The Earl of Selkirkasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the owner of a domestic property which is let to successive tenants and refurbished in intervals between tenancies is liable to pay standard community charge.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of the Environment (Baroness Blatch)In England and Wales no standard charge is payable for the first three months (to be increased from 1st April 1991 to six months) that a property is unoccupied and substantially unfurnished. However, a standard charge may be levied in respect of unoccupied property which is furnished from the day on which the property was last occupied. The fact that a property is undergoing refurbishment would not, in itself, affect liability unless the property required structural alteration or repair work to render it habitable. In this case no standard charge is payable until six months after the works are substantially completed.