Council Tax on Inherited Empty Property (For Sale)

Al2012

First post on here and hoping this is in the right place apologies if not.

Just wondering what peoples thoughts are on this and any advice welcomed.

My Dad passed on just over a year ago now and I inherited his house. Nothing at all swanky and rather run down (but habitable). At the time I contacted the local council and explained the situation and they told me that no council tax was due in this situation. I heard nothing else from them until a couple of weeks ago.

As it is some distance from me I left the house in the care of a local family friend who has been doing works when he could to make it saleable and it has been on the market since Summer at 10% less than anything similar in the street which unfortunately aren't selling.

I was shocked to receive a letter from the Council two weeks ago telling me my 6 month grace period was up in May this year and I now owed CT (Around £1000) which I could pay in installments of £250 a month.

I telephoned them immediately to explain the situation that the property was inherited, vacant, completely unfurnished and on the market trying to sell but was basically told, tough the full CT is still due. I asked what rebate there was as the property was empty (aware a single person is allowed 25%) and was told that as the property was empty NO rebate at all was allowed. (Which is one of the craziest things I have ever heard in my life!)

There is no way I can find the money to settle this at the moment, the small amount of cash I inherited all went on getting the house ready for sale. The 6 month period wasn't explained to me at the time I informed them of the circs so I assumed as it was vacant it would remain zero charge whilst it was so.

The Council won't agree to accept the payment out of the sale of the house either and even moving forward, after paying the bills (inc CT!) for our family home I don't have a spare £100 a month knocking round until its sold.

I understand that local homes need putting back in circulation and am trying to do my best with the 10%. I understand that the council has a budget to adhere to and that if it has to be paid after the 6 month period maybe 50% is reasonable in these circumstances (its not a vacant B2L or holiday home) but I don't have the money.

What should/can I do? I'm working all the hours God sends to keep our heads above water as it is, now I'm being threatened with court orders and bailiffs on a bill I can't pay and house I'm struggling to sell.

pmlindyloo

Al2012 wrote: »

First post on here and hoping this is in the right place apologies if not.

Just wondering what peoples thoughts are on this and any advice welcomed.

My Dad passed on just over a year ago now and I inherited his house. Nothing at all swanky and rather run down (but habitable). At the time I contacted the local council and explained the situation and they told me that no council tax was due in this situation. I heard nothing else from them until a couple of weeks ago.

As it is some distance from me I left the house in the care of a local family friend who has been doing works when he could to make it saleable and it has been on the market since Summer at 10% less than anything similar in the street which unfortunately aren't selling.

I was shocked to receive a letter from the Council two weeks ago telling me my 6 month grace period was up in May this year and I now owed CT (Around £1000) which I could pay in installments of £250 a month.

I telephoned them immediately to explain the situation that the property was inherited, vacant, completely unfurnished and on the market trying to sell but was basically told, tough the full CT is still due. I asked what rebate there was as the property was empty (aware a single person is allowed 25%) and was told that as the property was empty NO rebate at all was allowed. (Which is one of the craziest things I have ever heard in my life!)

There is no way I can find the money to settle this at the moment, the small amount of cash I inherited all went on getting the house ready for sale. They won't agree to accept it out of the sale of the house either and even moving forward, after paying the bills (inc CT!) for our family home I don't have a spare £100 a month knocking round until its sold.

I understand that local homes need putting back in circulation and am trying to do my best with the 10%. I understand that the council has a budget to adhere to and that if it has to be paid after the 6 month period maybe 50% is reasonable in these circumstances (its not a vacant B2L or holiday home) but I don't have the money.

What should/can I do? I'm working all the hours God sends to keep our heads above water as it is, now I'm being threatened with court orders and bailiffs on a bill I can't pay and house I'm struggling to sell.

Whilst you pay no Council Tax on an empty prperty for 6 months after this time it is discretionary.

Some councils offer further discounts but from what you say yours doesn't appear to be one of them :cool:

See here to check your council's policy:

https://www.gov.uk/council-tax/second-homes-and-empty-properties

Your options are

Reduce it further to get a quick sale
Rent it out
Negotiate with the council as regards a payment plan for what you owe (You will probably have to complete an Income and Expoenditure statement)
Visit CAB to negotiate this debt on your behalf

Al2012

pmlindyloo wrote: »

Whilst you pay no Council Tax on an empty prperty for 6 months after this time it is discretionary.

Some councils offer further discounts but from what you say yours doesn't appear to be one of them :cool:

See here to check your council's policy:


Your options are

Reduce it further to get a quick sale
Rent it out
Negotiate with the council as regards a payment plan for what you owe (You will probably have to complete an Income and Expoenditure statement)
Visit CAB to negotiate this debt on your behalf

Many thanks for the advice.

The council were saying that under legislation there was nothing that they can do, that they have to charge but that they don't offer anything discretionary which again I think really unfair. How can a national law, of the same bands and charges be applied differently locally whilst defying common sense?

In terms of the options you kindly listed

Its already reduced by £9k to anything else comparable. Not trying to be greedy but my Dad worked hard for that house and ultimately its my kids inheritance.

I considered renting it out (if the council had explained the 6 months at the time I might have considered it harder) but I thought it priced for and wanted a quick sale plus if I got bad tenants they'd be mucking up my Dad's house! if you know what I mean, not good for the blood pressure.

The council say they won't negotiate so whilst the above two options might help things out moving forward, it doesn't help the current mess.

Which leaves me with your last suggestion, so will try the CAB and see what happens.



I also wondered though what people thought of the situation as a whole? As I said, I can maybe understand a Buy to Letter or holiday homer having to foot a bill (but still not 100% if vacant) but this is obviously unfurnished and not lived in and anyone from the council walking past could see this. Surely it doesn't take a genius to use discretion when it comes to an empty, inherited house from Probate with a For Sale sign up?!

How can you get a 25% rebate for living there alone using full services but have to pay full CT for a vacant property using no services at all? Or am I wrong?

Zero_Sum

An option (although fraudulent) if you have an elderly relative who doesn't pay council tax could 'move in' temporarily

00ec25

Al2012 wrote: »

I also wondered though what people thought of the situation as a whole? As I said, I can maybe understand a Buy to Letter or holiday homer having to foot a bill (but still not 100% if vacant) but this is obviously unfurnished and not lived in and anyone from the council walking past could see this. Surely it doesn't take a genius to use discretion when it comes to an empty, inherited house from Probate with a For Sale sign up?!

How can you get a 25% rebate for living there alone using full services but have to pay full CT for a vacant property using no services at all? Or am I wrong?

there is no point in you trying to moralise. One could equally easily say why should other taxpayers subside your house for free just so you can inherit even more money, others may indeed see your stance as pure greed irrespective of what you say. There is no differnence between an empty BTL and your empty inheritance
any property will sell if the price is right, yours has not sold for over 1 years, QED the price is not right

as far discrepancies between authorities, that's politics, the south has to subsidise the north / Scottish /Welsh and the money has to come from somewhere to do it

an empty house is a taxable resource that gets taxed
it also does consume services that others pay for if you don't, eg: police force, fire brigade, street lighting, roads to get prospective buyers there to look at it etc

p00hsticks

Al2012 wrote: »

Its already reduced by £9k to anything else comparable. Not trying to be greedy but my Dad worked hard for that house and ultimately its my kids inheritance.

Do the maths - it's now costing you £250 a month in council tax, plus insurance (I assume that you have it insured and the insurer know the property is empty ? ) plus utility bills unless you have had everything turned off.

If you can't afford to meet the bills to keep the property as it is, then I think you really only have two options - either reduce the price to get it to sell or rent it out.

dancingfairy

It depends on what exemption you've had. I assume they gave you a class C? I think it is which is the empty /unfurnished for 6 months.
You probably should have been on J or K(can't remember)? Ithink where someone has died. I believe it can stay at this category until probate is sorted and whilst the executors deal with the estate ie by selling the house etc. Iguess it depends on whether it has formallybeen transferred into yourname as a beneficiary or not but it would have been better Ithink to keep it in the executors names.
You need more info. Will have a dig and see what Ican findfor you.
df

dancingfairy

O.k so it's 6 months from the date of grant of probate. Not sure whether you can have C (after someonehas died) and then claim the probate one after that though.
Apart from if you can get them to grant you both exemptions to run consequtively (not sure whether you can now or not to be honest) then you will have to pay the money.
Double check what dates they have charged you for as you may find they have billed you up until the end of the council tax year (on the other hand they may only have billed you up until now). Also be aware that they will want the bill cleared by the end of the council tax year (preferably by the end of Jan as that is when the last installment is normally allowed) but they may let your pay installments manually in Feb and March as well.
If this really isn't doable then you will have to get in contact with them and try and arrange a payment plan by submitting an income/expenditureform etc as suggested above and try and cometo some sort of arrangement.
A few things I would say though:
1) it's likely that they will still take you to court and get a magistrates order even if they dowant to do a payment arrangement. This is to stop people saying they'll pay to avoid court andthen not payingso it is easier all aorund just to go to court and then the minute someone startsplayingsilly it's esaierto get the bailiffs in. This could add 80 odd pounds to the bill. I'm not saying you will mess around and not pay but clearly people do so the system is set up to try and prevent it. They will take the case to magistratescourt so it will not affect your credit rating at all and you will not be expected to attend asit is basically procedural to say yes you are Mr X, who's responsible for property Y and no it's hasn't beenpaidand yes the council have billed you correctly. You can't challenge this on the grounds of hardship etc. it's procedural.
2)Hopefully after this stage you will have the opportunity to get a payment plan agreed with the council. If they decideto pass it on to baillifs then it is vital you getmore advice as the bailiffs will a) charge legal fees b) may tryandcharge illegal fees and c) will do anything under the sun in some cases to gain access to a property (by saying they need the loo, need to phone the boss, need to come in out of the cold, need a glass of water, by threatening to break in, bysaying they can't agreea apayment plan outside etc etc) and once inside they can lawfully then start adding hundreds more in fees. You need to avoid this at all costs as it will limit your costs. I suggest you read the factsheet on council tax on the national debtline website and get yourself forearmed just in case.
If you need any more help/advice in ealing with the council just let us know.
df

dancingfairy

You are looking at the following here:
1)Council tax due until April
2) Liability Order fees 80 pounds
3) potentially 42.50 of bailiff fees. Hopefully you can stop it at point 1 or 2 though.

4) if you let the bailiffs in then you are looking at a lot more on top. Do not let it get to this stage.

If this situation carries on into next tax year then obviously the cycle will repeat and you may end up getting liability order costs and more bailiff fees again so you really need to do everything you can to get this property sold/rented.
df

Al2012

00ec25 wrote: »

there is no point in you trying to moralise. One could equally easily say why should other taxpayers subside your house for free just so you can inherit even more money, others may indeed see your stance as pure greed irrespective of what you say. There is no differnence between an empty BTL and your empty inheritance
any property will sell if the price is right, yours has not sold for over 1 years, QED the price is not right

as far discrepancies between authorities, that's politics, the south has to subsidise the north / Scottish /Welsh and the money has to come from somewhere to do it

an empty house is a taxable resource that gets taxed
it also does consume services that others pay for if you don't, eg: police force, fire brigade, street lighting, roads to get prospective buyers there to look at it etc

I appreciate your points but would suggest that one fundamental difference between inheriting a property and buy to let is that you CHOOSE to do the latter and budget for empty periods if your sensible. The Buy to Let by its very nature is liable to be occupied at any time where as this property DEFINITELY won't be until sold.

I would also suggest the property's don't use services, people do so if it's unoccupied then the rebate should be proportionate, not necessarily saying it should be zero but 33-50% seems fairer. After all the tax payer (of which I am one) would subsidise a single person living there at 25%.

There are houses in the road that have been on the market for two or more years now and have dropped prices repeatedly but the area is not hugely desirable and they haven't sold. I've already priced the house less than these and less than the estate agent advised so please don't think this is about greed.

Al2012

Zero_Sum wrote: »

An option (although fraudulent) if you have an elderly relative who doesn't pay council tax could 'move in' temporarily

Thanks very much for this.

I don't but trying to keep things above board anyway! Have already considered pretending I'm living there on my own myself, at least that way I'd get a 25% reduction!