200% Council Tax for inherited retirement flat I can't sell, sublet or live in (costing £8K/year)

se2020

Why not just instruct the estate agent to send it to auction with no reserve rather than decline it.

Or tell them you will double the commission and reduce the price if they can sell it within 28days.
Most agents have hands-in-pockets of at least one "investor" who will snatch up any underpriced property 

AdamDavidson

Hi @se2020 - The lease restricts who it can be sold to, so it can't be an investor, it can only be a retired person (or couple), who are 55 years or older, who will live in the property. I will ask him about a no reserve auction though, thanks for the suggestion. I guess it will need at least 1 bid though to sell, but it might be worth a shot.

housebuyer143

AdamDavidson said:

Hi @se2020 - The lease restricts who it can be sold to, so it can't be an investor, it can only be a retired person (or couple), who are 55 years or older, who will live in the property. I will ask him about a no reserve auction though, thanks for the suggestion. I guess it will need at least 1 bid though to sell, but it might be worth a shot.

Are you paying the fees because they should be coming from the estate and not your pocket. Same with the council tax. If there is no money in the estate then they can't get it until the house is sold. 

user1977

The OP can’t really accept the inheritance anyway, as that would require the estate to assign the lease to him - which the landlord wouldn’t consent to as he doesn’t qualify.

AdamDavidson

@housebuyer143 - I was paying the fees out of the residual cash that my mum left me, which I guess is the estate, is that right? I'm getting the sense that I should add up all those payments and once it reaches the amount of cash I received then I should tell Housing21 and Reading Borough Council that there is no more cash and they will have to wait for the sale? If the sale doesn't happen, or doesn't cover the outstanding debts then the estate is bankrupt but I wouldn't be liable for any residual debt. Is that right? 

AdamDavidson

@user1977 - Wow, that is an interesting line of thinking. So I don't really own the property yet anyway since I couldn't be the leaseholder, which means it's definitely still with the estate. That is really, really good news. Thank you so much for that. I'm already feeling less stressed.

Brie

AdamDavidson said:

Brie said:

I wonder if giving it is considered affordable housing your council could do anything about it.  It's a well known fact that council housing is in massive short supply so they may be well motivated to help you resolve this.  

Thanks Brie, I guess that's why they are charging me 200% to incentivize me to rent it out, even though I legally can't. I will call them again though and see if they can put pressure on Housing21 from their end. I've had another experience with Wokingham Council where there was a 4 bed detached house available for free but they didn't want it so I'm not 100% sure they really care about this.

come at them from both sides.  There'll be the council housing department to contact (rather than the council tax team) and Shelter who will be working with people they are trying to get into affordable housing.

Working on from some of the other comments maybe try some of the housing associations locally?  There's always going to be some that have buildings that are strictly for seniors and they might be interested and get round the rules too.  

AdamDavidson

@Brie - Thanks for the suggestion. I will contact the council housing department and also Shelter, and see if there any other housing associations, other than Housing21, that might be interested.

Brie

Shelter will know of what's local but this might help too...

Social housing - Reading Borough Council

AdamDavidson

@Brie - I was just on that page and have a draft email in progress as I type this!