Councillors in Orkney will consider a change to the local authority’s policy on council tax surcharges for empty homes, as it has been resulting in “unintended consequences.”
A report will go to the policy and resources committee in relation to a 100% surcharge which is applied to properties that have been unoccupied for more than a year.
In “a small number of cases”, the report states, the council’s current policy has seen the surcharge applied as soon as a property is inherited by next of kin, if the previous owner of the property passed away in a hospital or care home, and hadn’t been living in the property for some time.
The current policy means the inheritor of a property doesn’t have time to carry out repair work or put the property up for sale before being hit with the surcharge.
The report states this is “an unintended consequence of the current policy”, which has been in place since 2019.
At Tuesday’s committee meeting, councillors will be asked to rectify this by giving powers to the council’s Head of Finance to delay the introduction of the 100% surcharge for up to 12 months in such cases where a property owner passes while in a hospital or care home.
It is hoped this will mean property inheritors’ plans can be taken into account before the surcharge is imposed.
According to the report, this would better serve the point of the policy – to see empty houses back in use.
Orkney currently has around 220 properties that fall into the council tax definition of being long-term empty homes.
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