Can I appeal for Council Tax (Birmingham Council) exemption on an empty house?

crazyvish

Dear All,

I would like to see if anyone of you could provide me with some advice on how to approach this.

I am a first time buyer and have recently bought a house on 30th Nov 2018 which is under Birmingham City Council. I have been living in a rented apartment (which is also under Birmingham City Council) until then.

I vacated the rented place on the 10th Jan 2019 when my tenancy ended and moved into the house.

I have wrote to the council explaining the situation and the moving dates. They have sent me a bill this morning asking me to pay 100% of the council tax for both of the places.

01 Apr 2018 to 10 Jan 2019 - for the Old Property
30th Nov 2018 to 31 mar 2019 - for the new house

They have acknowledged the fact that the new house has been empty from 30th Nov 2018 till 10th Jan 2019 but didn't provide any exemption!

I called them up to ask and they told me that they don't provide any exemptions on empty houses anymore. Should I stick to their verdict and pay it off or have I got any chance to appeal?

Also, during the time when the house was empty, the council haven't cleared the bins. The previous owner left them out. Apparently, they didn't empty them for the whole area for about 4 to 5 weeks! We had to take them to our local recycling center when we moved in!

unforeseen

The council give no exemption for empty houses and if empty for more than 2 years attract an additional 50 or 100% premium charge so pointless appealing as you have no grounds.

The lack of bin emptying would only come into play if everyone else affected got a reduction/refund for that period.

00ec25

short answer: no chance


longer answer:
the law allows council to set their own discounts for empty property of between 0% discount and up to 50% discount


for obvious reasons no councils are generous anymore and many will be 0% discount from the word go


you have never occupied the property so there is no entitlement to a single person discount if you expecting that


you remained "in occupation" of the rental property so have been charged on that up to the relevant end date of the tenancy. The fact that overlaps with the new house is almost inevitable in the real world so yes having to pay 2 lots of CT is normal.

CIS

You could appeal if you believed the council had set a rate of discount but had misapplied the discount in your case (i.e they have applied the wrong discount type) however where it is a dispute over whether a particular rate of discount applies (i.e. whether the council had the power to set a specific rate) then it requires a judicial review.

crazyvish

Thanks all for taking the time and responding to my query. I understand that I just have to pay for both of the places.