Ive been hit with a 200% charge because my property was empty for 5 years before i owned it?!!

SILLYMOO

Can anyone advise me if this has happened to them or a way forward with this. I bought an old cottage in Oct 23, I didnt move in until July 24 as I had to do some work on it. I notified Stafford council that i had purchased the property (to avoid running up  bill!) They couldnt locate the property and despite numerous emails from me they wouldnt reply. I then notified them i was moving in in July 24. Eventually, after many weeks, a property officer finally located the property on their system and i received a bill a couple of days ago for almost £6k!! I questioned this as it states '200% empty 5 year empty property charge' Of course i thought this must have been an error and called them. I was informed that because the property had been empty for 5 years prior to my ownership then i was liable for the 200% charge!! Obviously i was shocked and questioned this and was told that the previous owner would also have had a 200% charge. I was in disbelief and told this was council legislation and i have to pay two direct debits £139 a month for 18 months as an arrangement for last years charge and £489 a month for this year as theres only 6 months left of this year so thats not negotiable. I'm distraught over this as there's no way i can afford to pay them £628 a month and be able to pay my other bills and eat. I have put in a formal complaint to the council tax, contacted an MP and the CAB. I'm now completely stressed out and have to wait to see what comes back. Has anyone out there got any advice or thoughts on this?? 

Flugelhorn

I think what normally happens is that as soon as you move in as the new owner the clock stops and you revert to "normal council tax" - usually this is when you complete, sounds like the problem in this case was that there was a year when it was still empty 

 Was the property habitable during the year? 

BarelySentientAI

Sounds right to me.  Buying a property doesn't reset the 'counter' for how long it has been unoccupied - if it had already reached the 200% band, then that's what you should be paying from the day you bought until the day you moved in.

marcia_

 Sounds right but £6k for less than a years worth of 200% council tax? 

lincroft1710

As others have said, the council are correct in charging 200% for the unoccupied period

Flugelhorn

marcia_ said:

 Sounds right but £6k for less than a years worth of 200% council tax? 

looks like they are back charging for last year (the £139 for 18 months) = approx 2.5K and also for the current year at £489 for 6 months - so about 2.9K for that. 

Kim_13

Did no one tell you that the property had been empty for that long before you owned it? It seems like something that ought to be in the information pack. Was it habitable at the point of purchase? Though not sure you can do anything about it now even if it would have been possible to have it removed from the valuation list until the work was completed.

If buying a property with such a charge on it, it makes sense to move in for the time required to reset the timer and reduce the tax to 100% and then start the work afterwards. 

The council should in theory agree a more reasonable payment schedule, but from experience of family members having to pay for an empty property, they (although it was a different council) just ignored countless emails and wouldn’t even engage or even book an appointment in for another date (by phone or otherwise) when one of them felt they had no option left but to turn up at the council. It feels like they know people can’t do anything about poor service and so they just don’t bother.

It would seem fair to me for them to discount the sum on the basis that the OP would have known sooner that the debt was accruing at 200% had they billed in October 2023, and might have acted differently (i.e. moved in while the work was being done and halved the bill) had they known. But on the basis of the above, and the payment schedule so far expected, I’d put the likelihood at 0%.

SILLYMOO

Thanks for the comments. I didn't move in on completion as it needed some work & I was also tied into a rental property. I notified the council as soon as I bought it as I didn't want to run up a bill-the emails were relentless on my part but to no avail as they couldn't find a record of the property. I bought the property from a charitable foundation so they didn't have any information on when it was last occupied as it was originally part of an estate of farm land. I obviously expect to pay council tax from the day I bought it, that wasn't the issue. They are charging me 200% as apparently it was empty for up to 5 years prior to my purchase-not something I can control. They have also told me they have charged the previous owner(s) 200% for the unoccupation. I'm disputing how they are charging me when they have recouped this money from the previous owner's & the fact I didn't own it or have any control over whether it was occupied prior to my ownership. Obvs if they had informed me in Oct that if I didnt occupy straight away then I would be hit with a 200% charge then I would've asked a family member to camp out here or something. I just don't see how it can be right to charge me 200% when Number 1-they have recouped this fee for it being empty from the previous owner(s) & rightly so if they owned it and Number 2- would not respond to any communication with me nor did they advise me of this 200% charge. Obvs I had checked their website so knew I would need to pay a 100% but nowhere on there did it state that I'd have to pay for a previous owners non occupation of the property. 

SILLYMOO

Flugelhorn said:

I think what normally happens is that as soon as you move in as the new owner the clock stops and you revert to "normal council tax" - usually this is when you complete, sounds like the problem in this case was that there was a year when it was still empty 

 Was the property habitable during the year? 

Hi,
it wasn't great but if I had been informed then I would've camped out had I have known. I was tied into a rental lease but I'd have had to make it work. The problem was also that they wouldn't respond to me whatsoever because they couldn't find the property & obvs didn't want to be bothered. Anyway I don't have the £6k so it'll probably end up in court & if it's deemed that I have to pay it then it'll have to be on some kind of terms, which they are also refusing to do & want me to pay £600+ per month. I don't know how anyone could afford that tbh

SILLYMOO

marcia_ said:

 Sounds right but £6k for less than a years worth of 200% council tax? 

Its £6k in total from Oct 23 

Torry_Quine

You're not paying for the previous owner's non occupation. As soon as you become the owner then you are liable for whatever is the charge and in this case that was at double rate. Did it not say on the website about the 200% charge if empty. 
You should have some money put aside as you knew a bill was coming