest. They think its 1975. 

[Helen744]

Robbie 54 logically it would be cancellations that would attract a grant ? I assume . This should be recorded and some details as to why the cancellations occurred or am I misunderstanding what you are applying for ?Many people lost money all the way through covid but most people did not receive any compensation of any kind here ..... H

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Robbie54 No ideas I am afraid other than to ask them to refer the issue to the local government ombudsman.