Long-term partnership

Our Entitlement Services team has worked with Watford Borough Council and Three Rivers District Council for many years, including completing reviews of various discounts and exemptions to maximise council tax revenue.

In April 2024, updated government guidance allowed English local authorities to add council tax premiums for unoccupied and unfurnished properties after 12 months of being empty. Then from April 2025, councils could also to charge a premium of up to 100% additional council tax on second homes in their area. Both Watford and Three Rivers councils asked us to review their council tax base to check that existing premiums were applied correctly and that accurate bills could be issued in April 2026.

Checking for unoccupied homes

Our Property & Premium Verification Service is a 12-week fully managed programme that involves all customer contact. Using an initial data extract from councils’ revenues teams, a rigorous data analysis followed, identifying data flags to pull together the canvass base.

In addition, we carried out property visits to establish whether homes that are currently listed as occupied had been listed correctly, and to identify whether they are furnished or unfurnished to establish the correct premium.

The 12-week review builds in time for appeals and includes full reporting so that updated bills can be issued with confidence.

Amy Picken led delivery of our service for Watford and Three Rivers councils:

The appeals period then allows for properties that may only have been unoccupied for a short time – for example during a renovation – to be listed correctly as occupied.

Identifying significant additional revenue

At the end of the project, and once all appeals had been assessed, we identified a total of 220 properties as unoccupied: 121 within Watford and 99 within Three Rivers. Some had been unoccupied for some time, enabling bills to be backdated and issued immediately. If the remaining properties remain unoccupied this year, this equates to additional council tax revenue of £231k for Watford and £228k for Three Rivers.

Lauren Bosley is a revenues team leader at Three Rivers:

Lauren also commented on the responsiveness of Amy’s team: “We were able to forward any queries we did receive straight to NEC, and they were acted on straight away. It meant that our officers could stay focused on their day-to-day work.”