Petition Keep the empty homes exempt from council tax at 6 months

As frpm April 1st 2013, empty homes in England and Wales will have their council tax exemption reduced from 6 months to 28 days. The reason is that the govt want to encourage homes being occupied, This is totally unreasonable, impractical and unfair.

I think there should be exceptions to this such as when the sole resident of a property dies, the council tax should be exempt. This adds unneeded stress to the deceased's relatives as they are either forcing someone to live their whilst the property is up for sale, which prolongs the selling process and clearing of the property or having to pay when themselves are struggling with day to day bills.

Also if a property is being sold due to divorce, in some cases neither of the parties involved want to live at the property due to bad memories.

Empty properties aren't going to benefit from any council services, so why should the owners/owners of estates to the deceased have to pay?