richo106 Posted January 2, 2023 Author Share Posted January 2, 2023 1 hour ago, pilgrim said: The wording in the law for the empty house premium says it can be only be applied to a house that has been left "unoccupied AND unfurnished". as long as you can prove it was left furnished then the premium cannot be applied. As soon as I raised this point to the council officer they dropped their case. Thankfully it was written with an and not or! As far as I can tell this will not affect the VAT reclaim process, that requirements for that just state you have to be able to prove that the property has not been lived in for more than 2 years. It does not mention the condition that the property was left in. I have not finished my renovations yet so have not filed my claim, in my case the power was disconnected so its fairly easy to prove it was not lived in. Thanks for highlighting this, I have a photo from the estate agent on WhatsApp showing me the lounge which is full of furniture. Back from November 2020 when it first come on the market. my council website says just unfurnished properties (see attached screen shot) I have a read through and can’t see it affecting it either (attached image second bullet point) it just says that has not been lived in I have a letter from the empty homes officer stating it was been empty from 2009 as my evidence Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelvin Posted January 3, 2023 Share Posted January 3, 2023 I rented the house we are in just now last December 2021. However we didn’t move in until March (our house sale fell through) I filled in a form to say that the house was unoccupied and unfurnished and consequently didn’t pay any council tax until we moved in. The limit was 6 months. This was in Perthshire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pilgrim Posted January 3, 2023 Share Posted January 3, 2023 @richo106 Hopefully you will get some good news soon then. It still infuriates me that this uplift is passed on to new owners, especially when you can be certain that the old owners were not paying any council tax. In my case the house had been left unoccupied for 23 years, just paying their council tax demand for the first year would have used up most of my renovation budget. It is a shame that most council officers are not as understanding and forthcoming with information as the people who work in building control. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richo106 Posted January 3, 2023 Author Share Posted January 3, 2023 2 hours ago, pilgrim said: @richo106 Hopefully you will get some good news soon then. It still infuriates me that this uplift is passed on to new owners, especially when you can be certain that the old owners were not paying any council tax. In my case the house had been left unoccupied for 23 years, just paying their council tax demand for the first year would have used up most of my renovation budget. It is a shame that most council officers are not as understanding and forthcoming with information as the people who work in building control. Me too, i have spoken to them this morning and i have now have to email them with all the details so hoping to be ok. (fingers crossed) I know! I still can't get my head around I only have one photo unfortunately of the furnished lounge (back from March 2021) but the lovely lady at the council suggested a signed letter from the old owners may also be suffice Will update you if i get something back Once again thanks again for replies 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adsibob Posted January 3, 2023 Share Posted January 3, 2023 16 hours ago, richo106 said: regarding the increase I think this is happening anyway as mentioned previously a council officer drove passed on the chance and took some photos and reported it to the VOA I am not sure this is allowed. Council tax is banded depending on the value of property at a specific date: 1 April 1991 (England) or 1 April 2003 (Wales). Unless there is a change of use, the only time it can change is "A property that’s increased in size may move to a higher band when it’s next purchased." So unless the person you purchased from did any works to expand it prior to purchase, it should not increase. If you expand it, then upon selling it VOA can revalue the band but that will only affect the person who purchases from you. That is why I made my comments about not deleting in from the register if it was going to cost you more to have it revalued when it comes back on the register. See this for more detail: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/understand-how-council-tax-bands-are-assessed#visits-from-the-voa 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richo106 Posted January 31, 2023 Author Share Posted January 31, 2023 Update: Hi All and thanks again for all who posted I used some photos when moved in to prove it was empty and furnished, thankfully they agreed with me. So my property was only classed as empty and unfurnished from when I bought it June 21. I won't have to pay the back dated 300% premium but just the normal rate until July this year when I am subject to the 100% premium I didn't want to comment on here until I had my new council tax bill in writing Thanks again 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Punter Posted January 31, 2023 Share Posted January 31, 2023 That's great news. I understand them not wanting properties left empty but you are clearly making great improvements and it does not feel right to have the extra levy when you are not adding any burden to their costs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canski Posted January 31, 2023 Share Posted January 31, 2023 I got lost at ‘empty and furnished’ 😜 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelvin Posted January 31, 2023 Share Posted January 31, 2023 That’s great news. Well done. Big relief. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canski Posted November 25, 2023 Share Posted November 25, 2023 So I received 2 council tax bills. One for 22-23 one for 23 -24. Total £9k+ The old house that I bought in April 22 was in shit state and was going to be demolished from the start. I ignored them for a while due to being flat out on my build then last week I got a final demand and threatened with court action in 14 days. After a few sleepless nights I took the bull by the horns and spent a couple of hours writing a letter and printing lots of date stamped photos and took on the next battle with my scanner and sent them a lengthy email describing why I think I shouldn't pay any council tax. I sent the hard copies by recorded snail mail then left it a couple of days before calling them. Result !! I don't have to pay anything for the first year and only have to pay for the time elapsed after one year up to demolition date. so effectively 2.5 months. long term empty rate. I will wait for confirmation of the first reductions then go back and argue the toss about the 2 and a half months which wouldn't have occurred if the council hadn't delayed me for months waiting for a section 106 to be printed out. They also said we get 3 months free after completion. This may take a while. 😜 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markc Posted November 25, 2023 Share Posted November 25, 2023 Long term empty rate can be much higher than fully occupied, certainly is in Barnsley. Couple of years ago I bought the semi attached to my mums because she couldn’t face new neighbours after 50+ years (plus I couldn’t subject anyone to my mums cantankerous rants). Upshot is I now pay full council tax plus a long term empty premium of £579.44 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canski Posted November 25, 2023 Share Posted November 25, 2023 21 minutes ago, markc said: Long term empty rate can be much higher than fully occupied, certainly is in Barnsley. Couple of years ago I bought the semi attached to my mums because she couldn’t face new neighbours after 50+ years (plus I couldn’t subject anyone to my mums cantankerous rants). Upshot is I now pay full council tax plus a long term empty premium of £579.44 You're getting off light. LTE premium here is 100% on top so you pay double. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adsibob Posted November 26, 2023 Share Posted November 26, 2023 On 25/11/2023 at 10:23, markc said: Long term empty rate can be much higher than fully occupied Ditto here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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