Buying an apartment

[wiziliz]

Hello everyone
British living outside the UK, get to visit the UK only couple of times a year, due to my husband's job. We want to buy an apartment and leave it closed. ( don't want to rent ) what are the practical issues keeping the apartment closed most of the year? Do we need to have the heater on during winter? Do we have to pay council tax? Etc .Anyone in the same boat?
Thank you

Yes you’d need to pay council tax. Heating would depend on whether it was in a block that would give some warmth. Don’t forget ground rent and service charges all year round.

Would you be buying with a mortgage? This might prove difficult if you don’t meet residence requirements.

Contents insurance may also prove difficult if you’re not resident there.

If it is a second property then there may be additional 3% stamp duty land tax on top of usual rates (the new higher rate for second properties). It would probably be a good idea to get a bit of tax advice before you go ahead to work out the best way to buy it.

You probably need to leave the heating on low (in case the pipes freeze).

It's hard to insure an empty property without it having regular inspections to make sure nothing has happened e.g. leaks, vermin, broken windows.

In the case of my parents' empty property we had to guarantee to inspect once a week (luckily only a few miles away) or we couldn't get buildings insurance. You'd need to find someone to do that if necessary.

Actually I guess with a flat the buildings insurance would be included in the service charge but if you didn't tell them that it was empty then they might refuse to pay out if, for example, the flat above had a leak into yours and you (not being there) didn't know about it for months.