Council Tax on a property left in a will

Machine_Silver

My mum passed away a few days ago. I have been living with her for 3 years as her 24/7 carer leaving my own house unoccupied.Mum, bless her, has left me her house so it is currently part of the estate waiting to transfer to me. Due to being housebound with mum (esp during Covid) both houses have deteriorated and whilst habitable, need a lot of work to be saleable. I had hoped to live in one whilst working on the other and vice versa and initially while grieving,living in mum's and getting mine sorted.

If I move back to my house, I will pay council tax with the 25% single person discount. Mum's house will be exempt until probate is granted and for up to 6 months after that depending on when the property is transfered to me. As I understand it, at that point it is classed as a second home and taxed accordingly which is fine.

The council say it is OK for me to stay at mum's "occasionally" while I'm working on it and sorting out her stuff but they could not tell me what the threshold is where they would then say that I'm "living in it". However, they did say that if was "living in it", I would be charged council tax on it at the 25% single person discount but that now my house would be taxed as a second residence and would attract the full charge without discount. Is this right?

It clearly is not a second residence or a holiday home as the two are only 3/4 mile apart, I can't live in both of them at the same time and there are no beaches in the West Midlands! I'm only in this situation because mum has died after I've been doing the right thing and caring for her. If you think about it, when mum was living independently we both got the 25% single person discounts on our properties so between the two of us, for the two houses, we paid 1.5 council taxes. Now mum is dead and we are imposing a lesser load on services, if I spend more than this unspecified time at mum's, I will end up paying 1.75 council taxes. The council tell me that concil tax is levied on a person, not a property so how can this be right?

Surely, for a bereavement situation like this, there must be some compassion and recognition that a person needs a little time to a) grieve and b) sort out their loved ones affairs and c) get one or both houses in a saleable state? This is so unfair. In consequence to caring for mum, my self-employed business has all but folded leaving me with little income,and as a reward, I now find just 3 days after mum died that I face massive council tax charges.

The government tell us unpaid carers are really important and in fact quote a figure that we save the state £132bn per year, as much as a whole extra NHS. Yet, as I have found repeatedly druing my caring role, we carers get repeated kicked in the teeth with things like this. So much for the Care Act!

phillw

Machine_Silver said:

The council say it is OK for me to stay at mum's "occasionally" while I'm working on it and sorting out her stuff but they could not tell me what the threshold is where they would then say that I'm "living in it". However, they did say that if was "living in it", I would be charged council tax on it at the 25% single person discount but that now my house would be taxed as a second residence and would attract the full charge without discount. Is this right?

Yes. There is no requirement for the second home to be a holiday home, it just has to be a second property that you own that is not your main residence.
They don't have hard and fast rules for what your main residence is.
They use a combination of things, like where you say you live when applying for credit, where you tell your doctor you live etc.
You can only get a single person discount on your main residence. It's up to the local authority to decide what they charge. It can be up to 50%, but they can also charge more. For example some areas allow a 10% discount for the first year the property is empty but then add a 100% surcharge after that as they want properties to be available to people to live in.
If it's derelict then there are other rules, but you might have trouble getting it classified as derelict.
https://www.gov.uk/council-tax/second-homes-and-empty-properties
The current government is all about making people do things for themselves, which sounds great until you're one of the "themselves".

lincroft1710

Sorry for your loss.

The CT position may not be as bad as you have imagined if you want to sell your late mother's house.you will have about 9 months before you need to pay, which gives you plenty of time to put the house on the market.and it may even be sold before you would need to pay CT.

On the practical side, you do not have to make the house "saleable", just sell it as is, as a fixer-upper. If you decide you want to keep your mother's house and sell your own, then you could incur the 2nd home CT charge for a short while

Your emotional arguments will have no affect on what CT you will have to pay, I understand this may have been written whist you are grieving, but they are irrelevant for the current situation.  

CIS

The council say it is OK for me to stay at mum's "occasionally" while I'm working on it and sorting out her stuff but they could not tell me what the threshold is where they would then say that I'm "living in it". However, they did say that if was "living in it", I would be charged council tax on it at the 25% single person discount but that now my house would be taxed as a second residence and would attract the full charge without discount. Is this right?

I'm not sure why they say they can't tell you - the issue is one of very basic council tax law. The single person discount will become applicable once you become resident, that is the property becomes your 'sole or main residence'. Simply 'living in it' is insufficient to form residence - the council should be well aware of the case law and legislation on it - 'sole or main residence' is, in simple terms, a case of asking whether a reasonable observer , looking at all the facts (Dr's, bills, family life, etc etc), would say that it was your sole residence or your main residence.

If you vacated your own home then, assuming there's no direct intention to return back to it as your 'sole or main residence', that home would then be charged at whatever the rate for an furnished/unfurnished property is.

If you think about it, when mum was living independently we both got the 25% single person discounts on our properties so between the two of us, for the two houses, we paid 1.5 council taxes. Now mum is dead and we are imposing a lesser load on services, if I spend more than this unspecified time at mum's, I will end up paying 1.75 council taxes. The council tell me that concil tax is levied on a person, not a property so how can this be right?

Not relevant for the purposes of council tax discounts.