Advice with Council Tax - paying twice

banks_anthony_r

Hoping for some advice. I have been renting and then bought a property. The way the timing of the completion fell, I was paying rent on the rental property for the month of September after the completion date (beginning of September). I alerted the council when I left the rental property and moved into the bought property (beginning of October) - the bought property was empty for a month. The council are charging me council tax twice for September; once for living in the rental property during the notice period (September) and again for having the empty property during September. I have queried with the council as I had explained the property was empty so I thought I would be entitled to an empty property discount for September, but they have said that because the previous owners claimed an empty property discount, I can't.

I appreciate this may not be strictly a money saving query but I can't seem to get any online advice to verify whether this is the case; is it true as I feel that I am being penalised because the previous owner happened to have applied for an empty property discount, which is something out of my control.

Any help would be great.

lincroft1710

Sounds correct to me.

Kynthia

Unfortunately it doesn't matter that it's out of your control. If the property has already used up the empty property discount then you can't use it. It's done per property and doesn't reset with a new owner.

Guest101

It is correct, it is the property not the person entitled to the discount

banks_anthony_r

Thank you all for the responses - if only the 'helpful' council call centre employee had taken the time to explain it better, I would have not doubted it. Now I see that it is property rather than owner based, I can see it is what it is. Thanks again.

CIS

You can be liable for two properties at any one time (and more, in theory).

The only consideration is whether you are liable for the council tax charge.

You will always be liable for the unoccupied owned property - whether a discount applies or not depends on the local authority (they have delegated powers to set the rate of discount and the length of discount). If a discount has already been granted then it will not be available again just because of a change in ownership.

You will always be liable for a rental property in which you are the resident tenant.

Craig