Council Tax for unoccupied property

twonk9098

I have been trying to find out online an explanation for having to pay council tax on a unoccupied property.
My father passed away almost a year ago leaving an empty house. The council allowed us not to pay council tax for 6 months from date of probate. This date has now expired.
What am I paying council tax for, nobody lives there, no bins are ever emptied etc?
Who pays the council tax on unoccupied council houses?

I can understand that they do not want houses to be standing and empty when so many people need somewhere to live however This house has been up for sale for 8 months and has not yet sold. If the government are expecting a house to be sold within 6 months allowing us to avoid council tax then why have they created an economic environment where houses are not selling?

Anybody have any ideas.
Thanks

anselld

Ideas about what? The Council tax position is exactly as you have stated. Nothing anyone can advise will change that. Indeed if you wait another 16 months there will probably be a 50% surcharge.

There will no doubt be plenty of advice on how to sell if you would care to post a link (in the housing board).

luvchocolate

Each council has its own policy on unoccupied property, you have already had a period of nil tax so I imagine that would be their policy to charge after that time, there are many threads on this subject on this board.

lincroft1710

twonk9098 wrote: »

I have been trying to find out online an explanation for having to pay council tax on a unoccupied property.
My father passed away almost a year ago leaving an empty house. The council allowed us not to pay council tax for 6 months from date of probate. This date has now expired.
What am I paying council tax for, nobody lives there, no bins are ever emptied etc?
Who pays the council tax on unoccupied council houses?

I can understand that they do not want houses to be standing and empty when so many people need somewhere to live however This house has been up for sale for 8 months and has not yet sold. If the government are expecting a house to be sold within 6 months allowing us to avoid council tax then why have they created an economic environment where houses are not selling?

Anybody have any ideas.
Thanks

The legislation predates the current economic situation by many years. The payment for the CT will come out of the deceased's estate.

Do not waste your time trying to formulate an argument why it is unfair or you shouldn't pay as whatever is set down in legislation is what will happen. Only Parliament can amend this legislation, so it would be more useful for you to lobby your MP (but I expect the end result will be a polite brush-off).

etienneg

If the house caught fire, would you expect the fire service to attend? If there was a break in or vandalism, would you expect the police to attend? These are just two examples of things you are getting that are partially funded from council tax.

Speaking personally, there are a lot of things like these that I'm also paying towards and for which I'm quite happy never to get any personal benefit.

If it really annoys you so much, reduce the price of the house until it does sell.

[Deleted User]

Hi twonk9098, we have the same situation with my MIL's house and were also granted 6 months Nil rate CT from grant of probate, which has now expired and we're about to start paying CT from the Executors' account. Those are the rules, I'm afraid, and you've just got to suck it up. etienneg makes a good point above about the services your CT contributes to that aren't necessarily as obvious as refuse collection.

agrinnall

If the house hasn't sold it's because the price is higher than buyers want to pay. So your choices are either to hold out for the higher price and pay the CT until it does sell, or reduce the price to a level that buyers find reasonable.

csgohan4

you can't control the council tax situation, but you can control how quick the house sells for. The more time it take to sell, the more it costs in maintenance

Drop the price or pay for the CT for ever how long it takes to sell

twonk9098

So my original question of '“
I have been trying to find out online an explanation for having to pay council tax on a unoccupied property.' cannot be answered then.
I have no issues with paying the council tax I just want to know what I am paying for.
I understand that there are services like fire / police which are partly funded by CT and I'm sure there are more. Be nice to see a list which I don't think exists.

Interesting that a site like this seems to jump down my neck for asking a potential money saving question that no one can or has really answered.

etienneg

twonk9098 wrote: »

So my original question of '“
I have been trying to find out online an explanation for having to pay council tax on a unoccupied property.' cannot be answered then.
I have no issues with paying the council tax I just want to know what I am paying for.
I understand that there are services like fire / police which are partly funded by CT and I'm sure there are more. Be nice to see a list which I don't think exists.

The short answer is that it's because legislation says so.

When you get your annual council tax bill it is accompanied by a leaflet that gives a breakdown of what council tax pays for. If you want further details your local council will supply them.

The essential point that you need to grasp is that council tax is not a charge for services (unlike water, gas, electricity, phone, broadband, etc.). It is a TAX, and parliamentary legislation lays down that it is payable on property. (If you are old enough, think back to the troubles caused when this changed temporarily to a community charge, payable by all adults and therefore dubbed 'the poll tax'!)

Clearly council tax revenue is used to provide local services generally. However, as it is a tax, there is no direct link between what you pay and what you (in your individual circumstances) get back. You cannot opt out of paying for particular services just because you don't use them (any more than I, for example, can opt out of paying for schools now that my children are past school age!). So its pointless looking further for any 'explanation'.

There's no money to be saved here, and if you think people have been short with you I suspect it's because your post was seen as a bit of a moan rather than genuinely seeking information. I've tried to expand somewhat, but unless you can accept this answer I'm afraid there's no more help to give.

gt94sss2

twonk9098 wrote: »

So my original question of '“
I have been trying to find out online an explanation for having to pay council tax on a unoccupied property.' cannot be answered then

Because the law states that an exemption of upto 6 months applies in the event of a death.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1992/558/made

Class F: an unoccupied dwelling in relation to which a person is a qualifying person in his capacity as personal representative, if either no grant of probate or of letters of administration has been made, or less than 6 months have elapsed since the day on which such a grant was made;