Landlords in Kent are inheriting huge council tax bills racked up by the previous owners when buying empty properties.

Medway Council has been backdating bills and applying a 200% empty home council tax premium to the owners of homes which have been left empty for more than two years, reports The Telegraph.

Maxine Fothergill bought two derelict flats in June 2023 which she planned to renovate and put on the rental market but was told the liability racked up by the previous owner lay with her, forcing the council tax bill up to £10,500.

Premium

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government told The Telegraph that the premium applies from the date that the property was first registered empty and does not restart when a home changes hands. But for local authorities to apply either of these council tax premiums, on second or empty homes or both, the properties have to at least be habitable.

Fothergill’s two flats had been left empty for nearly 25 years, but despite submitting evidence that they were unliveable, Medway Council pursued charges to magistrates’ court. She had to engage the Valuation Office Agency to de-list the properties so that they could be taken off the council tax valuation list. The agency ruled in her favour.

Councillors

“I’d been open and honest, going straight to the local councillors to introduce myself,” she says. “I thought they’d be pleased we were bringing them back into a decent state of repair.”

Azid Gungah was hit with similar charges after he bought two flats in the Medway area; one was derelict, while the other had been left empty for two years by the previous owner. He appealed the 200% premium, but a day before his scheduled court appearance, the council waived the charges.

A council spokesman says: “We cannot comment on the accounts of individual residents, but we are required to issue council tax bills for all properties that the VOA has allocated a council tax band to.”

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