Council Tax Cost Cutting: reduce your band and grab any discounts Discussion Area

cathodetube wrote: »

Tee hee, I am sure the council will find a way around that. Is the reasoning behind the surcharge to encourage people to let the properties? It seems rather easy to just stick some furniture in. Then you would still have to 'bargain' with the council to see which discount you could get. It used to be 50% off, then it was only 10% and I think most councils seemed to apply the lower rate. I also fail to understand why an uninhabited property should be charged between 50 and 90% as no resources are being used - schools etc. I also fail to see why a single occupancy discount is only 25%. Grrr.

It's better to just classify it as a second home - then you can get between 10% and 50% discount (subject to any changes CIS hinted at).

Unoccupied but furnished homes already get no discount by some councils (although others can offer up to 50%)
It's not really about bargaining with your council, more about what your local councils policy is.

Regarding why property is effectively taxed, you can thank the poll tax rioters for that - Maggie wanted to tax people that use the services, not property owners, but that was part of her downfall many years ago now.
Unoccupied properties still need the services of the local police, fire service, (well hopefully not, but you know what I mean), planning, local roads, etc

cathodetube wrote: »

Why is it up to each council to set their own rules for discounts? Can you have two lots of 25% discount if you have two homes? I dealt with one council who threatened to charge 90% instead of 50% and they reduced it to the 50%. Therefore I don't think they do have individual policies.
I disagree that you are still using the services of local police, etc. if the property is unoccupied.

Because that's the way most of the silly laws are now drafted.

Some discounts are prescribed absolutely within the legislation (such as a 25% discount for a sole occupier) but many of the discounts, and now surcharges, are now dependent on local council decisions within the constraints set in the appropriate legislation.

Unsurprisingly, many of the councils have opted to take maximum advantage of all the legislation.

Which council did you manage to haggle with? Are you sure they didn't just reclassify the property?

The area still needs to be policed even if it's a ghost town.;)
Also, I know the police would be the first people I would call if I had a break in or other malicious damage at any property I owned.

cathodetube wrote: »

It was a North London council. What are the laws on having two lots of 25%, would be v. interested to know.

Which North London Council?
Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey or Islington and Waltham?

(or is there another one?)

As I said, each council makes it's own decisions (within the constraints of the legislation)

By definition, you can only get one 25% discount for living in your main home alone (i.e. without any other eligible adult), as you can only have one main home.
But you might be entitled to a discount, or in future liable to a surcharge, on any other property you are responsible for.

Does this mean I could claim back the money I paid for the last 5 years since the flat was built?

When a council tax band is reduced retrospectively then you will be due back any council tax you have paid above the correct council tax band.

OK, our situation is not quite straightforward. We brought our house new in 2008 - we have a house and an annexe - the house is in band g and the annex in band a - from the very beginning I questioned if this was correct - the annex does have elec, gas and water but it's from the meters for the main house - it also doesn't have a front door - any mail gets shoved through our door - and quite rightly too as we class it as part of our main home (we use it as a gym). Originally I did not contest it as 50% of band a and band g were the same costing as band H which I suspected they would put us into - so did nothing about it - then a couple of years ago the council wrote to say that we had to pay 90% of the council tax on the annex as they are trying to encourage 'empty' properties (it's not empty - it's part of our home, just no one sleeps in there) to be brought back into the community (as I said earlier it's not really something that could easily be rented out as it's all on our one plot - attached to the main house via the garage - with a door at the rear to enter). Today we have now received a letter saying they are now going to be charging us from April 150% of our band A council tax which will be approx £1500 along with the council tax for our main house making it in total £4200 - but my argument is that the annex is an extionsion of our home - it's not a dwelling that could be rented out. But we have now been here 8 years and now want to contest it - but am I right in saying that this is not possible - I wouldn't mind the letter states: we have worked hard to develop a council tax support scheme that is designed to be affordable and fair
I think this is far from fair - we will be paying approx £1000 more per year than the highest band for this area!