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 may wish to consider if it benefits you to have one of you registered as living there.

I can’t find this anywhere. We have a detached annex that we built for my parents now both deceased. The planning tied it to our house and said only people linked to our property can live there and it can’t be sold. It’s full of storage now but I want to use it. I need extra space but we can’t afford another council tax. Any suggestions?

We had to pay 100% council tax from the date of death!!

My grandparents wasn't even paying anywhere near that amount when she died. It was absolutely crazy. Council were the worst to deal with out of everything.

I’m just (hopefully) coming to the end of a five-year struggle to sell my late mum’s house. Won’t bore you with the details, but they included the Land Registry taking a year to register the property in my name (my parents bought long before registration was compulsory). I got hit with a 200% Council Tax bill that was reduced somewhat when I was able to prove the property was on the market. I do get the principle of deterring people from keeping properties long-term empty but it was a real headache finding the money on top of running my own household.

Thanks all. Interesting that this seems to be common knowledge! I do understand the housing crisis and it’s not a ‘woe is me’ tale as we are in a very fortunate position.

However if someone inherits a house and there isn’t also some cash then it can be difficult to run two homes and two sets of bills for a period of time.

Probate took 6 months. The property went up for sale shortly after this and we had a buyer within a few days. She pulled out at the end of Jan due to problems that showed up in her survey.

DH is now doing that work before it goes back up for sale. So we’re not doing it up to make more money, just the essentials so we don’t waste another 6 months when somebody else has a survey.

The law is the law. Just sell it and let someone else have the hassle of doing it up.

I dont know how people can be as ignorant as this poster. The vast majority of council tax is for social care and education as we all know. Sewage is charged for through your water bill (and if you dont have mains sewage you do not pay for it). As for the advice on how to commit fraud...!

We got probate very quickly--just ten days (after having gone through the IHT stage, which took just under four weeks.) As soon as we had probate, we put the house on the market. Literally, it was up within about five days.

It is a well-maintained and presented family house but a younger buyer would want to do things so we set the price accordingly, meaning it is very good value for a house in that street, which is sought-after. The trouble has been that there's now a shortage of builders and prices for things like knocking through kitchen walls into dining rooms, or turning conservatories into extensions, etc, have shot up. It's perfectly comfortable and pleasant to live in meantime. I know this because I often stayed there while my mother was going in and out of hospital last year. Nice bathroom, adequate, very clean kitchen with good ovens and fridge-freezer. Good quality washing machine and drier (being left.)

But there seems to be a culture of wanting an older house that also meets 2025 building regs and fixtures and fittings standards. Extensions and improvements that were done to the standards of last century, with proper paperwork and permissions, etc, just can't meet those standards and buyers don't seem able to understand this (or surveyors whip them up). Again, this is baked into the listing price, but buyers still seem to want the lower price AND the 2025 specifications. If we had the more modern version of the loft extension instead of the 1970s we'd be wanting more money!

All this means that it is taking far longer to shift my parents' house than I expected. We have dropped the price twice now. We have bent over backwards to do everything quickly for our current buyer, who was adamant he wanted to meet the stamp duty change deadline but I think is now just stalling.

Our six months will be up re council tax in about four weeks. I am grateful for the amnesty the council gave us, especially at a time of budgetary constraints. But I don't think I could have done more to try to sell the house quickly. It really has been like a fulltime job at times.

Do councils vary?

Yes they have their own rules.

@FrenchandSaunders kid you not, one of my tenants died! the council sent me a bill for council tax from that date!! obviously I refused to pay. half the relatives and friends had still not been informed at that point and obviously the relatives of the deceased had not managed to empty his flat overnight. sometimes, council can be hard hearted shits!

it can be difficult to run two homes and two sets of bills for a period of time.

I don't understand that part. The only bills will be the utility standing charges of water, electric and gas. There is no running of the second home.

Get it back on the market whilst he is repairing the survey faults. If the new buyers know something is in the process of being fixed it will most likely give them more confidence, not less, in buying it.

I have experienced this. My parents property is in the process of being sold but it has taken absolutely ages. Took almost a year before we even got probate. We expected it to complete a couple of months ago but there has been a delay (solicitors chasing this as it's not from our end), so we've been having to pay.
It's an upsetting time anyway and it's also annoying and difficult to find the extra money upfront but at least we'll get it back when the sale finally completes.

£500 a month council tax, plus electricity and gas. We've had to keep the gas on low all winter ... this all adds up. So yes it is like running two homes really.

And empty property Insurance which can be expensive have conditions attached such as weekly checks. If the property isn't close this can be problematic/time consuming and adding to costs.

The bills on my dad's empty house I'm trying to sell are far higher than the bills for the flat I live in. And that's during the grace period on water and council tax.
I'm lucky I can afford it, otherwise I'd be having to use one of those buy any house type deals.
It's all very well people saying it comes out the state or just sell the house, neither of those help with the immediate costs and it all takes time.

The UK has a housing crisis and it's been empty for a year, so yes, that sounds right.

When my dm dies, we gave her house a thorough clean, touched up the paintwork, tidied the garden, cleared the gutters and had the boiler serviced. We were able to put it on the market within 12 weeks of getting probate.

Harder to achieve in the winter, but you should be able to get it done in six months.

OP, you keep stating 'we have to pay for this and this', you don't - all costs should be covered by the Estate, including the council tax.

But if all that is in the estate is the house, the bills still have to be paid in the meantime,

The insurance company we use insists that the thermostat is set to come on whenever the temperature drops below 15.5. We (the estate) paid £182 during January for gas and electric as it was so cold. February will be £160. Insurance for three months is £400. Then the council tax will probably be around £400 a month from next month.

This is for a house we don't live in but simply want to sell and have wanted to sell for months and months. I understand the reasons for the costs and am not resenting it, but just pointing out that it's more than just standing charges.

Ask your local council. They all operate somewhat differently, I find.

OP, I'm afraid this is pretty normal. In some areas you don't even get the six month council tax break on an empty property, no matter what the reason it is empty. I'm not saying that's necessarily fair in all cases, it's just how it is. We had to pay council tax on my MIL's former house after she died. It was put on the market as soon as possible after probate was granted and got a buyer pretty quickly. However, the sale still took almost 6 months to go through due to glitches at the buyer's end. We were paying council tax on it all of that time too! No way round it.

Get it onto the market as quickly as you can. Don't do unnecessary work to it beyond cosmetic stuff because almost certainly any buyers will want to put their own stamp on it and may well renovate it again. You're out of time for any concessions now.

I'm surprised at the double council tax rate, though maybe I shouldn't be because of the clampdown on second home owners. Even though in your case it really isn't a second home, probably just meets the council's criteria for one.

If it is not currently in a fit state to live in it's worth speaking to the council as some of them give you a grace period for renovations beyond the standard "if its empty for x months you need to pay double council tax".

“Kindly”? It’s not a special treat.

That’s not going to take a year though, is it? Even if you did it really slowly. Especially if you know you’ve only got six months “free”.

"kindly" The empty house isn't using any resources; this is simply money grabbing by the council.

You do realise it can take well over a year to get probate before you can sell a house? My neighbours took 3 years! During that time the estate is paying 200% council tax for no services (add to that insurance, heating, security etc). Why you think that is "kind" is beyond me.