Council tax on second home

Nobby1234

Council tax is paying on second homes however both my homes are in Essex. So I'm paying twice for Essex police, Essex social care and Essex fire service. Should I be paying twice for the same service in the same county?

Jeremy535897

Someone with a house in Band H pays three times the council tax as someone with a house in Band A, so if your two houses were each in Band A you'd still pay less council tax than someone with one house in Band H.

mjm3346

Yes                     .  .

macman

It's a property tax, not a tax on services....how many more times does this point have to be made? Some of the revenue is used to pay for local services, but the tax is not calculated based on which services you use or don't use.
Let's extend your strange logic and assume that you happen to own every single house, in, say, Basildon. Would you still think it right that you would pay council tax on just one of them?

Nobby1234

Sorry, I am not questioning Council tax. I accept I pay for these. But on the council tax demand it is broken down in to 6 cargoes. The county council, the borough council and the town council, all of which I am not enquiring about. It's the other 3 that are billed separately.
Social care, Policing and community safety and Essex fire and rescue.These I'm am paying twice for the same service in the same county. My question is, is this correct?

etienneg

So, which one of your properties do you want the fire service or police to attend if it catches fire or is broken into?
It has been explained to you that this is a tax, not a payment for specific services. Pursuing your misguided argument isn't going to elicit any more useful information.

CIS

Nobby1234 said:

Social care, Policing and community safety and Essex fire and rescue.These I'm am paying twice for the same service in the same county. My question is, is this correct?

Yes, it's per property.

justworriedabit

CIS said:

Nobby1234 said:

Social care, Policing and community safety and Essex fire and rescue.These I'm am paying twice for the same service in the same county. My question is, is this correct?

Yes, it's per property.

As it stands but it is not spent on the property it is spend as per OP stated.
Thanks

yksi

Is it correct to pay for (some) services which you can't possibly use in both homes at once, since one or the other home is always empty? Yes.
Is it moral? Up for debate.
Is it moral to contribute to social care - which can include housing homeless people - while being responsible for contributing to homes sitting empty? See above answer if you like, but to be candid, it's probably best you just quietly pay both sets of council tax.

csgohan4

op just pay up, you have two properties. It's not a buy one get one free deal for council tax.

If your quibbling over council, can you afford to run two households?