Please can someone help me with a council tax query?

[radiantrose]

We are about to complete on a house in the next few weeks, was originally meant to be March but but on hold for obvious reasons. We have been living with my parents for the past 18 months to enable us to do this and rented before hand so I don't remember much about council tax. We used to rent a house with the cheapest band so paid it over the usual 10 months but our new house has a higher tax band and we planned on spreading it over the 12 months so it's cheaper each month. How does that work when you move in may/June? Would we have to pay it over 10 months and would be have to pay the extra for may and June since we wouldn't of paid council tax them months, or do we just take over from current owners? I hope that makes sense. I have emailed my local council tax team but they're often very difficult to get hold of and I've left a message but hasn't been returned. Hope someone can help! Thanks

Bump

You will be billed from the completion date of the sale. Most councils no longer offer empty discounts, the website will tell you that. If you request a 12 month plan payments will end in March and will start again in April for next year. If you're on a 10 month plan you normally finish paying in January.

You start paying from the date you complete, when the previous occupants stop paying. Your parents have (and continue to pay) the full amount at their property. I have no idea if it’s possible to spread it over 12 months rather than the usual 10 but if it is, they’ll just work out how much you owe for rest of tax year and divide it.

As far as I am aware, you will be liable for the council tax from the day you complete & get the keys, even if you don't move in on that day. So if you own it from 15th June, that is the date you tell the council you are the new owners and so when your council tax bill for 2020/2021 will start.
Find out what the annual amount is & then divide by 12 for the monthly figure. As the council tax is charged April - March you won't have to pay the instalment for April, May & whatever part of June you didn't own the property.

Example:

The full annual council tax bill is £1200.
Monthly payment (if they let you pay over 12 months) = £100.
No payment due from you for April, May & first part of June as you didn't own the house. (£250 less than full annual bill of £1200 = £950)
You own from 15th June, so june's payment is £50.
From July - March you pay £100 per month.
This totals £ 950

It will take them a while to send your bill with reference etc, so put the money aside until you receive the bill. Then pay the amount owing up to date (i.e. they send you the bill in July, so pay June (part payment), and July. Then the August payment will be due on the 1st August), and from then onwards pay the agreed monthly payment.

The previous owner will be refunded any overpayment and you'll be liable from the date of completion, for whatever portion of the year is left.

The annual council tax is £1644.44, so if I have to pay that over the 10 months normally would be £164.44 but mainly wanted to check (sorry didn't word it properly) that I won't have to pay April and Mays monthly bill since I didn't own the house then and it wouldn't be added to my bill? So it will just start from when I own the property, say 1st June, I will still pay £164.44 until jan? I'm just trying to work out everything exactly

The council tax is normally spread out over 10 months, so yours will probably be spread over 10 months - any months that you weren't living there from this financial year. So if you moved in in June you would have your payments over 8 months (10-2 months).

If you complete the purchase on 1st June you would be liable for 10 months charge (June - March) which is approx £1370. You would need to check if your council would let you pay it off in 8 instalments of £171 or 10 instalments of £131

You won't pay £164 pm if it is a ten month schedule and you move in June. You would pay the 9.5 months (June to March) total in 7.5 months. (June to January)

How do you get 9.5 months?

June 15th to 31st March.

But I skim read may/June as mid June

The easiest way is to divide the CTax by 365 days then multiply by the number of days you own the property to get the figure for 2020/21.

Then, you work out how many months are left in the financial year and divide the liability by that to get your monthly amount. So, if you owned and occupied the property from mid June, your payments (if the paperwork was processed by the Council in time), would run from either July (first possible instalment) to January (7 months), or to March if you extended the payments, so nine months.

Hope that helps.

If you know roughly what the CTax will be, why not put that amount away in an account, so you have part of the money already there?

Thanks for the helpful replies! It's been confirmed we will complete on the 29th May so council tax will start from then.