Is council tax payable on an empty house when someone dies?

Council tax is levied on domestic properties. It is set and collected by billing authorities (district and unitary councils) in England and Wales and levying authorities (local councils) in Scotland.

There are a number of exemptions from council tax (that is, situations where no council tax payment is due on a property).

One exemption is a ‘Class F exemption’: where a property is unoccupied because the person liable for council tax has died, no council tax is due on the property until probate has been granted, and for six months after probate has been granted (‘probate’ is the legal right to deal with someone’s estate when they die). This exemption applies even if the property remains furnished.

Although this sounds straightforward, there are some circumstances in which a Class F exemption isn’t available in this type of scenario. There are also circumstances in which a probate property can be charged a long-term empty homes premium or second homes premium, and circumstances in which it can’t.

This briefing explains how the probate exemption operates in England.

What happens to council tax if the owner or occupant dies?

A Class F exemption is available on a property that becomes empty because the person liable for council tax has died and no one else is liable. The Class F exemption is available until probate has been granted on the deceased person’s estate, and for up to six months after this, or until the property is transferred to a new owner (whether sold or inherited).

If someone begins to live in the property again at any point, that person will become liable for council tax. This applies if:

• the property is sold and the buyer moves in
• the executor or person who has inherited the property decides to rent it out
• someone else moves into the property

What happens if probate hasn’t been granted?

A Class F exemption exempts an unoccupied property from council tax in the period between the liable person dying and probate being granted, and for up to six months after probate is granted.

If the executors of an estate fail to apply for probate, and it is therefore never granted, it would theoretically be possible for a Class F exemption to remain in place indefinitely. In some tribunal cases, executors have not applied for probate for several years after a person has died. Council tax cannot be charged on a property owned by an estate where probate has not been granted.

In January 2026, the government said that probate is a factor that contributes to the existence of empty homes.

What happens after the probate exemption ends?

After the six-month probate period has ended, the property once again attracts a council tax bill (unless it qualifies for a different exemption). At this point, the council tax system treats the property as a standard empty property.

If the property has not been transferred through inheritance or sale, the estate remains liable, and the council tax becomes a liability of the executor. If the property is inherited but remains empty, the person who inherited it becomes liable for council tax. If it is sold, the new owners become liable for council tax.

As with council tax generally, a person can appeal to the Valuation Tribunal for England if they think that they are paying the wrong amount of council tax, or if they think that they are due an exemption that they have not received.

Do probate properties have to pay the empty homes premium or second homes premium?

Sometimes, yes.

Empty homes premium

Councils in England can now charge an ‘empty homes premium’, which is an additional 100% of the normal council tax on empty properties (unoccupied and unfurnished) that have remained empty for over a year. The empty homes premium can increase to 200% after 5 years and 300% after 10 years. Most English councils now charge an empty homes premium.

Second homes premium

Councils in England can now also charge a ‘second homes premium’, which can be up to 100% of the normal level of council tax on ‘second homes’. Second homes are dwellings which are substantially furnished and have no permanent resident (that is, dwellings that are not a person’s sole or main home).

How can these council tax premiums apply to properties in a deceased person’s estate?

A property within a deceased person’s estate could attract either of these council tax premiums, if it meets the criteria.

An estate’s executors are responsible for paying the council tax on a property for as long as the property is still part of the deceased person’s estate. The council tax payments can be met from the deceased person’s estate.

Exceptions

In England, a property can qualify for an exception from a council tax premium for 12 months after probate is granted. To qualify for this exception, the property must have been eligible for a Class F exemption from council tax.

The 12-month exception doesn’t apply in Scotland or Wales. Guidance from the Scottish Government (PDF) and guidance from the Welsh Government (PDF) is available on the circumstances in which a premium cannot be charged in those parts of the UK.

After the 12-month exception period has ended, if the property is still unoccupied, it could then attract a council tax premium. This would be payable by the property owner: the deceased person’s executor (who can claim the payment from the estate), a beneficiary, or a person who has bought the property.

A further 12-month exception from premiums can be claimed on a property that is being marketed for sale or let. This 12-month period can begin after a 12-month probate exception has ended. However, it can only apply in the 12 months beginning with the day on which the property goes on the market.

Why is the council refusing to give me a probate exemption?

There are some circumstances in which a Class F probate exemption isn’t available, even if a person has died and their house is empty. These include when:

• the property has not become unoccupied
• the property is owned by someone other than the deceased person
• a sole beneficiary has inherited the estate

The property hasn’t become unoccupied

The Class F exemption is not available if the property doesn’t become unoccupied when someone dies. This would be the case if, for instance, a person died but their spouse continued living in the property.

However, a Class F exemption would also not be available if, for instance, a family member was living in the property to care for a person who then died. If the family member was still living in the property at the time of the person’s death, the council tax system would not recognise the property as unoccupied.

This wouldn’t change if that person subsequently moved out of the property, for instance, a couple of months later, leaving it unoccupied at that point. Because the property had not become unoccupied due to the liable person dying, a Class F exemption wouldn’t apply.

The property is owned by someone other than the deceased person

If a property has become unoccupied because the occupant has died, the Class F exemption applies because there is no ‘liable person’ for council tax.

However, if there is a person who is still alive who owns all or part of the property, that person will be a ‘liable person’. That means that the Class F exemption will not apply.

For instance, if the deceased person had transferred the property to their children or into trust prior to their death, but continued to live in the property, the deceased person would have continued to be liable for council tax until they died. After they died, the children or trust would become liable for council tax as the owners of the property. The council tax system would not apply a Class F exemption, because the children/trust would qualify as liable persons.

If the deceased person was renting the property, a Class F exemption could apply. This would require the deceased person to have had a formal tenancy in place (as defined by the Council Tax (Exempt Dwellings) Order 1992). This means that, if the deceased person’s children owned the house, it is not likely that they could argue that their parent was their tenant unless they had a formal tenancy agreement in place. A Class F exemption would therefore be unlikely to apply in this scenario.

A Class F exemption wouldn’t apply if a property was jointly owned by someone else who was still alive but did not live at the property. That person would be a liable person. The Class F exemption requires the liable person to have died, and thus it would not apply in this scenario. This would be the case regardless of how much of the property the surviving person owned, or whether the property was mortgaged.

A sole beneficiary has inherited the estate

In a further scenario, where the entirety of an estate is due to be passed to a single beneficiary, some councils have attempted to argue that the sole beneficiary in effect becomes the owner of the property at the point when probate is granted. Councils have claimed that the Class F exemption does not apply in such a situation.

The Valuation Tribunal has considered whether the Class F exemption is applicable in two cases when there has been a sole beneficiary:

• ZT v London Borough of Lewisham [2018], which examined a scenario where the deceased person left their estate to a sole beneficiary
• AB v Bradford City Council [2022], which examined a scenario where, through the rules of intestacy (when someone dies without a valid will), a sole person was due to inherit the property

In both cases, the tribunal found that beneficiaries cannot be held liable for council tax until a property has been legally transferred to them. Therefore, in both cases, the properties were entitled to Class F exemptions after probate was granted because the legal estates had not been transferred to the beneficiaries.

At the time of writing, the sole beneficiary issue has not made its way to higher courts. However, at present, it is unlikely that a beneficiary in either of the scenarios above could be held liable for council tax unless the property had been legally transferred to them through the Land Registry.