Empty property rates

For the first 3 months a property is empty, no rates are payable. This period is extended to 6 months for properties classed as industrial including factories, warehouses and workshops.

Empty rates are charged are 100% of the occupied rate unless one of the exemptions below applies

• ​Those where the rateable value is less than:
• £2,200 from 1 April 2005 to 31 March 2009
• £15,000 from 1 April 2009 to 31 March 2010
• £18,000 from 1 April 2010 to 31 March 2011
• £2,600 from 1 April 2011 to 31 March 2017
  
• £2,900 from 1 April 2017
  
• Properties where occupation is prohibited by law
  
• Properties empty due to action taken by the crown or by any public or local authority, either to prevent occupation or to acquire the property, for example, a compulsory purchase order has been made
  
• Listed buildings or those subject to a preservation order
  
• Properties where the person liable would be so only in his/her capacity as a personal representative of a deceased person, a liquidator or a trustee under a deed of arrangement, properties where the person entitled to possession is the subject of insolvency proceedings, the owner is a company in administration
  

Your current rateable value may be higher than your rent. The current rateable value is an estimate of the annual rent that a property would have received at 1 April 2021. 

If rents have fallen since then because of the economic situation the rateable value will not necessarily be reduced as well. 

Details of the rateable values, and in most cases a summary of how they have been calculated, can be found on the Valuation Office Agency website .​