A Treforest man has failed in his bid to sidestep payment of council tax on his unoccupied house in Treforest, Pontypridd. Instead, he faces an additional bill of £1,500 in respect of Rhondda Cynon Taff County Borough Councils legal costs.
George Watson had challenged a ruling by South Wales Valuation Tribunal, which backed the council’s decision that his unoccupied property in Meadow Street, Treforest, did not fall within the class of dwellings exempted from council tax. The council and the tribunal had applied the 50% council tax reduction for unoccupied properties.
Mr Watson argued that the tribunal was wrong to find that his house was not exempt under Class G of the 1992 Council Tax (Exempt Dwellings) Order on the basis that the council themselves had forced him to have the house vacated.
The house had been in multiple occupancy in June 1998, but the council served a repair notice on Mr Watson, giving him three months in which to make the house fit for multiple occupants by ensuring that it was free from serious disrepair, and making adequate provision for lighting, heating and ventilation.
By October, the house was vacated and the council withdrew the notices. However, they made it clear that these would be reissued if occupancy resumed, and, in a letter of October 2000, said that similar action would be taken even if the house were occupied under a single tenancy.
Mr Watson claimed that, in these circumstances, his house fell to be viewed as exempt from council tax because it was left unoccupied as a result of action taken under statutory powers “with a view to prohibiting its occupation”.
However, Gibbs J today backed the council, and said that nothing the council had done prohibited Mr Watson himself, rather than tenants, from occupying the premises. He also said that had the council wished to prohibit occupation of the house, they had alternative powers to do so.
The judge ordered Mr Watson to pay a substantial proportion of the councils legal costs, which he set at £1,500.
Watson v Rhondda Cynon Taff County Borough Council Queen’s Bench Division (Gibbs J) 29 October 2001.
PLS News 30/10/01
