Council tax on vacant flat

Clarita

Hi,

Me and my boyfriend will be completing on our flat on Friday. We currently are and will continue to be living at my parents house. We will be doing a small amount of redecoration, the renting the flat out for 1 year. Hopefull we'll have it rented out within a couple of months. The flat has a couple of beds and a sofa in it which the vendor is leaving and we'll just leave in it.

What hapens with council tax?

Thanks!

Ladybird20

you will have to pay it unless it has no furniture in it..Thats my situation now,,all my furniture has gone into storage , but thats another story..i wrote to the council to tell them it will be empty and i had to sign to say this is correct,,so unless ur flat has no furniture in it you wont have to pay either.The fact u have beds and a sofa means it is furniture,,,u might be advised to put these in a garage or somthing so ur flat can go as "empty" in the councils eyes

rolo1952

hi,
my son has recently bought a flat.
I informed the council re the completion date and his intended moving in date which was 1 month later.
This time was needed to redecorate etc.

The council have charged 50% of the months council tax while unoccupied.

tbs624

See section 14-17 of this : http://www.local.communities.gov.uk/finance/ctax/ctaxbillguide.pdf

CIS

A unoccupied & unfurnished property is entitled to a maximum of 6 months exemption after which it reverts to a discount of between 50% and 0%.

The exemption may have been used in full by the previous occupants and if so won't be available until the property has been either occupied or furnished for 6 weeks +.

CIS

The fact u have beds and a sofa means it is furniture

Whether this counts as furnished is very subjective. The legislation on Council Tax does not define the meaning of 'substantially unfurnished' - its left to the Council to determine along with a bit of case law.

DawnW

I think it depends to some extent upon the particular council you are dealing with. My council insisted it should be completely unfurnished (though they did not mind carpets and curtains), and sent someone round to check. I think this consisted of somebody looking through a downstairs front window though, and I did get a 6 month exemption while I did some work to the property. It is definitely worth storing your furniture somewhere else for a while if possible.

CIS

I think it depends to some extent upon the particular council you are dealing with. My council insisted it should be completely unfurnished (though they did not mind carpets and curtains), and sent someone round to check

That's the problem with leaving things to interpretation - every council has slightly different policies. Some council's will visit every application, some will not - I know of a council that has only 2 inspectors for 285,000 + residents.

Icey77

My local council (Bucks CC) asked if I had a bed in the flat. I did not, I only had a table, 2 chairs and shelves whilst refurbishing. It was decided that the flat was for all intents and purposes unfurnished so I got the full 100% vacant discount.

I think the council wanted confirmation that someone couldn't live there comfortably.