Council Tax - Class F exemptions – Cornwall Council judged to be restricting entitlement unlawfully. This is a bit specialist
but it will affect hundreds of families in Cornwall every year dealing with an empty
property following the death of a parent or grandparent.
The law allows exemption from Council Tax for rented and
owned homes on the death of the sole occupier from the date of death until up to 6 months after the award of probate provide the
property remains continuously unoccupied and nobody else is liable due to shared ownership
or having their name on the tenancy agreement.
Cornwall Council has been restricting this exemption to the date of the
award of probate based upon its ‘discretion’.
This policy will be an ‘earner’ for Cornwall Council as there will be hundreds
of instances a year of homes being sold after the death of a parent to settle
the deceased parent’s will and sales take months and cannot be completed until
after the award of probate. The purpose
of the Class F exemption is to provide a 6 month period of grace to settle the
estate.
This policy has recently resulted in an appeal to the
Valuation Tribunal which was successful – Cornwall Council has had to refund
over £500 of Council Tax which was not legally due. Decisions by Valuation Tribunals (referred
to as ‘lower tier’ judgements) do not set a legal precedent so this use of ‘discretion’ by Cornwall Council may
continue. For the judgement to set a
legal precedent it has to be a ‘upper tier’ judgement (High Court). No case concerning Class F exemptions has ever
reached the High court because the costs well exceed the loss of up to 6 months
Council Tax exemption.
Any refusal of a Class F exemption must first be appealed
with Cornwall Council and only appealed to the Valuation Tribunal if refused
by Cornwall Council. Cornwall Council
decision letters turning down appeals should identify the appellant’s right to
appeal to the Valuation Tribunal but that did not happen in the case in
question. The first struggle was to get the
Valuation Tribunal to accept the Cornwall Council decision letter as’ kosher’
because it not include any reference to the right to appeal to the Valuation Tribunal. Anybody confronted with a similar Class F problem
can message me for more on this matter.
Valuation Tribunal appeal number 0840M239634/283C . The decision can be found at the link below by inserting the appeal number:
