Council Tax concessions on second homes

[LornMowa]

AIBU to think that discounts on Council Tax should have been one of the first things to go. Surely, when many people can't afford even one home, then those people who are demonstrating that they have surplus income (by owning a holiday home) should pay full wack for their council tax on that second home.

Seewww.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/lib-dems-plotting-council-tax-hike-for-second-homes-2145638.htmlthis

Holiday /second homes should, IMO, be taxed out of existance. They are supremely damaging to "pretty" rural areas, both economically and socially. I think am right in saying that Mull has (or up until recently, had) the highest percentage homelessness in the UK, due to lack of year-round housing. Which is staggering and actually pretty disgusting.
Admittedly, council tax isn't really a fair way to do it, simply becuase the idea is you pay for the services you use. However, it's probably the only practical way of specifically taxing second homes in an ongoing way.
As an aside -if you sell your home for less than the market value, then you're not going to be able to afford to buy you're next property. I think blaming sellers for being "greedy" is harsh, threfore.

As has been already said not all second homes are holiday homes. We live in a military quarter and pay a charge which is in lieu of council tax. We pay it wherever we live in the world and it is used for local services. We have a small flat for use when we are in the UK. We get a 10% reduction on council tax on the flat and I believe this is fair. The amount of reduction though seems to depend on the local council.

how do you define 'second home'???????????????????????????????

a home you are trying to sell?

a home you rent out to holiday makers?

a home you (and only you) stay in at times?

very few houses of the last kind exist.

I was at that premature, but on rereading I thin she meant the actual govt.

back in the dark days of the last recession my folks owned three houses (one inherited, one was our 'old' home, one the new home)

do you think a triple tax whammy would have been appropriate?

my folks were desperate to sell, but it took years.

Scary teacher I think one of the problems with the housing stock is that there are many (my grandmother being one of them) single people in large family homes. affording to remain in them as a result of the discount. Whilst families are struggling to find houses. The build build build mentatility will not solve all the problems.

If people downsized when they no longer needed three bedrooms (even moving to a two bedroom property would help free up housing stock).

Whilst there is no way to legislate for this change in attitude to property ownership it could be encouraged by removing the discounts for single occupiers unless they were in a one bed property?

Oneortwo- I don't think there are huge numbers of people in your situation, many would rent until they could sell their own home or sell at a much reduce price in this new and uncertain market.

no ISNT we can't really afford it, that's my point! and it IS a situation lots of people find themselves in for a period of time. How else could we improve our circumstances? DH had hunted and hunted for work where we were, I loved living there but HAD to move. Lots of people HAVE to move at some point for one reason or another!

Your last post premature in bonkers, trillions (OK not literally) of the last kind exist.

Surely making the military exempt would be easy to do.

Bump I agree and firmly believe it must cost councils a fortune,they pick up the pieces of homelessness and providing affordable housing so council tax would be fair imvho.It would go direct to the council not the treasurer.

well.... a home you're trying to sell should be possible to remove the furniture and claim exemption that way: I agree that this is the harshest one, as unfurnished houses MAY be more difficult to sell. Perhaps a 3 or 6 month "gap" when council tax is not levied at all would be better.
A holiday let you would recoup the council tax on through the letting charges - if everyone ahd to pay council tax then it wouldn't make one person "uncompetitive".
Where I am, there are a surprising number of holiday homes which really are only used by the owners, very infrequently at that. I guess it depends where the house is as to how commonplace that is.

Yes I did ISNT

DorisISAPinkDragon

we looking at selling at 50k less than we bought for

we have no hope of selling if we occupy it, our neighbours have had their similar property on for 2 years! we have to pull out all the stops, and that includes vacant possession not tennant insitu. We are sharing a room with a 2 year old in a freezing cold flat with a horrendous land lord.

We are pulling out all the stops already!

As usual a perfectly good idea being shouted down by a few people in unusual situations who would be personally affected.

It is nonsense to say that hardly any second homes in the UK are used purely by people for holidays. Enormous numbers of properties are owned for this purpose.

goinggettough - I don't think a discount in your postion is unreasonale as your only own ( and occupy one home in this country)

Where I live the only people that oppose new homes are the rich.

I didn't vote in the local councillor election as all candidates opposed new housing which I want!

unfurnishing = double removal van hire plus storage unit hire which barely adds up.

and I don't think our double bedrooms really look double unless they have beds in there to prove it.

I'm just giving one example, but there are others! perhaps the solution is to put a time limit of maybe 2 years on discounts (as that is how long it can take people to sell inherited houses etc). But for people who find themselves with 2 homes in the short term, by god the discount is needed!

YANBU

I agree, especially as a great number of second home owner also know how to work the system. I know people who bought their child a flat and pay full tax on that in order to get the discount on their actual home (much bigger and more tax), so a discount where they are using all the services and no council tax for child in parents flat. Unfortunately too many of the exemptions and loopholes are exploited that even if they are based in good arguments, it doesn't happen in practice.

the mail pinpoints the number of second home owners as 246000 - however it does not mention the usage of the home - whether it is a holiday let most or all of the year.

this in the telegraph highlights the increase on CTG which can affect the re-ssale of a second home.

Owning one and renting another, second home for business purpose (ie holiday rental), single persons are all different and should pay different amounts of tax IMO.

But bog standard second homes should pay 100% tax.

To those who say losing services is cheaper for the council, well yes it is short term - but terrible for the local economy long term, which leads to less incoming overall and higher costs (more people unemployed and less employed people paying taxes)

It makes me laugh. Every time a council tries to build affordable housing the rich(often 2nd home owners) jump up and down to complain about spoiling the view.

If they didn't buy up all the local housing needlessly councils wouldn't need to build more on green field sites.

What said people actually want is to buy up all the affordable housing in Devon/Cornwall and have no rif raf(locals) actually living there.

oneortwo - I really feel for you as being caught between a rock and a hard place is an unenviable position. Good luck with the sale.

However in the case of second homes i.e. where an indidvidual (or couple) own two properties on minimally occupy the second (which was where the thread began) should be charged a premium.

Absolutely bonkers to say there are hardly any second homes as personal holiday homes. There are loads. 14,000 in Cornwall alone, and as many again are holiday lets (which are different, in that they are IIRC treated as a business, and they are occupied for much more of the year).

BTW re: lighting I mean that there are whole "dark" streets due to absent owners, no lights at windows, no lighting around doorways etc.

Although I sympathise somewhat with the frustration at those who sell to second-home owners, mainly these are people who either need to afford to buy elsewhere in the similarly priced local community, or move into sheltered housing and pay for their care.

TBH the banks are to blame somewhat for funding the ridiculous house price explosion. Twenty years ago in my local area a terraced house was about 80-90k, now you'll be lucky to get one for twice that.

The reason that the local communities are "aging" btw is because all the young people are moving away! Because the gap between earnings and house prices is so much. Funny to blame that on the low earnings alone when it is the house prices that have ballooned.

Sorry but owning a second home for business is just the same. It's just as damaging.The owner enjoys nice holidays there when he chooses,makes a packet at other times and still has an empty house out of season(people don't holiday in Devon/Cornwall in Feb).It's still a house taken up which could be used by locals.

OP totally agree.

Mind, although not there atm (partly becuase of housing) I am from Somerset and would probably need to live in Devon if we could manage the move, so...