Fecking council tax - "substantially unfurnished" - what does this mean?!

I would say that if there's no bed and no sofa/chairs etc in the living room, that's a pretty good start.

I deal with this regularly at work (letting agency) and in my experience there is very little consistency and a great deal of pot luck in determining whether 10%, 50% or exemption is applied.

If your property is pretty much unfurnished, send photographs with your application. If you have any receipts/invoices for removal etc, these can help too.

I had a situation arise like this when I was renovating my flat to move into it. They stated that the fact I had a mattress in the property meant it was furnished. Took a fair amount of arguing to convince them I wasnt living there even though the mattress was still in its packaging and in a room crammed so full of boxes you couldnt have lay down on it even if the fancy grabbed you. Good luck!

I had exactly the same issue last year. Nobody was living in my old house from May-November (we did it up for sale then left furniture in to make it look nice.) We had no chairs downstairs but one cupboard... and one bed in the bedroom and some chintz! So basically 2 pieces of furniture in all.

I was so cross about it that I wrote to my MP as parliament have said that it's up to local council's to decide how much to charge. A person I know in a different county was charged 50% - that I could live with. 90% is extortinate. I even pointed out that I was charged less when I was a single parent living there and used the facilities.

Got nowhere though!

Thanks everyone, sorry for not replying sooner.

Grr, I'm so annoyed. Have been backwards and forwards with them since we moved, and have even asked to apply single person's discount but they won't do that as no one is living there. It's infuriating that it's more expensive for no one to live there than one person. We wanted to leave the furniture in so it looks better to viewers but now I'm tempted to move it all out on principle - we're talking about the best part of £700 saved.