Unoccupied CouncilTax

marliepanda

People in genuine financial distress get taken to court and are made to pay their debts back.
People with nothing.

You really think that you, owning two houses, will get the debt written off? Dream on.

AdrianC

marliepanda wrote: »

People in genuine financial distress get taken to court and are made to pay their debts back.
People with nothing.

You really think that you, owning two houses, will get the debt written off? Dream on.

"Owning two houses" does not necessarily mean that the OP has any actual equity.

They've repeatedly said that the house in question is in negative equity.
You have a house worth £100k, but there's a £110k mortgage secured against it, how much is available for your unsecured creditors?

BarryBlue

booksurr wrote: »

so your "quite legal" should have said, in our case, due to some very special circumstances which are possibly unique to us, we think we are legal. Not quite what you said is it?

as your preference is to hide "facts" why not explain why a married couple who own multiple property will have no CGT liability so other people can be informed and learn from you?

What I am saying is that, unlike some people, I don't plaster all the details of my private affairs over the internet. I made a suggestion that the OP may have wished to consider. It is something that many people do, whether you like it or not, and everyone's circumstances are different. Yet you chose to jump in and make all sorts of assumptions about our circumstances which were, not surprisingly, wrong. Not uncommon on MSE, of course.

There will be no CGT to pay on the properties concerned under any circumstances. Unlike our BTL properties of course, in the unlikely event that we should decide to sell them. You can speculate about it if you wish, of course, but I shall not comment further.

marksoton wrote: »

Bearing in mind their morals on tax i'd imagine nothing at all.

You, of course, know nothing about me or my 'morals'. However, I would say that if anyone chooses to take advice at face value from someone on an anonymous internet forum, rather than do their own research first, then frankly they deserve all they get. I have a legal advisor who earns every penny of what he gets paid. So it's water off a duck's back to me.;)

-taff

WHen I had a flat and it was empty, i got letters from the council asking me to effectively let them rent it for me. Is there nothing like that you can do?

tlc678910

Hi, as you are the sole owner of the empty property and do not share ownership of the house you live in with your partner why not seriously consider bancruptsy and other debt solutions?

Speak to free debt advice sources - payplan, CAP and advice here. You say your ongoing council tax liability pushes you over what you can handle but it's not going away. Bare in mind though I think some organisations are weighted to push you to pay debts off rather than escape them.

Why not bite the bullet and get rid of this burden - if your debt is only going to grow until that solution is forced upon you?

We have a house bought in 2007 which was in negative equity a long time. Thanks to a repayment mortgage it is no longer in negative equity but still worth less than we paid. We were able to rent it out but if we had not been able to it would have been impossible and forced us to go bancrupt as after training "up country" we could not find work in the area.

It sounds like you have held this together as long as you can and if you don't take action the problem is growing.
Tlc

booksurr

BarryBlue wrote: »

What I am saying is that, unlike some people, I don't plaster all the details of my private affairs over the internet. I made a suggestion that the OP may have wished to consider. It is something that many people do, whether you like it or not, and everyone's circumstances are different. Yet you chose to jump in and make all sorts of assumptions about our circumstances which were, not surprisingly, wrong. Not uncommon on MSE, of course.

There will be no CGT to pay on the properties concerned under any circumstances. Unlike our BTL properties of course, in the unlikely event that we should decide to sell them. You can speculate about it if you wish, of course, but I shall not comment further.

You, of course, know nothing about me or my 'morals'. However, I would say that if anyone chooses to take advice at face value from someone on an anonymous internet forum, rather than do their own research first, then frankly they deserve all they get. I have a legal advisor who earns every penny of what he gets paid. So it's water off a duck's back to me.;)

I would say that anyone who posts advice to strangers on the internet without providing the context of how their advice is suitable is wasting everyone's time. You now admit that your comments about "quite legal" and "no CGT" relate exclusively to the precise context of your own circumstances. I agree that further speculation about your precise position is pointless.

however, you are the one who made the gross assumption that your advice was relevant to the questioner without expressing any caveats as to the fact your knowledge was based on your precise circumstances and was not referenced to explain how that differed to the official rules. Any further advice from you about tax should reflect the position of the questioner, not be based on your own experience as that is utterly irrelevant to the questioner. merely hiding behind, "do your own research" after your comment has been challenged is poor.

GDB2222

reefs wrote: »

Thanks for all your input here. There is a lot to consider here.

The house is mine be alone, we were supposed to sell both our properties and get a house togther when we married. I moved in with my husband and found we both had negative equity issues.

My house was to be sold, then the plan was revised to renovate and place it on the rental market, ride out the negative equity issue.

Mortgage lender gave us a an agreement to rent the property for up to 3 years. It was rented in 2012, but the rental income didn't cover the costs, never mind the renovation costs.

At the end of 2012, after 1 year of trying to rent the property, the rental idea was abandoned and the property was placed on the sales market.

We sought help to sell the property, but the banks refused to help, hence continuing to seek help and guidance from various sources.

I entered a legally binding agreement with mortgage lender and have always paid.

The council was notified the property was empty, and there were no issues.

The council never asked for any council tax while the property was empty.

In 2015, after 2 years of the property empty,and failing to sell. the council sent a council tax demand, backdated for two years.

I then learned the council was able to now charge unoccupied council tax from 2013 and decided to do so, back dating the charge for two years, asking for an immediate payment.

I complained about the sudden charges. Explained my financial situation, and requested help from the council.

I did not want the property to remain empty, asked the council for help, reducing / writing off the debt, and suggestions on how to resolve the impossible situation I was in. There was only a few months left on the permission to let from the mortgage advisor, not enough for a tenancy.

I could not remortgage, as the property was in negative equity.

I could not sell at a loss as I couldn't pay the mortgage defecit. I enquirerd loans, but it us against the terms to take out a loan to pay debt (This doesn't qualify as debt consolidation) nor could I get any further loans, or afford a loan sufficient to cover the defecit.

The only option was to keep paying the mortgage, which was very difficult, but I managed. So the best advice has always been keep paying, pay off debts, start saving, then when there is enough money to pay the mortgage deficit, reduce the price further and get rid.

This was working. My head is just above the water. Every month my debt is a small step closer to being paid off.

This will take years, has taken years, and will likely still take years.

The council did not make any further demands, did not follow up on my complaint.

Almost a year later, another backdated bill was sent, asking for immediate payment.

The whole process repeated. Council did not respond, no further correspondence.

Another year later, another backdated bill. Now a threat of legal action if not paid within 7 days.

I am on track to pay my debts, the councils demands will tip me over the manageable edge. They will also add years to my plans to get out of debt, in fact they will add to the debts every year, making this impossible. Backdated and future payments will add to the debts faster than I can pay them off.

1. Speak to your councillor about this. If anybody can get a concession for you, he/she can.

2. If that doesn't work, don't be too scared of bankruptcy. It relieves you of having to pay your debts any longer, including the mortgage on a house in negative equity. Surely, you'll be better off without those outgoings? It's certainly worth looking into.

3. Speak again to your lenders about this. Say you are considering bankruptcy and what can they offer?

[Deleted User]

Apologies if this has already been suggested, but how much equity do you have in your marital home (at current value)? If you remortgaged with the highest LTV available, would that free up enough cash to dig you out of your negative equity hole and council tax owed?

I appreciate you would likely want to protect your family home from these debts, but it may be a way to stop the debts from mounting further. You'll no longer have this monthly millstone of the old IO mortgage to pay, and be in better financial shape soon.

MiserlyMartin

Or sell both houses to pay off as much of this debt as possible. 2016 could be the new 2007. We have 0.25% interest rates, insanely high house prices, consumers and a government hooked on debt. They cannot cut rates anymore to have any effect when the next recession hits. Rates returning to a normal 5% is going give a large shock to those borrowing 12 times wages against an overpriced house. When the doodoo hits the fan its not going to be pretty....

AdrianC

MiserlyMartin wrote: »

Or sell both houses to pay off as much of this debt as possible. 2016 could be the new 2007. We have 0.25% interest rates, insanely high house prices, consumers and a government hooked on debt. They cannot cut rates anymore to have any effect when the next recession hits. Rates returning to a normal 5% is going give a large shock to those borrowing 12 times wages against an overpriced house. When the doodoo hits the fan its not going to be pretty....

And when was the last time anybody was lending 12x salary - or without solid proof of income?