How to prove to land and property services a house in uneconomic

[CalvinHobbes]

Hello, 

in Northern Ireland we pay rates on houses, both unoccupied and occupied unless you can prove a building is uneconomic to fix up. The bar is high apparently, even a missing wall or hole in the roof may not qualify the house for exemption. The house we want zero rated is due to be demolished in the next 2 month, we have planning permission, it's derelict, the floor is unstable because the house it's attached to has missing floors. It's thoroughly rotten with a structural fault. The roof would need replaced and missing bits to put tiles on. Any suggestions what actually will qualify?

 

[Mr Punter]

Surely you don't pay rates when it has been demolished?

[Bozza]

I’m not in NI so don’t know but if it helps:

 

I had an old cottage that we had pp for demo and rebuild.  It was uninhabitable but still liable for council tax, in fact because it had been vacant we were about to be hit with a 200% rate.  Previous empty house discounts had been exhausted.

 

The building warrant for the new house was going to take a while so I applied for a separate warrant for the demo of the cottage.  The demo warrant came through quickly.  Our building control dept advised us to do it this way.

 

I stripped the internals and as soon as the demo warrant came through, I took the roof was off & I was able to send photos in to get the property removed from the council tax list, so not liable for tax moving forward.

 

However as you are about to imminently knock down your house anyway I do wonder whether there are any actual £ benefits -v- costs/time of removing the roof earlier, even if this would meet the criteria in NI.

 

I’m wondering why you didn’t demo the house earlier to exempt it from rates/council tax as assuming you’ve had the pp in place for a while.

 

 

 

[Conor]

You'll have to take the roof off, doors, windows etc and no kitchen. We had quite a battle to convince ANDBC that our house was detalict, but ended up just having to wait until we started demolishing it.

[CalvinHobbes]

Thanks, yes although I put in the paperwork that it was being demolished and started stripping it, the charges will be for april to when the demolition actually happens (hopefully in next month or 2)unless they accept it was uneconomic to fix.

Edited August 13, 2022 by CalvinHobbes

[Temp]

You're probably going to have to actually work out the cost to bring it back into use and show that would be more than its worth when completed. 

[CalvinHobbes]

So guy coming tomorrow, so 2 semi attached cottages built 1940's and one has been abandoned for 20 years already zero rated. I attach pics. The other in better nick but roofer told me he wouldn't replace any more tiles because there was nothing to put them on! Spark pulled one of the fuse switches and said don't ever put it back in, the wiring is a death trap (he was right, I was thrown across the bedroom plugging in something). He said the place was dangerous - get out. He was right. Floor feels dodgy, obviously dry rot etc and a big structural fault running across both. Windows single plane and the wind howls through (gaps around edges which appear to have been eaten!)

So in terms of estimating valued where do you start?

How much to replace a cottage roof? 40k?

How much for the floor joists/treat woodworm and dry rot? 20k???

Windows 5k?

Wiring? 10k?

The staircase is not up to code and leads to only bathroom so presumably that has to change??

Meeting the land and property gent tomorrow, was thinking of giving him a list of estimated costs.

We are knocking both down, it's just if it gets zero rated I don't get  a rates bill of 500 .  Below photo of adjoining cottage floor.

[Mr Punter]

Just be nice to the guy, tell hime the cost to save the place is vast and you will be demolishing soon as it is unsafe.