Council tax when there's an overlap

Lysimache

We're selling our flat in one London borough (Brent)  - late in the process, currently driving us to insanity but not the topic here. 

We've also just agreed to rent a flat in another borough (Richmond) to cover a gap between selling and buying. 

For practical reasons there is an overlap with our flat being sold and the flat that is being rented. 

How do I tell Richmond council we are renting (unfurnished flat) in their borough without Brent assuming we no longer live in our borough? I initially went for the 'moving into the borough' option on the Richmond website before realising that could cause problems at the Brent end. 

We will only actually be living with all our stuff in one place at once. 

We understand we will have to pay council tax in both places during the overlap but can't work out how this will work and how to tell the council(s) what the situation is as this didn't seem to be an option on the website. 

 We'd like to avoid them thinking we have a second home - we're not trying to run two homes, we just can't get it to line up neatly so that we are out of one place and into another at the same time. 

Should we contact one or both councils to ask? What's the best approach?

Any advice on the council tax situation welcome. 

(However, we're not looking for a commentary on what we're doing, how we've done it, where we're living, or how we should have done it all differently and we're now totally screwed, will owe our entire salaries and will have to become a serf to our feudal overlords in both boroughs )

la531983

Lysimache said:

 We'd like to avoid them thinking we have a second home

Why???????

DullGreyGuy

Even when moving within a borough I have had to tell them both that I am leaving the old place and taking on a new place; there was no automatic removal of the first place by virtue of having registered a second place. Plenty of people have multiple properties either short term or long term. 

Lysimache said:
We'd like to avoid them thinking we have a second home - we're not trying to run two homes, we just can't get it to line up neatly so that we are out of one place and into another at the same time. 

You do have a second home but no premium for it can be added whilst your first home is on the market up to a limit of 12 months. 

sgthammer

You used to be able to get a CT waiver for up to six months on a property that was empty and uninhabited, but the rules are no longer uniform across the country. It's worth checking if either council allows something similar, but even if they do it might be restricted to certain circumstances.

Jami74

I had an overlap moving into mortgaged property from rented. I just told the new council when I took ownership of property and they billed me from that date and I told the old council when the contract ended on the rental and the stopped billing from that date. Did it all by filling in forms on the websites, never had to speak to a human.

PRAISETHESUN

Last time I moved I was in a similar spot. I was moving between two councils. I told each council via their online forms all the info they needed. For council 1 I told them the date I moved furniture across from property 1 to property 2, and then the date I stopped being responsible for property 1 - the interim period was 100% discount as it was unfurnished. For council 2 I told them the date I became responsible for property 2, and then the date I actually moved in. Again, the initial period where it was unfurnished I also got a 100% discount. The councils sorted it all out by applying credits to my final and initial bills respectively. You may or may not get discounts depending on what rules your council follows, but I'd still make it clear about the dates to have your billing being as accurate as possible.

theartfullodger

No problem paying CT for multiple properties, either owned or rented.  Just inform (keep record..) relevant council for each property you are responsible for.  Think I had a period when I was paying for 3... 

Why did you think there was a problem??

lincroft1710

sgthammer said:

You used to be able to get a CT waiver for up to six months on a property that was empty and uninhabited, but the rules are no longer uniform across the country. It's worth checking if either council allows something similar, but even if they do it might be restricted to certain circumstances.

Most councils no longer offer an empty property discount and in fact after 1 year empty councils can now charge double CT, rising to treble CT after 5 years  

saajan_12

Lysimache said:

We understand we will have to pay council tax in both places during the overlap but can't work out how this will work and how to tell the council(s) what the situation is as this didn't seem to be an option on the website. 

 We'd like to avoid them thinking we have a second home - we're not trying to run two homes, we just can't get it to line up neatly so that we are out of one place and into another at the same time. 

These are sort of the same thing - if you are the person responsible for CT in two places, the one you're not living in is a second home. There's no special penalty for stating something is a second home, it depends on the facts of how long a property is vacant.

Some councils will have a period where a vacant, unfurnished property is free of CT (usually a short period eg 1 month), then a period where its normal CT, then after some time (eg 6 / 21 / 24 months) it becomes a higher rate. 

lincroft1710

saajan_12 said:

Lysimache said:

We understand we will have to pay council tax in both places during the overlap but can't work out how this will work and how to tell the council(s) what the situation is as this didn't seem to be an option on the website. 

 We'd like to avoid them thinking we have a second home - we're not trying to run two homes, we just can't get it to line up neatly so that we are out of one place and into another at the same time. 

These are sort of the same thing - if you are the person responsible for CT in two places, the one you're not living in is a second home. There's no special penalty for stating something is a second home, it depends on the facts of how long a property is vacant.

Some councils will have a period where a vacant, unfurnished property is free of CT (usually a short period eg 1 month), then a period where its normal CT, then after some time (eg 6 / 21 / 24 months) it becomes a higher rate. 

CT premium on empty properties only kicks in after 1 year, and is double CT up to 5 years then treble if a property has been empty for between 5 and 10 years

Lysimache

theartfullodger said:

No problem paying CT for multiple properties, either owned or rented.  Just inform (keep record..) relevant council for each property you are responsible for.  Think I had a period when I was paying for 3... 

Why did you think there was a problem??

Thanks for this info. I asked because I haven't been in this situation before and wasn't sure how it would be handled by either council. I was about to hit the submit button then thought it would be best to check. 

I've now had some very helpful replies so I do know. I prefer to check beforehand so if there is a problem I can work out how to avoid/mitigate it.