ridiculous council tax charge

[fossala]

I would, but they only answer the phones on a Thursday morning.

I would've thought if it set on fire then the fire service would be more likely to attend than anyone else, but there you go.
I wonder if setting it on fire is an option?!
I'm actually considering making my unemployed son live in it so he can claim council tax benefit. Might save me a small fortune!
Thanks for the support though people.
I'm having a generally crappy week as it is, this was the straw that broke the camel's back and all that.

If you can afford 2 houses why are you trying to scam the government using your son?!

 

[ASC1951]

Can't you just tell them you live there?

Well yes, she could. People can also go into Tescos and put stuff straight in their pockets, then sound off about the iniquities of Starbucks and Amazon.

So far as HMG is concerned, the situation of a property not selling is covered by the six month exemption. You can always find a buyer for a house at some price, so the argument is that if a property is still unsold after two years it is unsold because of the decision of the seller not to accept a realistic price. [Of course the realistic price may be less than the mortgage, but as Arch says "there's always a case that doesn't fit..."]

If it was me, I would consider renting it out rather than leaving it empty for two years. The lender may try to refuse consent, but IME no court would permit a blanket refusal in these circumstances.

 

[chqshaitan]

That is what i ended up doing. I bought a house closer to work as it was something that i didnt want anyone else to grab it, but I had not sold my flat at the time, so I ended up renting it out, 5 years later, i am still doing it, as the price it would sell for is less than I paid for it.

 

[Sandra6]

If you can afford 2 houses why are you trying to scam the government using your son?!

If you read the whole thread you'd see I can't afford two houses. We're really struggling to pay for both at the moment, but the other house just hasn't sold.

Well yes, she could. People can also go into Tescos and put stuff straight in their pockets, then sound off about the iniquities of Starbucks and Amazon.

So far as HMG is concerned, the situation of a property not selling is covered by the six month exemption. You can always find a buyer for a house at some price, so the argument is that if a property is still unsold after two years it is unsold because of the decision of the seller not to accept a realistic price. [Of course the realistic price may be less than the mortgage, but as Arch says "there's always a case that doesn't fit..."]

If it was me, I would consider renting it out rather than leaving it empty for two years. The lender may try to refuse consent, but IME no court would permit a blanket refusal in these circumstances.

We've dropped the price considerably, and we are willing to sell for less than we owe accepting that we'll have to borrow to make up the short fall, but there's a limit to how much we can afford to borrow too. We've only had one offer - at auction - for about £4K less than we owe on the mortgage, but with the auction fees at another £3k we couldn't afford to take the offer.
We considered letting, but we can't afford to re-carpet and replace the kitchen and bathroom and then what happens if the tenant decides the heating needs servicing, the windows need replacing, or any other number of additional costs??!

 

[chqshaitan]

Letting is a pain due to all the regulations you are legally obliged to follow but all things considered, its better than having an empty property where you have to pay mortgage, community tax etc etc.

As for the work that needs doing, it wont be a total waste of money as it will quite likely increase the market value of your house anyway.

Its a difficult situation to be in

 

[Sandra6]

I know you're right chqshaitan, and we should've done it last year but we just keep thinking "it'll sell soon"
We were all set to take out a loan and do it up for renting at the start of the year, then there was a flurry of interest through the estate agent so we held off thinking it was going to sell this time, then nothing came of it.
We are waiting for one potential buyer to get back to us about it after a couple of viewings recently, but he keeps stalling -he hasn't said he doesn't want it, but he hasn't made an offer.
This may be the push we need to get it sorted. Rent or sell it's going to cost us a minimum of £3k.
What have we got to lose eh?!
(the two new cube bikes we had our eyes on for one, but hey ho!)

 

[chqshaitan]

yea, also worth considering is if there is no one in the house, over time it will start to fall into disrepair, also normal house insurance will be invalid, as they generally only the house to be empty for a few months.

So worst case, if something happened (fire/flood, squatters wrecking the place) you are not likely covered unless your insurer is aware.

 

[snorri]

Its a difficult situation to be in

This sums it up, sometimes actions taken by local and national governments for the greater good can leave individuals in unforseeable and difficult situations.

 

[Sandra6]

yea, also worth considering is if there is no one in the house, over time it will start to fall into disrepair, also normal house insurance will be invalid, as they generally only the house to be empty for a few months.

So worst case, if something happened (fire/flood, squatters wrecking the place) you are not likely covered unless your insurer is aware.

Ah, that isn't an issue as it's a leasehold property, so we pay a lease rent and that covers the insurance too.
But it is getting a bit damp just because it's empty.

 

[chqshaitan]

Ah, that isn't an issue as it's a leasehold property, so we pay a lease rent and that covers the insurance too.
But it is getting a bit damp just because it's empty.

ah cool, thats great. same as my flat then but one to be aware of (which you no doubt know anyway) is that they only cover the building, not anything that you would need contents for .

 

[ASC1951]

We've dropped the price considerably, and we are willing to sell for less than we owe accepting that we'll have to borrow to make up the short fall, but there's a limit to how much we can afford to borrow too. We've only had one offer - at auction - for about £4K less than we owe on the mortgage, but with the auction fees at another £3k we couldn't afford to take the offer.
We considered letting, but we can't afford to re-carpet and replace the kitchen and bathroom and then what happens if the tenant decides the heating needs servicing, the windows need replacing, or any other number of additional costs??!

Yes, that is a tough situation; and if you have already tried an auction no-one can say you aren't being realistic.

If the likely rent will cover the mortgage repayments (or even a temporary shift to interest-only, which lenders will often do in these circumstances) it might still be worth going down that route. You do hear lots of horror stories, but there are also plenty of cases where it works just fine.
I think you may be unduly pessimistic about what works are required. New kitchen and bathroom wouldn't normally be necessary unless they really are shot, nor would new windows. Carpets are relatively cheap and as long as the heating works and you have a gas safety certificate, that should do. It does depend on what other properties are available locally, as well as the number of prospective tenants, but you wouldn't normally expect to fit out and furnish a property to owner-occupier standard because - understandably - tenants won't expect to look after it to the same degree that you would. Everything needs to be clean, safe and working but that's about it.

 

[Sara_H]

Can you put a tennent in it Sandre?

The charge does seem unfair. I appreciate that some chage should be paid, but to my mind it shouldn't be more than the sole occupier charge.

 

[Arch]

I know you're right chqshaitan, and we should've done it last year but we just keep thinking "it'll sell soon"
We were all set to take out a loan and do it up for renting at the start of the year, then there was a flurry of interest through the estate agent so we held off thinking it was going to sell this time, then nothing came of it.
We are waiting for one potential buyer to get back to us about it after a couple of viewings recently, but he keeps stalling -he hasn't said he doesn't want it, but he hasn't made an offer.
This may be the push we need to get it sorted. Rent or sell it's going to cost us a minimum of £3k.
What have we got to lose eh?!
(the two new cube bikes we had our eyes on for one, but hey ho!)

Hang on. You're really struggling, but you had your eyes on two new bikes?

I'd love to have my eye on all sorts of new stuff, but incomings and outgoings are so finely balanced, I simply don't. (Yeah, I got a new phone last month, but I'd had Christmas money specifically for that) And that's despite having a buffer in the bank, a buffer I want to hold onto for emergencies, or when I make the move to NT's and may be jobless for a while.

I guess the price of two new bikes might be small compared to house costs (although I just googled Cube bikes and they're not cheap depending on model) but even so...

Sorry, I know I don't sound sympathetic - I am, because I know what the sense of panic about stuff like this is like. I'm lucky never to have owned a house I guess, and have all this to deal with!

 

[mattobrien]

The 150% charge does sharpen the mind a little.

In this circumstance, you probably need to work out what is going to cost you least and follow that course of action quickly.

So far having not lived there for 12 months you have incurred a year's worth of extra mortgage payments, what is the value / opportunity cost of not getting a quick sale?

As has been said before every house will sell at the right price and sadly the right / market price doesn't always line up with the vendors view on things.

If I were in your shoes, I would be looking to get shot of the house asap or to get it rented asap. Council tax is expensive as it is and at 150%, it is really bloody expensive.

If you were to rent it out, you might be able to go down that route without too much expense. Get some cheap and bland paint and paint the walls of the house and see where you can go from there. You need to have a gas safety certificate (if it has gas) and there will be agents fees, but if should end up costing you less than it does now.

As it stands you are paying 100% of mortgage and 150% of council tax. Even if you rented it out for less than the mortgage cost you, you wouldn't be paying the council tax and you wouldn't be bearing the full cost of mortgage.

Out of interest, have you got / been able to switch over to an interest only mortgage for this property, as this may ease the mortgage burdon each month.

Hope you get it sorted soon.

 

[Moon bunny]

I am not sure where you live in Cumbria, but South Lakeland provide grants to improve homes for letting. You would be tied into letting the home for a minimum of 5 years, but not necessarily to council nominated tenants.