NI rates on unfinished property

pc10

Asking this on behalf of a friend:


He owns(mortgaged) a half built house in NI. It has windows and back/front doors but no kitchen or water (not connected to mains) - the electrical work has been done but that's about it - no doors/stairs.


It has been like this for 2 or 3 years perhaps and he cannot afford to finish the work and this will probably be the case for the foreseeable future.


He also owns (mortgaged) the house that he actually lives in.


He has paid rates on the unfinished house for perhaps 2 years - this was at a reduced rate giving him time to finish the property (although he did inform Rates Dept/Land Tribunal Service that it would not be finished).


He has now received a bill for the full rates and was wondering if anyone has any advice to give regarding this. Obviously if he could NOT pay them that would be great!


I came across http://www.housingadviceni.org/paying-rates-empty-homes


and in particular




In some circumstances, you can apply for your vacant home to be excluded from rating. If you apply for an exclusion, you must be able to provide evidence to support your claim. You can apply for an exclusion in any of the following circumstances:

• the empty home cannot legally be occupied,

The application for to apply for this exclusion http://www.housingadviceni.org/sites/default/files/documents/application-for-empty-homes-exclusion.pdf


asks for evidence from the authority preventing occupation. Please ensure that the relevant statute prohibiting occupation is included in the evidence.

Is this the right route to pursue? Is there a relevant statute? What authority would prevent occupation?


Alternatively would it be correct to think that eg Environmental Health Dept would not allow occupation as there is no water?


Hope someone can offer some help.

saverbuyer

pc10 wrote: »

Asking this on behalf of a friend:


He owns(mortgaged) a half built house in NI. It has windows and back/front doors but no kitchen or water (not connected to mains) - the electrical work has been done but that's about it - no doors/stairs.


It has been like this for 2 or 3 years perhaps and he cannot afford to finish the work and this will probably be the case for the foreseeable future.


He also owns (mortgaged) the house that he actually lives in.


He has paid rates on the unfinished house for perhaps 2 years - this was at a reduced rate giving him time to finish the property (although he did inform Rates Dept/Land Tribunal Service that it would not be finished).


He has now received a bill for the full rates and was wondering if anyone has any advice to give regarding this. Obviously if he could NOT pay them that would be great!


I came across http://www.housingadviceni.org/paying-rates-empty-homes


and in particular




In some circumstances, you can apply for your vacant home to be excluded from rating. If you apply for an exclusion, you must be able to provide evidence to support your claim. You can apply for an exclusion in any of the following circumstances:

• the empty home cannot legally be occupied,

The application for to apply for this exclusion http://www.housingadviceni.org/sites/default/files/documents/application-for-empty-homes-exclusion.pdf


asks for evidence from the authority preventing occupation. Please ensure that the relevant statute prohibiting occupation is included in the evidence.

Is this the right route to pursue? Is there a relevant statute? What authority would prevent occupation?


Alternatively would it be correct to think that eg Environmental Health Dept would not allow occupation as there is no water?


Hope someone can offer some help.

Not being connected to water and electricity isn't a valid grounds for exemption. Sammy Wilson actually mentioned this specifically when announcing the scraping of vacant homes exemption.

Basically if the house can be complete in x amount of time, you have to pay full rates. There's no way around this.

It sounds like you friend already took advantage of the developer 18 month exemption if he paid a reduced rate for a few years.

Really since the vacant rates exemption was removed people have little hope of avoiding paying them, especially for new builds.

pc10

Thanks saverbuyer - yes he has had the 18 month developers exemption.


Not sounding hopeful then. Frustrating paying rates on a place where no-one lives/gets a bin emptied/has a street light within miles etc etc!

saverbuyer

pc10 wrote: »

Thanks saverbuyer - yes he has had the 18 month developers exemption.


Not sounding hopeful then. Frustrating paying rates on a place where no-one lives/gets a bin emptied/has a street light within miles etc etc!

I can understand the annoyance. They announced a 12 month extension to the developer exemption so he might be lucky and get this. So 30 months total, it's worth a try.

pc10

Thanks saverbuyer - I will pass this on to him.


Do you have any links to info about this extension perhaps so he can check it out?