Advice pls-Leaving house in London empty- can I stop bills and council tax?

[SonWin]

We are moving to our BIL's country house in the outskirts of Bath, we haven't sold our house in London yet and are hoping that with the house being empty it will be easier to show/sell it.
So the plan is to sell in London and buy around Bath
I was wondering if we can stop utility bills and council tax?

Short answer is no.

You need to look at the council tax rules for unoccupied properties in your borough.

You're responsible for utilities until it sells. Take meter readings before you leave. Will you be visiting regularly?

The only way to stop paying utility bills would be to have your supply cut off, but I can't imagine you'd want to do that if you were trying to sell.

You need to check your insurance too, it might become void if you are no longer living there.

Utilities will be almost nothing if you aren't using anything. You could try and transfer to a no standing charge tariff to avoid about£15 a month standing charge.

Good point about insurance, even if you sold today, it's going to be 2 or 3 months before the new owners complete, most insurance policies require properties to not be unoccupied for more than 30 days.

Thank you everyone, very helpful stuff

We are trying to sell late MIL's house. It is empty, but we still have to pay council tax and utilities.

no, why would you think that?

some utilities can be reduced a lot.
for gas/electricity/water you might have a standing charge which can be surprisingly high. you need to consider insurance, it's different from normal home insurance and often more expensive and doesn't cover some stuff.

We left a house empty to move to an area an hour and a half away. Our council tax was free for the first two months for it being empty then 50 percent. We contacted all the utilities and we moved to a lower direct debt. For our home insurance we could leave it empty for 6 months as long as someone visited once a week. We were lucky and it sold just as we left so was only empty for 2 months. Best thing is to contact all the companies and see what they say.
I would recommend an alarm you can monitor from your phone, kept my mind at rest with it being empty and we put up a temporary camera to be able to check in.

@Ginfordinner

We are trying to sell late MIL's house. It is empty, but we still have to pay council tax and utilities.

I had this with my Mum’s house. It still needed insuring too and that was more expensive as empty. Plus a condition of the insurance was it was regularly checked on.

Yes to the insurance. Very few companies will insure an empty house, so it isn't as easy to shop around.

We had to stay at mils empty house once every thirty days for her insurance to still be valid when she moved into a care home and we had to sell it. Heating also had to be set to 10 degrees again for insurance purposes so no you can’t stop the utilities.

Some councils charge double for empty property !
There are very specific rules for zero council tax
Check with your council

You probably want to leave heating in a low level to stop pipes freezing and bursting and causing water damage so you will need gas/electric for that.

As others have said, check your insurance. I think the 30 day limit was suspended by some insurance companies during the first lockdown so people didn't need to break lockdown rules to keep their insurance valid, but you will need to check the current situation with your insurer.

the thirty day limit of absence for insurance is for lived in properties.
once you have moved out you need specialist insurance.

My insurance says it won't pay for loss or damage when it has been more than 60 days since you last stayed there on a regular basis which doesn't include occasional visits or stays. So yes, check carefully.

Well you can stop paying things like telephone, gas, electricity and water and TV licence by simply telling every supplier you are moving out and settling the accounts.

Council tax is different and you need to check the council requirements about empty properties. Also you would need to keep your home insurance until you sell.

You are not 'responsible for utilities' if you are not using any of these supplies and have let the companies know. Some of the advice here is just bizarre...

You are not 'responsible for utilities' if you are not using any of these supplies and have let the companies know

You are. If a water leak happened and you were metered, you have to pay. Speaks the voice of bitter experience.