Council Tax Exemption Help

Gorlando88

Apologies if this is in the wrong area or a similar post has been answered.

Me and my partner purchased a house as of 28th June 2009 and we agreed with our local council for council tax excemption for 12 months as we had to carry out a lot of structural alterations.

At the end of the 12 months we were still not ready to move in, we eventually did so on the 10th Feb 2011.

On calling the council, they hit us with the expected bill for the period 28th June 2010 - 10th Feb 2011 at a rate of Band B totaling £825.

On recieving the the bill my partner called them and informed them that for three months of this she was student, thus, querying that the bill should be adjusted to reflect this; as we thought it would reduce the monthly amount to 75% for them 3 months.

However on reply, the women at the end of the phone said "sorry it just doesn't work like that"???

My partner put across the point that if it was a singal occupancy, then that would surely be reflected in the rate and the same should then apply to a homeowner being a student, to which she basically got the same reply. "doesn't work like that"

We just wondered if anybody was in the know regarding this matter and offer any advice?

I.e. do these charges seem correct for these periods, and if not, what should we be quoting when trying to resolve this issue with the local authority.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated,

thanks in advance

dmg24

The student exemption would apply to the property that you live in. I assume you were living elsewhere?

00ec25

single person discount (25%) applies only to one property at a time (the main residence). Clearly you were not living there before 10/2/11 therefore are not entitled to it

however, after the Class A (structural repairs) exemption ended in june 10 there are other things you can do

a) you may be eligible for Class C exemption if the property was unoccupied and unfurnished - this gives a max 6 months exempt but you will have to fight for this one given it is coming straight after the class A exemption. It is unlikely they would give you this retrospectively however as they should inspect the property during the period to confirm its status, clearly too late for that now so your best bet is .....

b) demand the second home discount (minimum 10%) - whether you get class C or not you will certainly have to pay at least 2 months of the CT period June 10 - Feb 11 but once the Class A exemption ended in June 10 the property was a "second home" because you continued to live elsewhere and you are fully entitled to that discount whether the place was empty, uninhabitable, occupied and furnished or unoccupied and unfurnished.

The council may fight you because you are applying retrospectively.

Gorlando88

00ec25 wrote: »

single person discount (25%) applies only to one property at a time (the main residence). Clearly you were not living there before 10/2/11 therefore are not entitled to it

however, after the Class A (structural repairs) exemption ended in june 10 there are other things you can do

a) you may be eligible for Class C exemption if the property was unoccupied and unfurnished - this gives a max 6 months exempt but you will have to fight for this one given it is coming straight after the class A exemption. It is unlikely they would give you this retrospectively however as they should inspect the property during the period to confirm its status, clearly too late for that now so your best bet is .....

b) demand the second home discount (minimum 10%) - whether you get class C or not you will certainly have to pay at least 2 months of the CT period June 10 - Feb 11 but once the Class A exemption ended in June 10 the property was a "second home" because you continued to live elsewhere and you are fully entitled to that discount whether the place was empty, uninhabitable, occupied and furnished or unoccupied and unfurnished.

The council may fight you because you are applying retrospectively.

Thanks for this, very useful.

We're first time house buyers so we were both still living at our parents houses, so the Student discount is very liekly to be uneligable as you both state.

The only route we could go down for the class C is that we made the investigating officer fully aware of our plans, and that we were new to the housing market.

Maybe they should of told us what we eligable for in the first place?

lincroft1710

Gorlando88 wrote: »

Thanks for this, very useful.

We're first time house buyers so we were both still living at our parents houses, so the Student discount is very liekly to be uneligable as you both state.

The only route we could go down for the class C is that we made the investigating officer fully aware of our plans, and that we were new to the housing market.

Maybe they should of told us what we eligable for in the first place?

Not their job to volunteer unasked for information.

Also you are ineligible for 2nd home discount.

CIS

a) you may be eligible for Class C exemption if the property was unoccupied and unfurnished - this gives a max 6 months exempt but you will have to fight for this one given it is coming straight after the class A exemption. It is unlikely they would give you this retrospectively however as they should inspect the property during the period to confirm its status, clearly too late for that now so your best bet is .....

A Class C exemption cannot be claimed directly after any Class A exemption lasting 6 months or more.

One of the requirements for the Class C is that it can only be awarded for a period of 6 months for the date the property became unoccupied - the Class A also requires that the property is unoccupied. In this case the property has been unoccupied for a period of 12 months and as such the Class C is not applicable.