On family holidays to Greece, we would look at the people living in unfinished buildings and revel in their laidback attitude. Except they weren’t being laidback, of course. What they were doing was avoiding paying tax on a completed property. With their climate, they could leave the ground floor open to the elements.
Something similar occurred in England and Wales. Have you ever looked at old houses and wondered why they went to the trouble of putting in windows only to block them up? That was because in 1696 there was a window tax – the more windows, the higher the levy. So, they filled them in. Same in Scotland, where they removed the roofs to avoid property tax. That’s why so many castles have fallen into ruin.
