Empty Or Partially Empty Property

Empty property

Business Rates will not be payable for the first three months that a property is empty.  After this period, an empty rate is charged at 50% of the bill that would have been due had the property been occupied.  Industrial properties, listed buildings and properties with a rateable value of less than £2,200 are exempt from an empty rate.  

As announced in the Budget report of 21 March 2007, the Government is changing the empty property relief from Business Rates by applying the full business rate to properties that have been empty for three months or more - and removing the exemption from industrial and warehouse property so that the full rate will be applied if they have been empty for six months or more. Subject to the necessary legislation being passed by parliment, these reforms will take effect from 1 April 2008.

The planned changes include completely exempting from rates empty properties owned by charities and community amateur sports clubs. It also puts in place powers to tackle cases of rate avoidance by owners who deliberately vandalise their property in order to avoid paying rates.

In brief, office and retail premises will be given 100% relief for the first three months, and industrial and warehouse premises will be given 100% for the first six months, from when the property becomes empty. All rate relief for these properties will end after this time and the full Non Domestic Rate will be chargeable.

You can find more information about business rates at the My Business Rates website.

Partially empty property

If only part of the premises is being used it may be possible to reduce the amount of business rates that are paid.

If you wish to claim this relief you should contact us immediately and we will arrange for one of our Visiting Officers to visit your premises. This relief is normally granted for a maximum of two years.

The relief would stop if:

• the unoccupied part becomes occupied
• the property becomes completely unoccupied
• the unoccupied portion changes.

Dont forget: if you move into, out of, or within Wychavon you need to let us know as this will affect your bill.  Please contact us with the details. or, alternatively, you can get a form  (33.76 KB) to tell us about your move.