Council tax on an empty property

burn baby burn !!!!!!!!!! well done for taking so long to think of that ! , I would just hire MR Bean to burn the furniture & he would also burn property & then claim the insurance , blaming Mr Bean for everything ! :-)

Same issue, just been told now I have moved in with the Girl friend we have to pay 100% on her house and 90% on mine! I still live in Bracknell, but now we pay 190% rather than 150% if I hadn't told them! Plus to make matters worse with all the snow, they havent collected rubbish or Recycling for almost a month should I demand a refund, I don't like paying for things I don't get surely that is fraud!

Totally agree - this is happening to me ion Nottingham!!! I have let my house for 2 years and the tennets have jst move out - I have to pay the council tax until March (unless anyone moves in) - at 90% but when I lived there is was 75%. Amazing.

Similar situation, trying to sell deceased parents property, partly furnished as supposedly sells better. When I notified the council of the situation, you only get 6months free after probate issued. I will be charged full council tax thereafter for this empty property, with 10% reduction if I remove the furniture, regardless that I already pay a full council tax for my own property 10 miles away! I use none of the councils facilities for the empty property whatsoever, purely waiting for a sale in this current climate. Is this another little money making scam by local councils?! I will certainly be putting my gripe in writing to the council and to my MP why should I pay 2 council taxes?

Why do you still have to pay countcil tax when the person has died and the property is empty of all furnishing??????????????

I've got to put up with a similar problem at the moment, my work has relocated me to the other end of the country, in this day and age its best not to argue. My problem is I get the 25% single person discount on my house but I only get the 10% second home discount on the flat I'm renting?!?! I thought I would get the 50% discount as its the work that has moved me but failing that I was amazed that I only got the 25% single person allowance on one home, why?? I'm still living on my own.

I'm just going through the same and you don't get a full discount for an unfurnished property...

The world has gone mad!!!!!!!

Chris, I agree with you! I always thought the poll tax was fairer too. The people who moaned about it usually seemed to be large families in council houses on benefits who didn't like more of their hard unearned benefits being taken back!

Which is why the poll tax was fairer as it wasn't based on property - people use services such as street lighting, rubbish collection, police services, libraries, etc - houses don't.

I disagree with the last post - I have been a sole occupier and received a discount (albeit on a tiny flat anyway). Now I will not be living there before renting it out, I lose my discount, so end up paying more! Why? I wont be generating rubbish and wont be using any of the local services. Worst of all, the guy on the phone caught me out by asking for info about when I was leaving the property before he told me about the discount (and even then only said it was "10% discount" - rather than 10% discount of the whole. When I told him he had misadvised me, he accused me of fraudulence. It doesnt pay to be honest these days!

Let's look into this properly.

Council tax is a way for the State as a whole to delegate the taxing of unpopular expensive type of taxes to other parties [local authorities] whilst seemingly avoiding the blame itself for the size of those taxes. Why on earth would Social Work, Education, Libraries, Street Repairs etc. not come out of the Central Government tax fund?

Indeed why do we have a system of Local Government taxation at all?

In the old days Local Government taxation used to be an extremely small percentage amount relative to the rentable value of a property, as aascertained by the market. Today that relation has been lost. Today Local taxes are significantly higher, much higher than Europe.

There is a principle that if you are not using a service you should have to pay for it.

But what are you not using when your property is empty.

Rubbish Collection - perhaps
Education - Oh but you received that years ago.
Social Work - maybe you will need this servcie in the future
Library - You should being charitable to the less fortunate in society.

I think everyone should have to pay their council tax, and then have to apply for proportional rebates based on the services they are not using, the benefit of the doubt going to the COuncil. More should be paid for by Central Government, local taxes across the country should be equalised and be far smaller, based on ability to pay.

Update:
I didn't burn the furniture. I lied and said it was empty. I got 100% off when I was happy to pay 25%. Sold in 5 months. Done. Nikki, I couldn't afford both houses hence the gripe. I now live in a house paying £2500/year council tax. They'll get your money in the end!