Class A Council Tax exemption - help!

CaptainWales

I have applied for a class A exemption - unoccupied and unfurnished property which needs or is undergoing major repairs or structural alteration - but have been rejected.

The property has holes in the roof and is leaking, ceilings in most of the rooms have fallen down or are about to fall, the heating system is broken, and the house is full of mould...and by full I mean it's everywhere. There is probably wet / dry rot as well but I can't prove that. Oh, and the windows are mostly blown, I can't open the front door as its swollen and is boarded up and the downstairs windows are all boarded up. It is not somewhere anybody could live in without getting ill IMO.

The council inspector has been out to visit the property but all he said was that I needed to a builders report stating all the work that needs doing. I am reluctant to do that because I will probably get charged for it and my intention is to sell the house as is. Also I don't know any builders to contact who would be willing to come out. Can't believe the inspector coming out to view the property himself wasn't enough.

My question is - do I actually need a builders report? I've sent photos of the condition of the house and like I say the council inspector has been out.

I feel like the council are being unfair but then again I've never tried to claim this exemption so I don't know if this is normal. The threshold for the exemption seems to vary from council to council so I'm not entirely clear what I need to demonstrate to them (and whether a builder's report would suffice).

swingaloo

You have answered your own question in the post. You want the exemption from the council and they have sent out an inspector who has told you what they require.

CaptainWales

But surely i would have to get the builder to say something specific, which he's unlikely to do?

Mr.Generous

You can go on the councils website and see what building work qualifies for an excemption, It's ridiculous that no kitchen, no bathroom and all the plaster off to do a damp course does not qualify, but it doesn't. Funnily enough if you let it out in a poor condition like you describe the housing dept would class it as uninhabitable, but the council tax wouldn't. The least intrusive work I could find to get an excemption was replacing rotting floor joists. Some councils used to give one for renovating, I suspect now they have tightened up.