Second homes and empty properties: when Council Tax doubles or quadruples

A flat inherited from a relative and standing empty. A cottage by the sea visited twice a year. A house you have moved out of while the builders are in. In all three cases Council Tax does not go away — and in some of them it doubles, or even quadruples.

What counts as a second home?

A furnished property you own or rent that nobody lives in as their main home. A holiday home is the textbook example.

ONLYWAY NEWSLIVEMoney · 20.10Second homes and empty properties: when Council Tax doubles or quadruplesJobs & Business · 20.10Laid off with no work: £41 a day, five days a quarter, £205 in allMoney · 20.10Tax relief on uniforms and tools: £60 by default, £1,022 for pilotsLife · 20.10Excluded from school in England: the deadlines and who to complain toMoney · 20.10Council Tax Reduction: how to cut your bill when money is tightMoney · 20.10UK interest-free government loans: £100 to £812Jobs & Business · 20.10Adoption leave and pay in the UK: 52 weeks, £194.32Travel · 19.10Private parking: £100 cap frozen, 10 minutes to leave and £20 for a mistyped plateJobs & Business · 19.10Working time and rest breaks: 20 minutes, 11 hours and the 48 limitTravel · 19.10Air Passenger Duty: how much tax is inside your UK air ticketONLYWAY NEWS · appInstall the ONLYWAY NEWS appFresh UK news, classifieds, key dates and exchange rates on your home screen, one tap away. Free.NewsClassifiedsCalendarRates

The owner does not get to decide: your local council determines whether the property is a second home and how much Council Tax to charge. It can also give a discount, and how much is entirely up to the council, so you have to ask yours.

How much can the bill on a second home rise?

A council can charge up to twice your normal Council Tax. This is known as the second homes premium.

You may not have to pay the premium if the second home is an annex that forms part of the same property and is used as part of the main residence; if your main or second home is provided by your employer and you need to live there for your job; or if the property has planning restrictions or other conditions about how it is used and who can live there that stop you using it as a permanent residence.

There is also a temporary exception lasting up to 12 months: if you have recently received a grant of probate or letters of administration for the property, or if it is being marketed for sale or to rent.

One qualification matters here. Being excepted from the premium does not exempt you from the tax itself. You still pay the standard rate unless you qualify for a discount or an exemption. To apply for an exception you contact the council.

And separately: the rules are different in Scotland.

What if the property is simply empty?

You will usually pay Council Tax on an empty home as well, though the council can decide to give a discount — again, the amount is up to them.

Once a home has been empty for at least one year, the empty home premium starts. How much you pay depends on how long it has stood empty: a property empty for at least ten years can be charged up to four times the normal bill.

You do not pay the empty home premium in two cases: where the empty property is an annex, and where you are in the armed forces and have to move into armed forces accommodation as part of your work. The same 12-month window after a grant of probate applies here too.

Major building work — do you still pay?

You may get a discount if the home is undergoing major repair work or structural changes, for example if the walls are being rebuilt.

But there is something stronger than a discount. If you are making major improvements and cannot live in the property, you can ask for it to be removed — "deleted" — from the Council Tax list. While it is off the list, you pay no Council Tax on it at all.

That route comes with an obligation people forget. When the works are finished and the property is capable of being lived in again, you must tell the council. Stay quiet and the bill can be backdated.

How is a derelict property different?

A property counts as derelict only if it is not possible to live in it — because of damage from weather, rot or vandalism — and it would need major structural works to make it wind and watertight again.

A house that is merely neglected and long overdue a refurbishment does not meet that test. Where the condition genuinely does, you can challenge the Council Tax band and argue that the property should be taken off the valuation list.

Where to start

Ask your council first which category it puts your property in and whether it applies a premium at all. These are not national figures: both the size of any discount and whether the premium is charged are local decisions.

Then check whether you fall inside one of the exceptions above and apply specifically for that one. And keep the twelve-month windows in mind — the one after probate and the one while a property is marketed — because they close by the calendar, not when the sale goes through.