A council has gone on record explaining how residents can use a website form to ”report” what they call “suspected second homes.”

The Local Democracy Reporting Service has approached Cornwall Council about how it discovers second homes, on which it will levy additional council tax from tomorrow.

The service was told: “The best thing to do is to use the Contact Us Form https://customer.cornwall.gov.uk/ctax_landing/.

“They won’t need an account number but will need to tell us who they are and the address of the property they believe is a second home. They can log it under the ‘I want to enquire about something else’ option as they won’t need to provide a date of change.

“The council will be doing further checks on properties over the coming months to pick these properties out. They may be registered as a holiday let, however the Valuation Office Agency carries out the checks on these and the owners will need to provide evidence to them or will lose their status.”

The council will, from tomorrow, levy an additional 100% council tax on second homes.

It expects to raise an extra £24m thanks to Levelling Up and Regeneration Act allowing local authorities to charge a premium on second homes.

As of December there were 14,123 second homes in Cornwall according to government figures. That’s one in every 19 dwellings in Cornwall classed as a second home.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government says second homes are defined as properties that are not lived in, but are fully furnished. They can include Airbnbs and holiday lets plus those homes purchased as investments that are left unoccupied.