Renting our property and council tax demand

Fuzzyness

Hia

we currently rent out the house we own following redundancy and are living in another part of the country in a rented house. The tenants of our house have recently ended their tenancy and we were lucky enough to find a new tenant to move in within two days. the property thus had a void period of one day.

when the first tenant moved out they notified the council that there were leaving and the date of this. and our new tenant moved in two days after. subsequently we've received a council tax bill for the one day that our neither of our tenants were in the property. Whislt this was only 11 quid i'm a bit peeved that we've been hit for a bill when there was no intention on our part to use the house for the one day. can i restrospectively register the property empty to avoid paying it.

can anyone explain why as the owner of the property we are responsible for the council tax on it when we do not live there. hopefully the above makes sense.

pinksleepybear

Really? Really?


You seem disproportionately angry over just £11.

Next time just tell the council in advance that it will empty.

firstaspect

Fuzzyness wrote: »

can anyone explain why as the owner of the property we are responsible for the council tax on it when we do not live there. hopefully the above makes sense.

Because that's the way the system works. You'd be likely to fall under 'Class C: Unfurnished' type of council tax exemption if the house was indeed unfurnished for that one day however how would the council know if you don't tell them. Wouldn't be worth the effort for one day.

Svenena

I can't answer the first part of your question, but I think I can explain why you are liable when you do not live there. If you check out this link: http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/life/tax/council_tax.htm#Whohastopaycounciltax from CAB, you will see that at the bottom of the hierarchy list, it says "an owner of the property where no one is resident" is liable to pay.

Fuzzyness

pinksleepybear wrote: »

Really? Really?


You seem disproportionately angry over just £11.

Next time just tell the council in advance that it will empty.

the amount is not the problem. the house was empty (unfurnished let) and not being used by us. are hte council really that hard up that they need to try and retrieve this 11 pounds. ooops. answered my own question. of course they are. i suppose its an 11 pound lesson learnt.

Fuzzyness

Svenena wrote: »

I can't answer the first part of your question, but I think I can explain why you are liable when you do not live there. If you check out this link: http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/life/tax/council_tax.htm#Whohastopaycounciltax from CAB, you will see that at the bottom of the hierarchy list, it says "an owner of the property where no one is resident" is liable to pay.

thanks Svenena. in future we'll register it as empty for any voids that we may have.

Sammy85_2

Just send the coucil a letter saying from "this date to this date the property was empty, unfurnished & unoccupied" or something along those line.

They will then issue an amended bill, hopefully saying you owe nothing.

Depends whether you can be bothered with writing a letter for the sake of £11?

elmer

Council tax is a daily charge on whoever is liable, and therefore you will be billed for 1 day. If your property was unfurnished for that day, ring your council and ask for an exemption (CIS who works in England refers to them as class c i think), and it should be applied to your account. As its just one day as long as you havent had it as a furnished let previously, we would apply it without further proof required.

Thanks Elmer

Leaseholder49

I just had almost the exact same thing happen to me, albeit for a 3-day void.

I got a bill with a 10% 'unoccupied' discount already applied.

Still had to pay though, even though the council had it registered as unoccupied.

Never crossed my mind that I wouldn't be liable either.

moromir

I don't mean this to come off harshly but take a little responsibility for your own affairs.

When you recieve the council tax bill for the property you are renting and living in now, you would have also been provided with a copy of their "guide to council tax" (or similarly named) which essentially explains the banding process, where your council tax goes and in this case, most relevently, what causes an exemption from council tax and what you need to do to effect this (ie write to the Council and tell them).

They have billed you in accordance with the law and your liability as the owner of the property. The onus is on you as the homeowner to advise them of any circumstances that would incur an exemption, not for them to go routing around like detectives trying to sort out your personal circumstances.

Think of it this way, even though you weren't living at the property for one day, I'm sure if your house set on fire you'd like the fire brigade to turn up and not wait until the new tenants were in paying CT, the bins to be emptied that week ready for the next tenants.. I could go on.

Just seems a bit of an agressive attitude to have for something thats been caused by you, not the Council. Of course you were eligible for the vacant property exemption but whether this can be applied retrospectively I don't know.

I am unsure as to the process for appealing CT bills, but I would suggest writing to them apologising for your oversight, along with a copy of both the previous tenant and the current tenant's tenancy agreements showing the vacating and start dates and hope they're feeling amenable?

CIS

Council tax is a daily charge on whoever is liable, and therefore you will be billed for 1 day. If your property was unfurnished for that day, ring your council and ask for an exemption (CIS who works in England refers to them as class c i think), and it should be applied to your account. As its just one day as long as you havent had it as a furnished let previously, we would apply it without further proof required.

It would be a Class C exemption for one day and generally speaking we would apply it without much proof if it was for a short period but this is being tightened up on. Giveing a Class C for a short period is usually done as a discretionary measure as with the admin work it isn't worth chasing the amount and its better on books than a discretionary write off.

The council are under no obligation to award the exemption without proof and will start to wonder why the property is only unfurnished for a day or two.