On Wed, 27 Mar 2013 10:09:00 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article om,
bm wrote:
Our local council has come up with a winner - council tax - if you own
an empty house you used to get a rebate of 50%. Not any more, if your
house is now empty for 2 years you now pay 150% council tax. So, you
own the house, it has f-all to do with the council (IMO), you are using
far less services, bin collections etc but it costs you 150% ? C'mon.
I'm wondering which way to go on this, it can't be legal, shirley?

I don't have kids, don't use the fire service or police or really any
council services other than bin collection, but still pay full council
tax. This can't be legal, can it?

Leaving a house empty - other than for a short while when moving etc - is
a very anti-social act.

I agree, in principle, but it can take a long time to sell a house. It
took nearly 2 years to sell my parents house despite it being marketed
at a very realistic price. (Not in the SE, so not an active market.)