MILs empty property - now have to pay 200% council tax on it!

[FrenchandSaunders]

Has anyone experienced this? MIL died just over a year go. We are doing it up with a plan to sell it and had a council tax reprieve for 6 months. We now have a bill for double the yearly amount and a quick look at the council website confirms that. Sounds so odd!

You can reclaim the cost from the proceeds of the eventual sale though.

I really agree with this policy due to the number of empty homes but not when people are struggling to sell or going through a bereavement. It’s a shame there isn’t the ability to separate these out. Just for some perspective -

• Numbers of long-term empty homes rose in 2024 to 265,061
• Long-term empties are now at their highest level since 2011
• 354,000 People in England entirely homeless or in temp accommodation

You pay it from her estate. I mean, it’s sitting there empty because you’re doing it up to make more money (unless it was completely uninhabitable before)?

I had this. Trying to do the 'right thing' when my aunt moved from one end of the country to another to live with us as she was increasingly disabled. House took a little while to sell (10 years ago) so she lost her 25% off and had to pay full rate with no grace period. I suppose I should be thankful it wasn't 200%.

Similar situation with my late mum's house - a year since she died but due to my brother launching into litigation a week before her funeral (nit just another thread, it's a whole book) probate isn't even applied for. However my brother is saddled with the 200% CT bill as he told the Council he was living in the property as a way of trying to claim the entire estate. Mum died intestate and its 50/50.

Its going to be another couple of years before it's sold, attracting almost top band CT.

It's happens when a property is a long term empty. Next year it will go up 300%

Completely normal.

Put it on the market or rent it out.

Standard practice now. I think we got 12 months when selling DMs house but I wouldn't be surprised if that's now reduced to 6 months.
DMs house was one of those marketed as 'in need of improvement '. It was priced accordingly and still took 12 months to sell.
The additional council tax is to discourage houses being left empty. But, the council tax is payable by the executors, so basically amounts to a reduction in your inheritance. So just a bit less free money for the beneficiaries. I can see why Councils think this is an easy target.

I would also add if the 'Estate' has a retirement flat to sell you can easily head into double CT as they are notoriously difficult to sell - as we found out. Took 18 months to sell - so you land CT + management fees. Was a complete nightmare!

It does not take a year. And they’re doing it up to make money. Within that you factor costs. Council tax is a cost.

Just sell it as it is and price accordingly

You will never recover the work you do

One house that was in need of a lot of work attracted far more interest than the 'ready to move in' properties

Yep our council have done this. You only pag the 200% charge if housenis not lived in or being actively marketed. It is to encourage people to not sit on empty properties and also to try and prevent thme falling into disrepair from lack of use.

Also be careful about if renovating before selling is actually worth while. Often unless you have a lot of time and the skills to do most if not all yourself the economics don't add up. Most 'project' houses sell for full valuation minis the cost of renovating these days.

It is, unfortunately, fairly normal. I think it's a good thing when properties are being left to sit empty without intent to sell, but I don't think it's reasonable when the property's been part of probate. As well as the general difficulties of coping with bereavement, probate itself can take forever (took us nearly a year when my mum died in 2023) and then sales are a logistical nightmare too - which is largely down to the government not putting good legal and administrative infrastructure in place. There should be a longer reprieve for properties in this situation.

We’re the same. We’ve had the same letter. I don’t understand how it’s even legal to charge double service charges for services that aren’t being used. Where our inherited house is there is no sewerage system and no street lights. They never grit and rarely do any repairs to the lane, yet they think £680 a month is ok! I’m also cross that I have to pay this and the inheritance tax on the property almost immediately- whereas the government have taken over a year to sort out probate and transfer the deeds into my name. So I could even sell the property anyway.

Apparently the way round it is to put your own house down as your residence and the second house down as your husband’s. The man from the council said he does the inspections and they just look for food in the fridge/cupboards and clothes in the wardrobes etc if they come round to inspect. Then you’ll get a 25% discount on them both. Or put the house up for sale with a high sale price - houses for sale are exempt…

Can you take your husband's name off the deed of your own home and then put his alone on his MIL's temporarily?

Not sure of ins and outs...

That’s commonly known as fraud.

Council Tax is just that, a tax not a charge for services

Exactly, they've CHOSEN for it to take longer due to doing it up to make more profit, and yes, the extra costs that are incurred are part of that decision. They could have sold it a lot quicker by either selling it "as is" or doing minimal work to make it presentable.

One of you move in and claim single person discount? Insurance probably costs more too with an empty house?

It certainly can take over a year.
Death
Funeral
Application for inheritance tax bit
Wait 20 days then apply for probate
Basic probate time 16 weeks if simple, longer if not
Valuations and marketing
Conveyancing average 160 days, currently alot longer due to rush for stamp duty.
You can market during probate but buyers will have to wait before exchanging
There is an awful lot to sort out with a deceased estate.

Not applicable. Just inheritance tax if above the threshold.

Indeed.

They have penalised on empty properties and council tax for quite a while now.

@friendlycat I am happy to be corrected but my understanding is that the value of property at date of death is liable for IHT.

However, when sold any increase from date of death is subject to CGT.

You are actually correct that if there is an uplift from probate value then there would be CGT. I suppose it’s down to what the OP is actually doing to the property to make it sell. If it’s painting etc and tidying up as most people do it’s not going to come into play.

Why bother doing it up

I know someone who spent months doing up an inherited property and then the market dipped so it sold for the exact same price it would have originally only it had now been nicely done up so obviously they got less