New Home Council Tax - unoccupied propery surcharge

Milligan86

Hi All

Not sure if im posting the correct area or not, so apologies if not.

I purchased a house at the end of May (moving our of Rented) and we will be moving in on the 1st July (end of lease of rented house)

To give you a little background on the house purchase, the house has been unoccupied for approx 4 years after the owner died. Her elderly brother has been trying to sell it (unoccupied) and finally did when we came along.

Today i received the concil tax 'demand' for the property (as expected) and there is a surcharge on there of £293.86 as the property has been unoccupied for over 2 years.

My question is; can the council really penalise me for the property being unoccupied for over 2 years, when i have only just bought the property?

Confused!!

WestonDave

I'd think it slightly strange if they were charging you full council tax from end of May, and a surcharge for unoccupied presumably for the period May to end of June. If so I'd have simply said I was using the property for storage and working on it and paid the full council tax alone.

On the other hand if they have charged you for 9 months council tax at full rates (1st July to end of March 2014) and the empty property bit is the charge for the two months empty then its fair enough as councils are doing this to discourage people leaving property empty.

CIS

My question is; can the council really penalise me for the property being unoccupied for over 2 years, when i have only just bought the property?

They can bill you for the premium if the property has been unoccupied and unfurnished for more than 2 years, it doesn't matter that you have just purchased it.

anselld

They have probably charged the surcharge for the whole remaining year. Most of this should be refunded when you tell them you have occupied so you should only end up paying surcharge for one month.

CIS

They have probably charged the surcharge for the whole remaining year. Most of this should be refunded when you tell them you have occupied so you should only end up paying surcharge for one month.

They will have - until an adjustment is made to show the OP has moved in they have to assume the current circumstances will apply until the end of the year.