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Housing market

One of the most unjust levies on house owners generally, but landlords re-letting or selling specifically, is the council tax levied on an empty property. There's no justification as there's no use of council services. Indeed, if one person lives there, they get a 25% discount. If nobody lives the, full whack.

I've now experienced this twice. It may not even be tax deductible if you don't exceed the allowance (which I think is reducing; £2K to £1K ??????)
 
Mike Reed said:
One of the most unjust levies on house owners generally, but landlords re-letting or selling specifically, is the council tax levied on an empty property. There's no justification as there's no use of council services. Indeed, if one person lives there, they get a 25% discount. If nobody lives the, full whack.

I've now experienced this twice. It may not even be tax deductible if you don't exceed the allowance (which I think is reducing; £2K to £1K ??????)
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If you can afford multiple properties, it seems perfectly reasonable to me that you pay a bit more towards local services than those in a single house.
 
matt j said:
If you go down that road though where do you stop? Only rent to someone that can buy your house outright for cash? Only rent to someone with 10 Rolexes and a holiday home in Barbados? Only rent to someone with a fleet of supercars?

Yes I'm sure these high-flyers want to rent your very average 2 bed semi for £700 a month. Jog on.
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Within any addressable market there will be some customers who are far better prospects than others.
 
palindrome said:
@Ponty

I am looking at this from a broader perspective, as I think is mandryka, assuming I have read the tenor of his post correctly.

When single people, single parents and foreigners have little or no access to social housing and are effectively forced to look at renting in the private sector, whether they end up with a roof over their heads is not dependant on need but of being pre-judged, not only of their character and honesty and facility to pay, which is to be expected, but of their perceived social profile; and extracting maximum profit. I'm not suggesting landlords should not conduct checks and balances, but based on the criteria mandryka has outlined it's all looking like the insidious creep of Orwellian doctrine to me.

John
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Yes, I can see the problem. What are landlords supposed to do? Successive govts have created the issues and from what I can see, none have any solutions either. It’s not down to individual landlords to solve.
 
AndrewR said:
Well we can then protect his investment by having our tax raised to pay for more social housing.

Andrew
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Yes, more social housing would be great. Trouble is, we’ve got the highest tax burden in decades. How much higher should it go?
 
Seeker_UK said:
If you can afford multiple properties, it seems perfectly reasonable to me that you pay a bit more towards local services than those in a single house.
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Council tax is to pay for local services. If you consume fewer services, you should pay less and vice versa.
 
My opinion, for what it's worth, is that AndrewR is right in that there should be way more social housing made available as a priority, but I disagree that tax payers should carry the burden. This Tory government have no problem finding £110 BILLION for their HS2 vanity project (not due to be fully functional until 2040!); £37 BILLION made available for Dido Harding's invisible Test % Trace fiasco. Providing access to a home for a significant proportion of the population, some of whom are no doubt desperate, and that the government purport to represent, should be a walk in the park in comparison.

John
 
palindrome said:
My opinion, for what it's worth, is that AndrewR is right in that there should be way more social housing made available as a priority, but I disagree that tax payers should carry the burden. This Tory government have no problem finding £110 BILLION for their HS2 vanity project (not due to be fully functional until 2040!); £37 BILLION made available for Dido Harding's invisible Test % Trace fiasco. Providing access to a home for a significant proportion of the population, some of whom are no doubt desperate, and that the government purport to represent, should be a walk in the park in comparison.

John
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Certainly agree about HS2. That could have been put to far greater use.
 
Ponty said:
Council tax is to pay for local services. If you consume fewer services, you should pay less and vice versa.
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One of the local services is the council, who decide what contributes towards the quality of life in their area. Hollowed out empty villages which are too expensive for locals to live in do not promote a good quality of life. One mechanism by which this can be adressed is council tax, which has the (surely) unintended consequence of giving the area more to spend on services, and maybe even lowering the council tax for locals. Something by way of compensation for having no neighbours and meeting idots in range rovers towing jet skis on narrow lanes and having to back for them.
And thats before we get on to, here in Wales at least, possibly irreversible damage to language and culture.
 
The tax rate of the UK has been too low for decades if we want a country with a health service, proper infrastructure and housing. It is currently about 38% unless you are a Tory MP. In most of Europe it is about 46% so the services are under less stress and the staff get paid not ripped off. There is no happy clappy fix. Tax has to go up with the money spent on building housing and improving infrastructure like not pouring shit into rivers. Another benefit of a realistic tax rate will be that property prices can't go up because the estate agents won't be able to persuade buyers to pay bonkers money for properties. I accept there are other issues such as most of Europe not spending enough on defence and that is coming home to roost but it is in the UK too. We can't have tax cuts unless we don't replace the arms sent to Ukraine in whaich case Putin can just sail round the top of Norway and 'invite' us to learn Russian.
 
ff1d1l said:
too expensive for locals to live in do not promote a good quality of life. One mechanism by which this can be addressed is council tax,
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You're talking about largely empty second homes in various areas like Cornwall. These are not let or occupied and I agree this is a waste of resources to some degree, though local employees still gain from their existence. In the rest of the country not predisposed towards Chelsea tractors and vacant holiday homes, there is no justification whatsoever for one's domestic property, standing empty because of a glitch in conveyancing, purchase or sale should be so taxed.

This also goes for void periods in rental properties, whether by dint of refurbishment or simply change of tenancies.

Shortly after I bought a small holiday flat in '88 as a letting concern during the season and employing local agent and employees, the council tax became the poll tax and was increased by a factor of 2 (by the local council, I believe rather than nationally) It was empty between October and March, purely by lack of demand from holidaymakers or locals.
 
Ponty said:
Council tax is to pay for local services. If you consume fewer services, you should pay less and vice versa.
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OK, so one of the services is policing. They'd be looking after more than one house you own.

Another is fire. Again, useful cover whether your property is occupied or not.
 
Mike Reed said:
You're talking about largely empty second homes in various areas like Cornwall. These are not let or occupied and I agree this is a waste of resources to some degree, though local employees still gain from their existence. In the rest of the country not predisposed towards Chelsea tractors and vacant holiday homes, there is no justification whatsoever for one's domestic property, standing empty because of a glitch in conveyancing, purchase or sale should be so taxed.

This also goes for void periods in rental properties, whether by dint of refurbishment or simply change of tenancies.

Shortly after I bought a small holiday flat in '88 as a letting concern during the season and employing local agent and employees, the council tax became the poll tax and was increased by a factor of 2 (by the local council, I believe rather than nationally) It was empty between October and March, purely by lack of demand from holidaymakers or locals.
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Gwynedd are consulting on, and intending, I hope, to charge three times the normal council tax on holiday homes. There was also a loophole where small businesses were exempt from business rates - holiday lets were therefore getting away paying zero council tax and zero business rates. This is also due to change. It would be great if this drove down property prices and rents around here - local kids could stay instead of moving away, local families would be able to find rentals at an affordable price.

"local employees still gain by their existence"...you're familiar with the word mcjobs?
 
ff1d1l said:
One of the local services is the council, who decide what contributes towards the quality of life in their area. Hollowed out empty villages which are too expensive for locals to live in do not promote a good quality of life. One mechanism by which this can be adressed is council tax, which has the (surely) unintended consequence of giving the area more to spend on services, and maybe even lowering the council tax for locals. Something by way of compensation for having no neighbours and meeting idots in range rovers towing jet skis on narrow lanes and having to back for them.
And thats before we get on to, here in Wales at least, possibly irreversible damage to language and culture.
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Possibly but many shops rely on tourists who Need a place to stay !!
 
hifinutt said:
Possibly but many shops rely on tourists who Need a place to stay !!
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That's a complete fallacy.
Most do a huge shop at their local supermarket before they set off. " I mean, it's North Wales, dear. Have the local shops even heard of artichokes marinated in Yak Butter, let alone stock them?"
 
Maybe but I remember spending many a day shopping in the little shops in villages in wales including art shops and one needed a place to stay .pricing out tourists by multiple council tax charges means less tourists .
I recall recently meeting a carer who wanted a holiday and Spain was massively cheaper than the UK
Places like Devon and Cornwall are very reliant on these tourists . Fortunately there is no multiple council tax in torbay but I bet it will come
 
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