Property tax exemption - What qualifies a house as unoccupied?

We are in the process of buying a house. The house has been unoccupied for a period of nine months with the seller renting elsewhere. This was a personal choice and not due to mortgage issues or financial problems. The electricity has been disconnected for this period of time. Would this qualify us for an exemption from the property tax for previously unoccupied homes?

We are hoping to close the sale as soon as possible. It appears to me that this is effective immediately and we wouldn't have to wait until 2013 to close. Is this correct. I am not a first time buyer so we wouldn't qualify that way. Thanks.

I imagine that the house could not have been occupied at any point to qualify. New houses only.

I would imagine this is a measure to encourage purchase of ghost estate houses, I'd imagine the detail will be never occupied.