Council Tax 'void' properties
Hi everyone - this is the same query I sent round on the e-mail loop. Thought I would upgrade my system and get it onto the Web as well!
Basically - our Council Tax colleagues have suddenly decided to include their 'void' category properties in our empty figures - their definition now being 'an unoccupied property where the liable party has not yet been identified'. They have not included these before and it has skewd our figures. Just when we are in the middle of an Audit Commission Audit!
On one level I understand that they feel they should include them particularly if they are using the word 'unoccupied' in their definition BUT the reason they have never included them before is because they don't actually know for sure that the property is empty. They are coming at the property from a different angle- assuming it is empty because noone has signed up to pay Council Tax - the empty bit for them applies to financial liability rather then physically empty! Does anyone else include these figures or has anyone had wrangling with CTax about such matters.
Incidentally our CTax are generally wonderful so it's not an ongoing problem thing!
- Forums
Voids data and common sense
Emma
There is an important issue I'd like to clarify about this: is it that:
(a) your Council Tax Section has decided to include the "void" properties? Or is it that:
(b) the software the Council Tax Section uses (supplied by others) has now started to include void properties?
This would have some bearing on how NAEPP collectively might respond, as we ought to try and influence software vendors if they are changing software in inappropriate ways. If it is an internal decision of your council tax section you have to wonder about their motivation as it would be showing their own authority in a bad light for no apparent gain and on shaky grounds as discussed further below.
From a purely methodological point of view, I would suggest that the approach of including all voids is wrong for the reasons you indicate. Basically, when someone ceases to be liable for a property, they have every reason to inform the Council tax section of this fact: "please end my liability, I don't want to pay any more". On other hand, the newly liable person has (actually rather poor, but nevertheless typically human) reasons for not informing Council Tax Section: "I won't bother doing that yet because as soon as I do I'll only have to pay. I'll put if off".
So common sense suggests that on change of liability (which is normally about someone moving out of a property and someone subseqently moving in) there will be period of time when the property is occupied but the occupier has not yet informed Council Tax. That will be a "void" property but it will not be empty. There will also be properties that are empty and void. My view is that numerically at any one time there will be more properties that are occupied and void than empty and void. Many of these void, occupied properties may only be void for relative short periods but they'll nevertheless swell the number of voids considerably on any snapshot.
I'll contact our own Council Tax Section to find out how many void properties they have at any one time as our empty homes software will enable us to throw some light on this issue if we know the overall figure for voids.
David Gibbens
Housing Enabling Manager, Exeter City Council