Q&A

Council Tax in Wales

Your article, in mentioning 50% reduction for second homes, omitted to mention that in Wales, the Welsh Government slipped in a law last year which allows councils, ostensibly on a discretionary basis, to charge double council tax on empty properties, designed, they say, to encourage properties into occupation. This takes no account of properties which are stuck in a property market which, in Wales unlike urban England, is sluggish to say the least. So if you inherit a property and put it on the market, after 6 months you could be paying double council tax, even if you are making no use at all of the services the tax is supposed to be used to provide. OK, you could make a case for paying a full single tax, as the services have to be laid on anyway, but double tax? Paying twice for services you don't use? We will also be charged double Council tax for the tiny flatlet over our garage, mainly used as a guest bedroom, because it has a separate entrance from the house, unless we rip out the little toilet/shower room to make it unusable. They have already written asking about our plans for selling it, though it's not exactly an independent property.Have you any suggestions for mitigating this unfair-seeming tax increase, which don't involve merging the 2 buildings (impracticable) or flogging off the garage?