Council tax

[nod]

Hi Just quick question

 

At what stage will we all have to start paying council tax on our newly built homes

Is it after BC have done the final sign off

Or sooner

 

       Gary

[Crofter]

There has been some recent discussion on this (would post link but iPad won't let me...)

You'll be charged once you move in, whether the build is complete or not. And indeed you might be asked to pay once the council think the house is in any way habitable. So options for avoiding include to leave the water or power disconnected.

 

 

[Jeremy Harris]

Some links that may help:

 

 

[nod]

Thanks for the quick Reply's 

My wife Deborah has got bit spooked with people keep saying that we look like we are almost finished

in actual fact we are miles away 

The outside looks good

bit a basic shell inside

Great links also

 

thanks again

     Gary

 

[Calvinmiddle]

Just be careful with this, I got hit with council tax for a year before we actually finished because I didn't know the rules applied.

You know what they say - forewarned is forearmed.

[nod]

5 hours ago, Calvinmiddle said:

Just be careful with this, I got hit with council tax for a year before we actually finished because I didn't know the rules applied.

You know what they say - forewarned is forearmed.

Interesting 

what rule to you break

[NSS]

One advantage of not using the local authority for building control is that they don't get to see how close the house is to being habitable.

[Ferdinand]

14 hours ago, nod said:

Thanks for the quick Reply's 

My wife Deborah has got bit spooked with people keep saying that we look like we are almost finished

in actual fact we are miles away 

The outside looks good

bit a basic shell inside

Great links also

 

thanks again

     Gary

 

 

I would say that the answer to such comments is either to educate them or ignore them.

Edited September 24, 2017 by Ferdinand

[Oz07]

9 hours ago, NSS said:

One advantage of not using the local authority for building control is that they don't get to see how close the house is to being habitable.

I genuinely don't think my local authority communicate between BCO and council tax. I've got away with quite a few months 

[Jeremy Harris]

32 minutes ago, Oz07 said:

I genuinely don't think my local authority communicate between BCO and council tax. I've got away with quite a few months 

 

 

I know that our LABC didn'r communicate with the council tax people at all, as the council tax people (in Trowbridge) hadn't a clue who our building control body was, plus they had the wrong name for the owner of the plot.  Our LABC are based in Salisbury, too, so that probably doesn't help with any possible communication.

 

I'm pretty sure that LABCs run as independent trading entities, anyway, a bit like Trading Funds, and are self-funded from fees, so not truly a part of the local authority.  There's also the point that we had an inspection before first fix, when the insulation was being blown in, and then no other inspections until the final one, so LABC would have had no way of knowing when first fix was finished.

 

As our council tax people employ at least one snooper to just break in to sites unlawfully to assess whether they are ready to be served with a notice of intended completion (and they do this unlawfully, without a shadow of doubt, if the site is a still secure and signed building site and they visit outside normal working ours, without making a request) I would guess this means that they cannot rely on any building control body for information.

[Calvinmiddle]

On 23/09/2017 at 15:58, nod said:

Interesting 

what rule to you break

Not a rule as such, just what counts for a building to be a habitable dwelling, can't remember the exact details - but know from what Jeremy has but on his blog that not having potable water means it isn't a habitable dwelling 

[curlewhouse]

It's all a bit arbitrary though isn't it? For example we have a potable water supply in and the various pipes are full of water and currently just locked off with  maintenance valves (except the temporary outside tap Im using building water) but no taps or sanitaryware yet fitted. My wife notified the council tax folks we were now living on site in a caravan - in response they immediately sent us a bill for the forthcoming year for the house we've just vacated ! When I told them politely to go to hell if they thought I'd pay for the year advance for a house I no longer live in they claim its an "automatic letter when you cancel your direct debit" - I told them I'd heard similar stories many times when dealing with other fraudsters when I was an investigator ?. Anyway, 2 months on we are still waiting to hear what they want to charge us whilst living in the caravan on site (I'm told its usually the minimum band).