Owning an empty home

We understand that bringing an empty home back into use can be a stressful, time consuming and expensive process. Our Empty Homes Officer is available to assist with advice and support to help your turn your empty property into a home. We can provide a range of advice and assistance, including:

• identifying suitable uses for your property
• advice on the local housing market and demand for properties
• advice on basic legal issues relating to your property
• advice on selling your property to a developer or other buyer
• advice on letting your property through local agents

Contact our Empty Homes Officer

VAT reductions for refurbishment costs

If you own a long term empty property within Luton and it is to highlight a potential saving for the refurbishment costs of bringing a property back into occupation by a substantial reduction in VAT costs.

We will provide the necessary letter as evidence that a property has been empty for the relevant qualifying period for a fee of £50.

Two year discount

You may be eligible for a reduced rate of VAT (currently 5%) if you are bringing an empty dwelling back into use and:

• the property has been empty for two years immediately before you start work
• it will be used for residential purposes after completion of the works
• you will be using builders to complete this work

You will need to ensure that your builders understand the reduced rate of VAT rules so that they invoice you correctly. Detailed of the VAT rules, requirements and eligibility can be found on GOV.UK.

Buildings and construction (VAT Notice 708) – GOV.UK

Ten year discount

If you are bringing an empty dwelling back into use that has been empty for more than ten years immediately before the start of works, and will be used by you or your family after the works are completed you may be entitled to zero rated VAT.  This concession is included within the scheme for conversions by DIY house builders and the detailed requirements and eligibility can be found in HMRC Notice 431C. 

If you are completing the building work yourself then no reduction in VAT is available.  

Recommended approach to achieving the 0% VAT

Where you are eligible ensure that your builder first applies the 5% VAT rate to the works which qualify under the two year rule and then complete the conversion claim form in HMRC Notice 431C to recover the 5%you have paid and any other VAT you have incurred in the qualifying expenditure.

Builders may not be aware of the concessionary VAT rates and discounts for residential properties being brought back into use.  It is important to ensure that your project qualifies under the rules which are set out in:

• Buildings and construction (VAT Notice 708) – GOV.UK
• Claim a VAT refund for a conversion if you're a DIY housebuilder (VAT Notice 431c) – GOV.UK

You should provide all the necessary paperwork.  

The best evidence that you can give HMRC to support your claim is a written statement from the Empty Homes Officer.

If you decide to leave your property empty

We are happy to offer owners of empty properties all available advice and assistance to bring their properties back into use. However, we recognise that a small minority of owners will not be willing to work with us. In these situations we will responsibly employ our enforcement powers to protect the interests of local residents.

These include:

• serving improvement notices requiring owners to bring properties up to current housing safety standards
• applying for Empty Dwelling Management Owners which enable us to take over management of empty properties for up to seven years (Housing Act 2004)
• applying for an enforced sale or compulsory purchase order (Law of Property Act 1925)
• or compulsory purchase order (Housing Act 1985)
• demolition order (only in extreme cases)