Council Tax completion notices

Find out about Council Tax completion notices, including when they are issued and how to appeal.

What is a completion notice?

A completion notice is issued to a property owner, and specifies the 'completion date' for newly built properties. This is the date that:

the property becomes a dwelling for Council Tax purposes, and
is entered into the domestic valuation list and from which it is given a Council Tax band by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA)

The Council will issue a completion notice on the 'owner' (the 'owner' is defined as 'the person entitled to possession') as soon as reasonably practical, where a newly built domestic property:

is structurally complete, or
where the work remaining can reasonably be expected to be completed within 3 months.

Where works on a property are not yet complete, a completion notice can still be served by specifying a completion date up to 3 months in advance from the date of service of the notice.

Where a completion date is specified in the future, this date will reflect the time that would be considered to be reasonably required in order to complete the outstanding works on the property.

This means that on the date that a completion notice is served on the owner, that the property may not yet be complete.

A completion notice cannot be backdated, even if the property has been completed for some time.

Relevant Legislation

A completion notice is issued in accordance with both:

How we decide to issue a completion notice

Once the Council Tax team are aware a property is being built or altered, an inspector will visit the property. Our inspector will make visual observations at the property and may contact you to request internal access, if this is required. Evidence (such as photographs) will be obtained during any visit to assist us in our decision to issue a completion notice, and provide us with a record of the stage of works observed.

We will consider a property to be substantially complete, meaning that a completion notice may be served when:

the basic structure is complete (for example all external walls, windows and roof are in place),
internal walls are built (even if these are yet not plastered),
internal floors are laid (even if the screed or top coat of concrete is not applied)

In some cases, a property may already be nearer full completion when we visit (for example all ceilings in place, walls plastered and the second fixing started). In these circumstances the completion notice issued may give an earlier specified completion date. This is because it is considered reasonable to expect that less time is needed for the outstanding works to be completed on the property.

Please note that for a property to be considered complete and a Council Tax completion notice to be issued to the owner, the following work does not need to have been carried out:

internal decoration of the property, including the fitting of internal doors, tiling, or floor coverings,
final fit of bathrooms and kitchen units
final fit of electrical fixtures, including lighting, plugs, and switches.
final connection of water, gas, electricity or other utilities (although services may already be laid to the site)
Building Control certificates do not have to be issued - whether a Building Control certificate has been issued or not does not affect whether a property is considered complete for Council Tax purposes. This is because the criteria determining completion for Building Control certification purposes are different.

Please remember

A completion notice for Council Tax can be served up to 3 months in advance of the day on which the Council specifies that a property could be completed. This means a property does not have to be complete on the day the completion notice is served on the owner, or actually completed by the date given, but it must be considered that is was reasonable to expect that the property could be completed by the completion date specified on the notice.

Building Control certificates do not have to be issued for your property to be considered complete for Council Tax purposes. This is because the criteria determining completion for Building Control certification purposes are different.

How property occupancy may affect a completion notice being issued

There may be different completion notice situations depending on a property's occupancy:

If a property is complete, but is not yet occupied

If the property is complete, we will serve a completion notice on the owner as soon as is reasonably practicable.

New properties which are unoccupied and substantially unfurnished at the specified completion date, will be subject to a 100% empty property charge from day one.

If a property has not had a completion notice, but has become occupied

A new dwelling does not need a completion notice to be served if someone starts to live there.

If the Council has not already served a completion notice on the property whilst the property was empty, the date of occupation will be used to enter the property onto the Council Tax list. Council Tax will be payable from that date.

What if you disagree with a completion notice

Formal appeals against completion notices should be made direct to the Valuation Tribunal Service (VTS) within four weeks (28 days) of the date of your completion notice being issued (not the the specified completion date). This should be accompanied by a copy of your completion notice and details of why you believe this is wrong, such as a schedule of all outstanding works. Full details of the appeals process are available on the Valuation Tribunal Service website.

However, please contact City of Doncaster Council in the first instance. In certain cases an agreement may be made to change the date, taking into account your current circumstances, meaning that a formal appeal to the VTS may not be needed.

Dispute a completion notice with the Council

Please note that a request for a dispute review by the Council, does not affect the 28 day time limit you have to appeal to the VTS. Council Tax remains payable whilst any dispute review is being considered by the Council or a formal appeal is being considered by the VTS.