Council Tax - Single Person Occupancy

Gregor85

Hi everyone,

I have a question about single person occupancy rules concerning council tax. My situation is that I have recently moved into my mothers house for a short time, she has the single person occupancy discount on her council tax. I have been in the house a little over a month, and during that time I spent 11 days out the country on holiday.


At what point do I legally become a resident and have to contribute to the council tax?


To summarise; for what length of time can someone legally stay in a residence where someone is receiving single occupancy discounts without their staying there affect the single person occupancy discount?


On another note, I will most likely be returning to the house for a short period later on in the year as I’m in the merchant navy and wont have my own accommodation sorted by then.


Thanks everyone

poppasmurf_bewdley

I understand that you become liable for council tax if you make your mother's home your PERMANENT ADDRESS.

My son is in the British Army and comes home every other weekend, and I have the single person discount. My daughter works abroad ten months of the year and comes to me for two periods of one month each.

I did check this with the local council, who said I was entitled to the single person discount as I am the only person who lives at my address permanently.

karenx

Where will you be getting your mail sent to?

Gregor85

yeah I will be having my mail sent there, but failing that I will be having it sent to a PO Box. I don’t believe I have this house as my permanent address, what do you mean? where would I have declared this?

CIS

To summarise; for what length of time can someone legally stay in a residence where someone is receiving single occupancy discounts without their staying there affect the single person occupancy discount?

Council Tax works on the basis of your 'sole or main residence'. At the moment , even for a short time, your occupying the property as your 'sole or main residence' and therefore the single person discount no longer applies. You can be resident even for 1 day.

The fact your a merchant seaman doesn't remove the fact that you have a 'sole or main residence' (Bradford V Anderton)

My son is in the British Army and comes home every other weekend, and I have the single person discount. My daughter works abroad ten months of the year and comes to me for two periods of one month each.

I did check this with the local council, who said I was entitled to the single person discount as I am the only person who lives at my address permanently.

Unless your daughter is living abroad and only returns to your property for holidays e.g she wont return to live with you if her job was to end then this is correct otherwise she is still classed as resident for council tax purposes.

Benefits_Bod

In my view, CIS has correctly set out the basic fundamentals of the law (including legal authorities) that needs to be considered when making a decision about "sole" or "main" residence. The "tests" are much more fluid that simply totting up the number of days in a given period.

jhlamerton

Hello - I would be grateful for some advice.

I am a single person living alone and my son is in the Army and based at Salisbury. I have had a letter from my local Council asking me to contact them regarding a review they have done about my Council Tax Single Person Discount. I returned a form they sent me last year listing him as a person who might consider my property as his home but does not occupy it on a permanent basis as I did not want to hide anything.

My son does come home occasionally to visit me and he has his post sent here because he has had things go missing in the past when sent to his army base and he is often away on exercise so it is safer to have important documents sent here in case they go astray. If something important arrives that he needs or has ordered, I let him know and he will try and come 'home' for the weekend to pick it up and to visit me.

I also understand that army personnel pay Contributions in Lieu of Council Tax so, if my son is paying this from his wages, does that not mean that he should not have to pay it twice as I would have to ask him to pay the extra. I know that if I had a spouse living away from home then I would not get the discount, but this is my son and, as far as I am concerned, he has left home and only comes back to visit. I do not think he would come back to live with me if he left the Army.

I am now worried that the Council will cancel my single person discount and even ask for repayment. Please can you give me advice about this.

Nada666

If no-one here knows you could try asking the Army Families Federation: tel: 01264 382324 Email: [EMAIL="us@aff.org.uk"]us@aff.org.uk[/EMAIL]

Certainly, in general, a spouse would not receive a discount. If you are just a post box and he can show some contribution from staying in barracks here that may be enough but it does not seem likely. If he does pay council tax then he can claim that back himself as a relief - but I suppose he can't claim both ways.

To balance you have the bonus of qualifying for fuller housing benefit if you ever need that.

pmlindyloo

Two parts to this.

Are you receiving Housing Benefit? If you are, are you entitled to the one bed rate or the two bed rate? Also, if you are in social housing/council housing are you receiving Housing benefit reduction because of extra bedroom(s).

Members of the Armed forces can be treated as living at home and therefore, would require a bedroom so any HB would have to take account of that.

In the above scenarios I believe that you would not be entitled to the single person's discount as your son would be counted as 'living' at your place.

However if your home is not rented then I believe that you would need to prove that your son is resident elsewhere and only visited.

An interesting one.

This could have been 'flagged up' because of his post coming to you.

I agree that in the event of the 'experts' in this not answering, then you had best ask what proof/evidence they require that your son is not resident.

Housing_Benefit_Officer

If he lives in barracks then that is his home - he pops back for a few days/weeks while on leave but he is not a permanent resident.

CIS

It would be different if , for example, it was your husband or your partner, but it appears your son has his residence elsewhere and shouldn't affect your discount.