Council tax on overlapping properties

Ramouth

We are (hopefully!) close to exchange and completion on the purchase of our new home and will have an overlap of a month or so with our rental.  We know we will need to pay two lots of council tax for this period. What I was wondering is if it would be cheaper for one of us to move into the new house while the other stays in the rental so that we can apply for single person discount on both properties?

user1977

I suspect the council will be sceptical that you really are forming two temporary one-person households.

Ramouth

Hmm.  Good point.  There would be quite a bit of ‘visiting’ whoever has the majority of the furniture and clothes!  

Having said that there are a few diy projects I could get on with at new property that my partner would rather not be involved with.  Plus after being together almost 24/7 for the last year he might appreciate a break!  So we could feasibly live separately for a month.

grumiofoundation

We had 2 properties for ~1 month. We got a discount/rebate (can't remember off top of head how much or exact reason for discount) on each property for the days we weren't living there and they were unfurnished.

Rough timeline:
Completed on 1st on Property B.
Moved from rental A to Property B on 10th
Tenancy ends on 30th. 

Didn't have to pay full council tax for A from 10th-30th as was empty.
Didn't have to pay full council tax on B from 1st to 10th for same reason.

May be that this will vary council to council? 

In the event you can get this would also be cheaper than 2 x 75%.
As above not sure that would work anyway.

Irishpearce26

grumiofoundation said:

We had 2 properties for ~1 month. We got a discount/rebate (can't remember off top of head how much or exact reason for discount) on each property for the days we weren't living there and they were unfurnished.

Rough timeline:
Completed on 1st on Property B.
Moved from rental A to Property B on 10th
Tenancy ends on 30th. 

Didn't have to pay full council tax for A from 10th-30th as was empty.
Didn't have to pay full council tax on B from 1st to 10th for same reason.

May be that this will vary council to council? 

In the event you can get this would also be cheaper than 2 x 75%.
As above not sure that would work anyway.

So where did you live if by your logic both properties were empty? 

Ramouth

grumiofoundation said:

We had 2 properties for ~1 month. We got a discount/rebate (can't remember off top of head how much or exact reason for discount) on each property for the days we weren't living there and they were unfurnished.

Rough timeline:
Completed on 1st on Property B.
Moved from rental A to Property B on 10th
Tenancy ends on 30th. 

Didn't have to pay full council tax for A from 10th-30th as was empty.
Didn't have to pay full council tax on B from 1st to 10th for same reason.

May be that this will vary council to council? 

In the event you can get this would also be cheaper than 2 x 75%.
As above not sure that would work anyway.

Thanks for the reply.  I didn’t think where we are (Cornwall) there was an empty property discount as there is an empty property premium but you inspired me to take a look and it looks like we can have a month free.

grumiofoundation

Irishpearce26 said:

grumiofoundation said:

We had 2 properties for ~1 month. We got a discount/rebate (can't remember off top of head how much or exact reason for discount) on each property for the days we weren't living there and they were unfurnished.

Rough timeline:
Completed on 1st on Property B.
Moved from rental A to Property B on 10th
Tenancy ends on 30th. 

Didn't have to pay full council tax for A from 10th-30th as was empty.
Didn't have to pay full council tax on B from 1st to 10th for same reason.

May be that this will vary council to council? 

In the event you can get this would also be cheaper than 2 x 75%.
As above not sure that would work anyway.

So where did you live if by your logic both properties were empty? 

They weren't empty at the same time. 

PRAISETHESUN

If you're able to get an unfurnished discount then that's obviously the way to go. Otherwise, a temporary SPD might be okay or the council might see through what you're doing - you can only really give it a go and see what happens. As long as you have a sufficiently believable story if you're ever asked for it I don't think there'll be an issue.

I did the unfurnished property route when I moved house recently (had ~3 week overlap between when I picked up the keys to my new rental and when I vacated my old one) and it was very straightforward - the online form my council provided for when you're moving in/out gave an option to specify when you removed furniture, in addition to when you actually moved in/out of each address. The council did get in touch to query it as the woman who was dealing with my form was confused at the idea that I was living in an unfurnished home for 3 weeks, but as long as you have an obvious explanation (eg. you removed furniture from property A on XXX date, held it in storage for YYY days, then moved it to property B on ZZZ date) you'll be okay.

lincroft1710

Ramouth said:

We are (hopefully!) close to exchange and completion on the purchase of our new home and will have an overlap of a month or so with our rental.  We know we will need to pay two lots of council tax for this period. What I was wondering is if it would be cheaper for one of us to move into the new house while the other stays in the rental so that we can apply for single person discount on both properties?

Councils tend not to believe this except in cases where a couple has permanently separated.

Ramouth

Thanks all.  I think the best plan will be to leave the new property empty for the first month and just visit to do the bits of work required.  

In the grand scheme of things the extra council tax pales into insignificance within the overall cost of moving but I’m a “look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves” kind of person.

CIS

Ramouth said:

We are (hopefully!) close to exchange and completion on the purchase of our new home and will have an overlap of a month or so with our rental.  We know we will need to pay two lots of council tax for this period. What I was wondering is if it would be cheaper for one of us to move into the new house while the other stays in the rental so that we can apply for single person discount on both properties?

There are some little nuances of council tax that need to be considered, its not as simple as a tenancy meaning that council tax is due.

Is the tenancy within a fixed period or is it in a statutory periodic period ?