Council tax
Hi there
My Council have suddenly started to have a very active interest in our empty properties due to us being in the lower quartile for 2004/2005.
I have a meeting with my chief executive in July whereby she has asked me to present ways to increase properties put back into occupation and to recommend courses of action and to think of any more resources that I might need to do this.
One of my suggestions will be to put council tax up to the maximum and I was just wondering if any other council's have done this. I would also like to know how council tax then keep a record of empties having done this. If there is no way of doing this has anyone put the council up to 101%, for example, so that council tax know when it is an empty or not?
Look forward to some answers.
Many thanks
Lou
Hi Lou, Just before I became
Hi Lou,
Just before I became the Empty Homes Officer at Luton, the Council Tax rates were changed for Empty Homes. 100% Council Tax was put on Empty Homes after 6 months of full discount. I made the best of the limited historical data and worked out that about 400 landlords' empty homes had disappeared from the system. They may have migrated to "Single Person Occupancy", which in Luton gives you 25% discount all the time, or as students only - full discount.
I would suggest that you should still make it worthwhile for the Landlord to declare their property empty, otherwise you too might find that several empty properties cease to exist (as far as Council Tax is concerned).
Regards,
Phillip Hanson
Just a minor clarification -
Philip
Just a minor clarification - I think you'll find the 25% single-residency discount is set nationally and is not under local control the way the empty homes discounts are
David Gibbens
Housing Enabling Manager, Exeter City Council
We've taken the fairly
We've taken the fairly typical course of allowing a 10% discount on both furnished and unfurnished empties. That gives owners some incentive to report their properties as empty.
David Gibbens
David Gibbens (EHN Policy and Support)
We changed our Council Tax
We changed our Council Tax Rates for Empty Properties as of 1st April 2006. Owners are now liable for the full 100% charge and our council tax section says that the properties with changes to full charge (0% discount) still have a discount set against them but the discount is set as 0% in order that we can still determine the number of empty properties we have and to produce the relevant data.
Hope this information helps.
On the 0% discount idea
On the 0% discount idea - that could be a good idea. I think that Council Tax people would need to keep a record of empty properties because it's part of their CTB1 return to the government. I think that some of us thought that without offering some discount there wouldn't be enough incentive for owners to report their propeties as empty and we originally though that it would also be irrelevant to Council Tax section But if they do have to report on empties then that wouldn't be the case. On the other hand, the Council tax people themselves suggested the 10% discount so maybe there good reasons for taking that approach.
David Gibbens
David Gibbens (EHN Policy and Support)
Unfurnished empty home
Unfurnished empty home owners will normally claim the six months exemption C for such properties, so will become known to Council Tax as empty. However after this expires, if the Council Tax is 100%, owners have no incentive to report subsequent occupation if they remain the liable person. Retaining a nominal discount is therefore preferable.
Graham Everett
David Gibbens (EHN Policy and Support)