Moving out before end of tenancy - council tax?

dax42

Hi all,

We (2 adults) have bought a flat in London and are moving in before the end of our tenancy in Oxford. The time between moving out and end of tenancy is about 6 weeks, this is because our agency only does fixed-term contracts and charges a bomb for ending them early.

So now the question is whether we will have to pay full council tax for those 6 weeks for both places or whether the landlord becomes responsible for the council tax in Oxford. Our tenancy contract says we have to pay all bills (specifically mentioning council tax) that we are responsible for. I had a look at the Oxford council website, but it didn't really answer this question.

Any advice?
Thanks a lot!

Baby_Angel

When we moved out of our rented house to our new house last year, we had about 4 weeks overlapping. Upon request, Ealing council refunded 2 weeks worth of council tax on our new property since we were not living there (we were doing some renovations and it wasn't fully habitable at that time). The rest of the 2 weeks we had to pay for both properties. I think they said the maximum we could claim was for 2 weeks if you aren't living in the house.

thesaint

You are responsible for council tax for the entire term.
Each local authority can set the rate for an empty property however they want.

If you apply for a discount(if one is available), the landlord could reclaim it if there is a clause in the tenancy agreement.

polarization

The exemption period depends on each council's policy. I would suggest to check on the website of both council to see if they have any exemption period.

If both have exemption period, it would be easy. Just choose one of them to declare the exemption.

If the only one of them has the exemption period, I will do the following.

Rented council has the exemption: speak to them and get the exemption. It may need some proof or explanation but it save you a month worth of council tax.

New property has exemption: As long as you meet the unoccupied and substantially unfurnished property requirement (if the council have this), I would declare the new property as empty until after your fixed-term contract ends. For your rented properties, you should be liable for the council tax for the period of your tenancy. If you can use the unoccupied and substantially unfurnished property discount, make sure your vendor did not use it before completion as some council restricted it to the properties no matter you are the new owner.

If the exemption rules does not apply to your situation, check the discounted countil tax rate, as one of your property may be able to classify as second home to get some discount.

I learnt them all from the frequent house move experience. Hope it helps. If any of the information are wrong, please feel free to corret me. :-)

LEJC

If your tenancy agreement says you are resonsiible for the payment of council tax,than that is what you must pay until the end of your tenancy on the rental property.


Some councils will give a discount on council tax in certain circumtances but these are getting fewer and lesser.


You could try contacting the council where your new home is based to see if there would be anything they could offer in the interim between vacating the rental property and taking up residence in your new house....although its a long shot in my experience.


It looks on the face of it that you will be required to pay both.


exemptions on council tax changed substantially with effect from april 2013/2014 and most exemptions are no longer offered.


However phone to check...you may find your council in the position to offer...I guess for the sake of a phone call,nothing ventuired nothing gained!


As a side note...do the letting agency and the LL know it is your intention to leave the rental property prior to the end of your agreement?
You may wantv to look in your agreement to see what is mentioned about a property being unoccupied for a period of time....this could also have reprocussions if you leave the property unoccupied beyond the term specified in your contract (some usually say 30 days)...in leaving it unoccupied for a longer period you could be invalidating the insurance the LL may have in respect of buildings insurance on the property.


As a LL I faced a similar situation recently where a tenant wanted to leave contract early but without paying penality...but it set a chain of other senarios off which could have invalidated what I had in place re insurance cover....the situation was only resolved by delaying the completion of the purchase of my tenants onward property.

lincroft1710

polarization wrote: »

New property has exemption: As long as you meet the unoccupied and substantially unfurnished property requirement (if the council have this), I would declare the new property as empty until after your fixed-term contract ends. For your rented properties, you should be liable for the council tax for the period of your tenancy. If you can use the unoccupied and substantially unfurnished property discount, make sure your vendor did not use it before completion as some council restricted it to the properties no matter you are the new owner.

If any of the information are wrong, please feel free to corret me. :-)

The OP wants to move into the new property before the end of the tenancy. They cannot claim "unoccupied and substantially unfurnished" on the new property as they will be living there.

LEJC

lincroft1710 wrote: »

The OP wants to move into the new property before the end of the tenancy. They cannot claim "unoccupied and substantially unfurnished" on the new property as they will be living there.

However the OP might find it easier to continue living in the rental property and claim the above on their new property if such a discount is offered by their new council....


Its another avenue for them to explore.
In essence they will potentially need to run both properties until such time as the tenancy agreement ends and bearing in mind other factors within their tenancy agreement they may find it easier to delay the move to the new property and claim a discount on it if applicable

dax42

Hello all,

Thank you very much for your answers and advice. The council I'm moving to does offer an empty property discount, so I will apply for this. We are completing two weeks before we're actually moving, so I'm hoping we'll be able to get this discount.

Looks like the 6 weeks overlap with the rented property afterwards we'll just have to pay both. The rented property is furnished and so we can always stay there the odd Saturday, thus not breaching our contract (not more than 14 consecutive days unoccupied).

Thanks a lot!

thesaint

dax42 wrote: »

Hello all,

Thank you very much for your answers and advice. The council I'm moving to does offer an empty property discount, so I will apply for this. We are completing two weeks before we're actually moving, so I'm hoping we'll be able to get this discount.

Hopefully, the vendor hasn't used it.

fishpond

You could admit to yourselves you have made an error of judgement and pay both council taxes instead of trying to slope it onto someone else to foot YOUR bill, including your LL.

dax42

@ thesaint: It's a new-built and only been handed over to the vendors at the end of October, so even if they claimed it, they won't have claimed the whole two months yet. So still hopeful :-)

@fishpond: Why am I getting this aggressive message from you? This is a forum dedicated to money saving and I'm asking about council tax rules and discounts. I don't see how your post is helpful at all. I have not made an error of judgement, we're moving into a new-built and it was hard to predict when the building works would be done. Since we couldn't get a rolling contract I extended it so that we wouldn't be in danger of being homeless! In my opinion THAT would have been an error of judgement. However, as a result I'm having to pay for two flats for six weeks and am wondering how to reduce the total cost of moving. I still think this is the right forum for it and a fair question. If you need to vent anger then I believe you should be looking elsewhere.