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Council tax second home premium

124

Comments

  • Tabieth
    Tabieth Posts: 140 Forumite
    100 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    freesha said:
    Thank you for your comment. It sounds ridiculous to have to pay double council tax when the flat is empty most of the year. But I appreciate you taking the time to answer.
    That is EXACTLY why you need to pay double. You have it, but not using it. It is going to waste when someone could live there.
    But paying double council tax doesn`t allow someone to live there.
    No. But it raises money for the local authority to allow for improving the local schools, roads, parks etc. 
  • ReadySteadyPop
    ReadySteadyPop Posts: 1,288 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Photogenic First Anniversary Name Dropper
    Tabieth said:
    freesha said:
    Thank you for your comment. It sounds ridiculous to have to pay double council tax when the flat is empty most of the year. But I appreciate you taking the time to answer.
    That is EXACTLY why you need to pay double. You have it, but not using it. It is going to waste when someone could live there.
    But paying double council tax doesn`t allow someone to live there.
    No. But it raises money for the local authority to allow for improving the local schools, roads, parks etc. 
     Many councils are just filling funding holes from previous bad money management decisions (commercial property adventures spring to mind) but even if they were fixing roads schools and parks that doesn`t provide housing.
  • freesha
    freesha Posts: 414 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Name Dropper
    freesha said:
    Thank you for your comment. It sounds ridiculous to have to pay double council tax when the flat is empty most of the year. But I appreciate you taking the time to answer.
    That is EXACTLY why you need to pay double. You have it, but not using it. It is going to waste when someone could live there.
    But paying double council tax doesn`t allow someone to live there.
    No, but it discourages the practise of leaving homes empty!
  • ReadySteadyPop
    ReadySteadyPop Posts: 1,288 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Photogenic First Anniversary Name Dropper
    freesha said:
    freesha said:
    Thank you for your comment. It sounds ridiculous to have to pay double council tax when the flat is empty most of the year. But I appreciate you taking the time to answer.
    That is EXACTLY why you need to pay double. You have it, but not using it. It is going to waste when someone could live there.
    But paying double council tax doesn`t allow someone to live there.
    No, but it discourages the practise of leaving homes empty!
    A loophole might be (in a link I posted earlier) putting second homes in the names of adult children, who will just crash there a few times a month?
  • Olinda99
    Olinda99 Posts: 1,988 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Third Anniversary Name Dropper
    Demand for second homes falls...

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj9ejjyeeelo
  • ReadySteadyPop
    ReadySteadyPop Posts: 1,288 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Photogenic First Anniversary Name Dropper
    freesha said:
    freesha said:
    Thank you for your comment. It sounds ridiculous to have to pay double council tax when the flat is empty most of the year. But I appreciate you taking the time to answer.
    That is EXACTLY why you need to pay double. You have it, but not using it. It is going to waste when someone could live there.
    But paying double council tax doesn`t allow someone to live there.
    No, but it discourages the practise of leaving homes empty!
    It might just mean someone in the family that owns a second home making it their main residence and spending a bit more time there, the council doesn`t have the means (or the legal right?) to track their precise movements, and again this doesn`t provide a home for a local family suffering from the local housing "shortage" (the problem is price of housing, not the availability of housing in my opinion) If there was a genuine housing shortage the government could could pass a law banning second home ownership?
  • Grumpy_chap
    Grumpy_chap Posts: 17,745 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
     putting second homes in the names of adult children,
    Which is not without potential drawbacks.
    https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6598791/house-purchase-for-children#latest
  • MeteredOut
    MeteredOut Posts: 2,787 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Second Anniversary Name Dropper
    If you're going to post a link to a paywalled site, can you at least give a synopsis of what the article is saying and not just the link.

    (yes, i know there are workarounds)
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