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Empty property and second home Council Tax premiums and when you must pay them

Overview

You must pay Council Tax on a property if it's:  

  • empty and unfurnished
  • empty and furnished
  • a second home that is not job related
  • uninhabitable

A property is unoccupied when it's nobody's sole or main home.

Some empty or unoccupied properties may be entitled to an exemption.

An empty property premium is a percentage that we add to the Council Tax bill for a property. The percentage starts at 100% and goes up the longer a property is left empty.  This means you could pay up to 4 times the Council Tax bill on an empty property.

If your property is not fit to live in

There's no discount if you cannot live in your property because it needs major work to make it suitable to live in.

You can ask the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) to delete the property from the Council Tax list using the GOV.UK 'Challenge your Council Tax band' form.

Ask the VOA to delete your property from the Council Tax list

Find out more about the criteria to delete a property from the Council Tax list (GOV.UK).

If the VOA deletes the property from the Council Tax list

They may give it a higher Council Tax band when the major work has finished, and it's returned to the list.

Appeal an empty premium charge

You can appeal if you think that either:

  • you're not liable for the Council Tax
  • we've applied the premium incorrectly

If you believe you should not pay, you can appeal a Council Tax bill or decision.