Unoccupied CouncilTax

xylophone

My wife's mother had to vacate her house when her father died as it was unsuitable. But it can't be sold yet as my wife only owns half of it as a tenant-in-common with her mother. [/QUOTE]

Why "can't" it be sold? Your MIL and wife could choose to sell and each take their half of the proceeds?

AdrianC

reefs wrote: »

Currently the house has been on the market for 3 years. We cannot reduce the asking price as we cannot pay the deficit on the mortgage.

It's clear that nobody is going to pay that price for it.

We cannot reduce the asking price, as we are in debt

Then you won't sell it.

Council are asking £3k fees as of today, after no response to complaints. Demanded in 7 days.

What the hell do we do?

Figure out the cheapest possible way to cut your losses and get out of this mess.

Right now, you owe the council a substantial sum, and that sum is only increasing - because you still owe Council Tax for every day you own the property and it sit empty, as well as the fees on your back debt.

noddynoo

Let it until you get your finances in order Or sell bf house and move into it

BarryBlue

davidmcn wrote: »

No, it's not legal. You can't be on the electoral register if you're not a resident. And you can't claim single occupier discount unless you're actually an occupier.

If you own a number of properties you can choose where you are regarded as resident. Plenty of people own several properties where they only live for some of the time. How can anyone prove otherwise if she has chosen that as her residence? She also has her name on the utilities and has it as her banking address. It's nobody else's business, frankly.

xylophone wrote: »

Why "can't" it be sold? Your MIL and wife could choose to sell and each take their half of the proceeds?

There are some complex reasons relating to its condition and the capacity of her mother, which are not really for public consumption here.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

BarryBlue wrote: »

If you own a number of properties you can choose where you are regarded as resident. Plenty of people own several properties where they only live for some of the time. How can anyone prove otherwise if she has chosen that as her residence? She also has her name on the utilities and has it as her banking address. It's nobody else's business, frankly.
.

I have no idea about Council Tax, but certainly for taxes that HMRC administer residence is a matter of fact, not one of choice.


There is a CT expert who posts on here, but like others I would be very surprised if what your mother is doing is above board.

Miss_Samantha

BarryBlue wrote: »

Plenty of people own several properties where they only live for some of the time.

Here it seems that the wife does not live at all at the property and is just claiming to in order to get a CT discount.

My understanding is that the single occupier discount is only available for the property that is your sole or main residence. So you need to actually have your things there and to live there some times over the year.

CIS

Miss_Samantha wrote: »

Here it seems that the wife does not live at all at the property and is just claiming to in order to get a CT discount.

My understanding is that the single occupier discount is only available for the property that is your sole or main residence. So you need to actually have your things there and to live there some times over the year.

You are correct that it works on 'sole or main residence'. A temporary residence elsewhere, especially when you've vacated a property to which you intend to return later wouldn't generally be sufficient to change your 'sole or main residence'.

Craig

davidmcn

BarryBlue wrote: »

If you own a number of properties you can choose where you are regarded as resident.

No, if you reside at a number of properties you can register to vote at all of them (but only actually vote at one for each election!). Merely owning a property doesn't give you a right to be on the electoral register.

Similarly, the single occupier discount for council tax depends on there being an adult actually occupying the property.

She also has her name on the utilities and has it as her banking address.

Using the property as a mailing address doesn't mean she's a resident.

BarryBlue

Miss_Samantha wrote: »

Here it seems that the wife does not live at all at the property and is just claiming to in order to get a CT discount.

My understanding is that the single occupier discount is only available for the property that is your sole or main residence. So you need to actually have your things there and to live there some times over the year.

And you know that for certain, do you? I don't know how anyone could say for certain where someone 'mainly' lived without staking all their homes out. That is simply not going to happen at any point. We have 'things' at any property and, as I have said, could live in any as we choose. Let anyone prove otherwise if they like.

the electoral register issue is a bit of a red herring. The only reason I raised it is that to transfer your residence for CT purposes, our local council requires that you first move on the electoral roll, which is what we do when necessary.

booksurr

BarryBlue wrote: »

My wife's mother had to vacate her house when her father died as it was unsuitable. But it can't be sold yet as my wife only owns half of it as a tenant-in-common with her mother. So officially my wife lives there. It saves us about £800 a year quite legally.

your wife does not "officially" live there, she merely pretends to live there and has laid a partial papertrail in an attempt to disguise that fact.

if investigated your wife would likely be found to have undertaken council tax fraud since she has presumably returned the annual (or whatever frequency that councils sends them) questionaire from the council asking her to confirm her status as the sole resident, she has therefore made a false declaration...

THE LAW: Local Government Finance Act 1992
section 6 para 5 (b)... “resident”, in relation to any dwelling, means an individual who has attained the age of 18 years and has his sole or main residence in the dwelling (my bolding)

section 11 para 1 (a) The amount of council tax payable in respect of any chargeable dwelling and any day shall be subject to a discount equal to the appropriate percentage of that amount if on that day—

(a)there is only one resident of the dwelling and he does not fall to be disregarded for the purposes of discount (my bolding)

as regards "main residence", as mentioned already by another poster, there is now well established case law which sets out a host of criteria by which the quality of occupation can be measured. She is your wife, the presumption is married couples live together. Where they can show just cause it is possible for them to remain married but lead separate lives with separate residences, however, from what you have posted that appears beyond unlikely. Your wife has therefore knowingly made false declarations in order to evade CT.