Help council tax on empty property increasing to 150%

Limara

omg letter from the council this morning saying they have increased the council tax on unfurnished empty properties by 50% from april thats going to be £220 a month for a house I cant live in!
Im not a builder or any one going to make any money from doing this and this is just crazy!
I purchased a bungalow to renovate and make " disabled friendly" My husband has got ms and he is rapidly loosing his legs and my daughter has cerebal palsey, she is 25 and spend her whole life crawling to get about and is in her bedroom most of the time, we wanted to give her a lounge of her own and to have wide hallways and open spaces suitable for her walker and the wheelchair thats fast approaching for hubby.
Took it over 2 years ago this June, firstly it took forever to get the plans drawn up and through the council they kept kicking them out for no reason, then they literally made us wait until the last day for the decision to me made and they finally approved the origional plans ( 7 months later!)
Then its been one thing after another and have even had delays replacing mains water pipe to find out 6 months later we had a faulty water meter! I swear the place is cursed
We then managed to get ripped off by the lovely builder who along the way decided large parts of the job had not been quoted and the extra payments got silly.
We have have basically currently got a shell for the new part. the whole thing needs finishing and we are chugging along doing it every minute god sends evenings and weekends.
I am currently paying full council tax on this for around the last 6 months as the exemption ran out long ago and now 50% extra we just dont have it.
there is no way we will get all this work done and all be able to move in before the change in council tax. we would porbably struggle to get a bathroom in and the extension plasterboarded out.
Does any one know what level we would have to get it to to satisfy the council that it is occupied or second home, Ie would one bedroom and a bathroom and some where to cook be enough?
If necessary Hubby is going to have to live there and then we would get 25% reduction on both properties.
any ideas Im at desperation point now.

lincroft1710

If a dwelling is occupied, it is occupied, the state of the property makes no difference.

But I would check that as a married couple (or even 2 people living together) one of the dwellings may still be considered as your main residence, even though you are living apart, and thus the 25% discount may not be applicable.

Limara

lincroft1710 wrote: »

If a dwelling is occupied, it is occupied, the state of the property makes no difference.

But I would check that as a married couple (or even 2 people living together) one of the dwellings may still be considered as your main residence, even though you are living apart, and thus the 25% discount may not be applicable.

even without discount it would keep it at 100% which I think is more than enough when we dont even get a bin emptied lol
I have seen somewhere that second homes must not be sparsely furnished just like to know what level we need to get this to.

CIS

The 50% premium applies to a property which has been unoccupied and substantially unfurnished for a period of 2 year or more (technically the council don't have to levy the charge but I don't know of any who aren't) and other than occupying the property or furnishing it there is no way around it.

As lincroft has advised , if the property is occupied then the whole state of play changes but the council will be checking a lot more stringently regarding where people are living because of the changes which are coming in from April 13.

Wywth

Limara wrote: »

even without discount it would keep it at 100% which I think is more than enough when we dont even get a bin emptied lol
I have seen somewhere that second homes must not be sparsely furnished just like to know what level we need to get this to.

Whilst this is not specified in law, I understand that most councils will accept any property furnished sufficiently to allow day to day living as being the level required.

So some kind of seating (arm chair, sofa, etc) and a bed really, plus kitchen white goods, carpets/floor coverings & curtains/blinds. You will need a functional toilet & bathroom too! (you may be able to get a grant from the council to get a toilet & bathroom fitted if there isn't one already)

A wardrobe and a dining table/chairs would probably seal the deal, but many small homes no longer have dining tables because of lack of room, and a wardrobe is not really essential; I see many new home owners have these canvas 'wardrobes' to keep their clothes in if there isn't a built in wardrobe in the property.

Try freecycle etc, but even if you have to buy a bed & sofa from a charity shop, it's gotta be cheaper than 50% on your council tax :beer:

To clarify, no one actually needs to live in the property. According to the Local Government Finance Act 2012 , the property must have been unoccupied and substantially unfurnished for at least two years for them to smack up to a 50% council tax premium on it.

The downside of furnishing it is that the property will then no longer benefit from free water and sewerage, but even paying that will be less than 50% council tax even if without a meter (as you have a meter, the cost should be less still)

Limara

Thank you for your detailed answer, the property will have been empty and unfurnished and is full of building materials and flat packed stuff.
The plan was to concentrate on the new then finish the old part, which is mainly decoration and carpets and refitting the bathroom and water supply.
We are now going to be forced to forget the new and concentrate on the old part, which is bound to get ruined again with all the work left to do. and things like heating dont really make sense to be done at 2 different times.


To clarify, no one actually needs to live in the property. According to the FinanceLocal Government Act 2012 , the property must have been unoccupied and substantially unfurnished for at least two years for them to smack up to a 50% council tax premium on it.

The downside of furnishing it is that the property will then no longer benefit from free water and sewerage, but even paying that will be less than 50% council tax even if without a meter (as you have a meter, the cost should be less still)[/QUOTE]

elaine-b

We have a house with a separate annex and we too have had a letter about charging us 150% council tax on the annex - when we brought the house we were told we would have to pay council tax on the annex - and in the beginning we used to get a 50% deduction - no 6 months free as we are using it as a gym and it was classed as furnished. We didn't contest it at the time because the annex is a band a and the main house a band g - I think if we contested it they would have put us in band h - for the plot as a whole - and the two council taxes added together with the discount was the same - then a couple of years ago they reduced the discount further so we only got 10% discount. Now we have received a letter saying properties that have been empty (it's not empty - we have and use our gym equipment in there on a regular basis) and substantially unfurnished for over 2 years (well yes we've had it longer than 2 years) have to pay 150% council tax - what justification is there for doing this - our mortgage states that we cannot let it out separately and as it's part of our home why would we want to? They say it is to bring empty homes back into use, but our property does not allow us to do that - it's not that sort of property! The lounge is filled with gym equipment - we are having the carpet removed and karndean flooring put in on Monday, it has a fitted kitchen and bathroom (which means it makes it habitable - but the council contradict themselves, they say having a fitted kitchen and bathroom does not make the house habitable), there is a TV and sky in there (for when were in the gym) - we have a bed upstairs - what else can we do to make it substantially furnished.
I estimate on last years council tax our council tax will be £1200 more than band H - the council say in their letter we have worked hard to develop a council tax support scheme that is designed to be affordable and fair - I'm sorry, but us paying £1200 more than the highest tax band IMO is not fair - we have no street lighting - the communal areas around here are covered by a management company that we have to pay £300 a year towards (no the property is not leasehold), so they don't even cut the verges - we get our bins collected once a fortnight (green bin one week, household waste the other)!
I think as a family we more than pay our contribution to the tax system one way or another! Now because we have a house with an annex we are penalised too - on a house that hubby works his butt off to pay the mortgage!

elaine-b

Wywth wrote: »

The downside of furnishing it is that the property will then no longer benefit from free water and sewerage, but even paying that will be less than 50% council tax even if without a meter (as you have a meter, the cost should be less still)

We are on a meter so do not get free water and sewerage anyway - we are in the process of buying a new sofa for our lounge - maybe we should put the old sofa in the annex (it would have to go upstairs as the living room in the annex is full of gym equipment).
How do we contest this new charge?

Wywth

elaine-b wrote: »

We are on a meter so do not get free water and sewerage anyway - we are in the process of buying a new sofa for our lounge - maybe we should put the old sofa in the annex (it would have to go upstairs as the living room in the annex is full of gym equipment).
How do we contest this new charge?

I'm not sure is different water company's have different policies, but I know ours do not charge a for unoccupied and unfurnished properties - whether or not it is on a meter is irrelevant

Some suppliers even offer a no standing charge, low user option where meters are fitted.
So no usage = no cost anyway

Back to the council charge, on what basis do you wish to contest it? If it is correctly applied and in line with the council's policy then you can't really. If you think it isn't, then your council should offer an appeals process for any council tax decisions.

If you want to discuss the councils policy, I suggest you contact your local councillor. If you don't agree with them, then all you can do is display that next time the ballot box comes out.

Edit: hang on a minute, in this post
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=59695677&postcount=4343
you claim the water (and gas & electric) is supplied from the main house :huh:

Wywth

elaine-b wrote: »

We have a house with a separate annex and we too have had a letter about charging us 150% council tax on the annex - when we brought the house we were told we would have to pay council tax on the annex - and in the beginning we used to get a 50% deduction - no 6 months free as we are using it as a gym and it was classed as furnished. We didn't contest it at the time because the annex is a band a and the main house a band g - I think if we contested it they would have put us in band h - for the plot as a whole - and the two council taxes added together with the discount was the same - then a couple of years ago they reduced the discount further so we only got 10% discount. Now we have received a letter saying properties that have been empty (it's not empty - we have and use our gym equipment in there on a regular basis) and substantially unfurnished for over 2 years (well yes we've had it longer than 2 years) have to pay 150% council tax - what justification is there for doing this - our mortgage states that we cannot let it out separately and as it's part of our home why would we want to? They say it is to bring empty homes back into use, but our property does not allow us to do that - it's not that sort of property! The lounge is filled with gym equipment - we are having the carpet removed and karndean flooring put in on Monday, it has a fitted kitchen and bathroom (which means it makes it habitable - but the council contradict themselves, they say having a fitted kitchen and bathroom does not make the house habitable), there is a TV and sky in there (for when were in the gym) - we have a bed upstairs - what else can we do to make it substantially furnished.
I estimate on last years council tax our council tax will be £1200 more than band H - the council say in their letter we have worked hard to develop a council tax support scheme that is designed to be affordable and fair - I'm sorry, but us paying £1200 more than the highest tax band IMO is not fair - we have no street lighting - the communal areas around here are covered by a management company that we have to pay £300 a year towards (no the property is not leasehold), so they don't even cut the verges - we get our bins collected once a fortnight (green bin one week, household waste the other)!
I think as a family we more than pay our contribution to the tax system one way or another! Now because we have a house with an annex we are penalised too - on a house that hubby works his butt off to pay the mortgage!

I suggest you ask them.
More correctly, the legislation does not call for a property to be substantailly furnished, but rather that a property substantially unfurnished may become liable.
Subtle difference, but a difference all the same.

anniecave

elaine-b wrote: »

We have a house with a separate annex and we too have had a letter about charging us 150% council tax on the annex

If you seriously don't ever intend to use it as a separate dwelling, have you investigated what you would need to do to make it no longer an "annexe" and have it counted as part of the main building for council tax purposes?