Council Tax is charged on properties that are unoccupied, unfurnished or undergoing major works.
 
Unoccupied properties, uninhabitable properties undergoing repair and newly constructed properties do not receive any Council Tax discount.
 
A property is unoccupied when it is nobody's sole or main home (place of residence).
 
Responding to the national housing shortage, the government is encouraging owners of empty homes to make their properties available for use. To incentivise this, the longer a property remains empty, the higher the Council Tax is.
 
This affects properties that are unoccupied and substantially unfurnished and have been for more than two years. The costs are shown in the table below.

Percentage of Council Tax to be paid for unoccupied properties

Length of time empty	1 April   2013 - 31 March 2019	From  1 April   2019	From  1 April   2020	From  1 April   2021
0 - 24 months	100% charge	100% charge	100% charge	100% charge
Over 2 years	150% charge	200% charge	200% charge	200% charge
Over 5 years	150% charge	200% charge	300% charge	300% charge
Over 10 years	150% charge	200% charge	300% charge	400% charge

New properties

For newly constructed properties, or properties created due to structural alterations, no discounts are available if the property remains unoccupied and unfurnished. Council Tax must be paid from the completion date.

We'll send you a notice stating the date from which we consider the property should be treated as substantially completed.
 
This change may cause you some financial pressures, and we may be able to assist you with advice and guidance about returning your property to use. We can advise on selling, bringing it up to a habitable standard to occupy yourself, or putting it onto the rental market.

Empty properties review

As part of the government’s initiative to tackle the shortfall in national housing, we regularly review the long-term empty properties in our area.