Am I entitled to a council tax exemption/discount?

GSDog

I hope this is the right section of the forum to post this.

To cut a long story short: My brother and I inherited a property last year and we received probate on Oct 2010. I phoned the council regarding the council tax and they put an exemption on the property for 12 months (until Oct 2011) because it was unoccupied and having work done to it.

The work on the property has been going on longer than we expected and now that the initial 12 month exemption has expired we have just received a full council tax bill with no reduction.

I have phoned the council and the lady on the phone, who didn't sound very clued up on council tax, had to keep putting me on hold until she eventually told me that we are no longer entitled to any exemption or discounts. Is this correct?

The property is still unoccupied with no boiler, radiators, furnishings, flooring, etc. We do plan to move in to the property in about 6 weeks when it's finished.

Any advice would be appreciated.

HappyMJ

The maximum exemption is probably going to be 12 months in your case to make the property habitable. The exemption ends whether or not the work is finished.

Red_dog_Sam

The exemption ends after 12mths but you can still get a standard empty property discount - probably 10% but it can be between 10% and 50% depending on the Council. You could get more discount if one of you were to declare this as your main residence now (25%).