second home- single person discount?

snuff2pay

Hi
if myself and my husband buy a second home which he can work from occasionally during the week and that we can both use at weekends would we both be entitled to single person discount if the second home was his main residence for more than half of the days in the year and our first house was my main residence for more than half of the year?
I don't object to paying tax but I don't want to go daft! Thanks in anticipation

CLAPTON

married couples are deemed to have only one principal private residence (sadly that's not each)
and so the other is simply a second home

zorro10

i agree with the post above

pjclar02

Hello there

Presumably you are asking about the single person discount for council tax? If it was solely used occasionally by your husband for work purposes then a discount would certainly be due (between 10% and 50%).

However, if you are both using the property at the weekend then this may jeopardise the discount - I believe it is down to the direction of the specific Local Authority. Always worth applying to the Local Authority and see what happens - you have nothing to lose.

Hope this helps.

Red_dog_Sam

Another confirmation of the advice already given.
The other property is a second home. Discount rates for second homes vary between councils at 10% to 50%.
Just last month though, the government announced a review of the discount rules that would enable Councils to reduce or remove that discount altogether.

antrobus

CLAPTON wrote: »

married couples are deemed to have only one principal private residence (sadly that's not each)
and so the other is simply a second home

That's true for CGT Purposes and PPR relief. It's less clear cut as far as Council Tax is concerned. Generally speaking, I'd agree that it is almost certain in the circumstances outlined that a court would find that the husband's main residence was the 'matrimonial home' irrespective of the fact that they stayed elsewhere for over half the year. However, I think it's not impossible (at least theoretically) to have a main residence in one place and a principal private residence that's somewhere else.

CIS

It is possible for a couple to have separate homes for council tax purposes but its, rightly, looked on with a little bit of suspicion before any discounts are awarded.

The OP has stated that the property would be for work purposes (e.g to be closer to work) but there's no Valuation Tribunal who would give this a primary residence - there's a lot of case law already on similar cases.

snuff2pay

Thanks to all for taking the trouble to reply. Like many things it did look good in theory