Council Tax Disparity

Roger_Steven

I am currently renovating a flat for renting out. It is completely empty without any residents. Why is it that my local council says I have to pay the full council tax after the first month, when a single person in a property can get a 25% discount?
Surely with no residents, local services are not being used. This seems a crazy anomaly.

davidmcn

Council tax isn't a poll tax, or a charge for services used, it's just a tax - larger households don't get charged extra either. I suppose it could be a deterrent against properties being left unoccupied.

marliepanda

It’s to discourage empty properties. You have a second property, not a residential property with one occupant.

Not using any services? You’re not gonna put anything in your bins whilst renovating?

Happy for the fire service to ignore your house if it’s on fire?

Happy for the police to ignore vandalism on your house?

You can afford to go into the BTL business. You can afford the council tax.

G_M

because it's an empty house that could in theory be used to house someone in need.

Hence the incentive to get the renovationsfinshed asap rather than leaving it empty for months/years waiting for prices to rise......

00ec25

be grateful you got a month, since the rules were changed to allow council to set their own discount rules some places would not have given you even 1 day's "empty" zero rate

as for the idea the property does not "consume" services, are you serious? just stop and think about where the house is located, it is not a boat on the open sea, it is "connected". Why should I pay for people who use the NHS, I don't.

3card

My local council also give zero days grace for empty properties.
Just to point out also, if the property has been empty for 2 years (even if it includes a previous owner) they charge a 50% surcharge on the council tax to try to avoid empty properties

CIS

As budgets are cut Local Authorities have used their delegated powers to reduce the discounts to 0% in a lot of cases (the government did say they'd hope the councils wouldn't do that...) to try and recoup the monies as much as possible. The same applies to the 50% premium - the council can add a premium of 'up to 50%' but very few applied less than the full amount.