Landlord to n Empty rental property, what do I need to do?

[Belleende]

I own a flat that I rent out. Tenants due to move out next month. Looking to sell, and likely property will be empty for a while.
Guessing I need to let insurance know, claim reduction in council tax and take over payment. What do I do regarding utilities? And am I missing anything?
Cheers all.

I don't think you can claim reduced council tax unless the property is absolutely uninhabitable, not just uninhabited, and even then I think there's a limit. It's presumably to discourage people from leaving properties empty. You need to check with your own council.

You will need to put the utilities in your name and inform insurers that the property is empty. They will almost certainly charge extra, and IIRC we were once told that we needed to guarantee that someone would stay overnight at least once a month, or else water needed to be not just turned off, but everything drained off.

My council give a reduced council tax but only if you are reletting. You need to take over the utilities - you will still be paying standing charge at least. Insurers must know from the day it is vacant and the charge will go up.

Find out what your insurers ask you to do and to do it. Then drop the price and get it sold . an empty property is a liability.

Cheers both. The tenants leaving might actually be interested, which might work out nicely. They are a lovely couple

Excellent - hope it works out. If they do want it then they can go on to a periodic tenancy and don't need to move.

My council allows a six month exemption for council tax if the property is totally empty and could not reasonably be lived in (empty of furniture as opposed to falling down). We had a spat over whether white goods could be left and a bed frame with no mattress so in the end I said they were gone as they don’t do visits to check. You can only claim it once though and we only used three months of it before someone moved in so we’re het for full whack as an empty second property next time it’s vacant.