Call for council tax relief on empty landlord properties

This is the situation in Scotland:

https://scottishlandlords.com/news-and-campaigns/news/council-tax-retrospective-student-exemption/

The Council Tax (Exempt Dwellings) (Scotland) Order 1997 Schedule 1 (Exempt dwellings) 11. An occupied dwelling (amended to read “unoccupied dwelling” by The Council Tax (Exempt Dwellings) (Scotland) Amendment Order 1998) —

a) which is not the sole or main residence of any person other than a student or a person falling within paragraph 10(a)(ii) above;

b) which, when last occupied, was occupied by at least one student; and

c) in respect of which less than 4 months have passed since the last occupation day.

My student tenants vacated in March (at first sign of Covid-19), with the properties unlikely to be relet until the beginning of the new term in September/October. Therefore, the best I can expect is a 10% discount.

Will NRLA be calling for relief in Scotland?

I purchased an uninhabitable house in February this year to eventually let it. It needed total renovation. I registered straight away to let the council know. I had some money to fix it up but am losing other rent due to corona. So my refurb budget is on hold. The council suggested and even invited me in a phone call to apply for empty property reduction. I agreed to do this in writing with proof it was uninhabitable .
I got no reply to my letter but Weeks later i get a bill for full council tax And the same again for having it "long term empty". So i am now expected to pay double for asking: £320 per month . How can i put someone in there with no kitchen or working loo? I will get plumbing done asap but the entire house needs plastering and repairs so i cant even furnish it until i am able to spend on the needed refurb.
i would be grateful for advice please. I cant possibly pay all this. Could i legally move in whilst work.is in progress?

If the examples of insanity by dying councils that I read on this web site are to be temporarily addressed, we need some external force to dictate to the councils.
But both permutations on the "government", both left and right, have made it very clear indeed that they wish to destroy private landlords.
I note in my area, a benefit to the council in doing so is to reduce private sector competition from the councils own student let investments.
Currently the council want £880/month for a student bed sit!
I still await a response from my MP regarding council tax on properties that cannot be rented out and particularly during the Covid19 situation.

Reply to the comment left by Paul Shears at 02/05/2020 - 12:32
Yes, we need a unified force to ensure fairness . Landlords are not regarded as fair or as being in need of support. I suspect the stems from the behaviour of several wealthy powerful landlords.

The government has basically given tenants the go ahead to do as they please to landlords and their properties. Even the new mediation service sets out to "force landlords to talk more with their tenants" at a cost to us of £540. This will delay the inevitable eviction process by yet another 2 months. Lets all be "live in" landlords and see what the government does about that.

Going forward, if as the pundits predict there will be a pent-up desire for rental properties, for numerous reasons, maybe its an opportunity for Landlords to get the act together:-

For all council and Universal Credit Tenants a Guarantor will be required, i.e. the Council.
All rents will be one months in advance.
All future Tenancy agreements for Councils etc will have break clauses.

Reply to the comment left by Lesley Lester at 02/05/2020 - 13:20
That sounds like a good idea

I had a tenant vacate a property at the end of March and assumed nobody would be looking to move at the moment so didn’t advertise it. Decided to put it on open rent last night and have had about 20 enquiries in 24hours so there is plenty of demand out there! Will provide video tours and if any body suitable / still interested stand outside while they go round the house. I guess most other things can be done by email etc so I wish I’d done it sooner and saved a months council tax. Also completed on a house sale last week and there were 3 parties in the chain so people are definitely moving house.

Reply to the comment left by Susan Bradley at 02/05/2020 - 21:53"Decided to put it on open rent last night and have had about 20 enquiries in 24 hours"
By "open rent" do you mean you just put an advertisement somewhere? Could you share where you placed the advertisement please?

Reply to the comment left by Paul Shears at 02/05/2020 - 22:09
Hi. I put it on with a company called OpenRent. They list your property advert on their own website and Rightmove etc for £29. They send you enquiries and you do your own viewings. They do add on services such as taking a deposit, contract , reference etc for extra charge. I have always had a good response from there but was surprised there are so many wanting to move at the moment.

Reply to the comment left by Susan Bradley at 03/05/2020 - 07:09
OK, thanks very much indeed. 🙂