Single Occupancy-Visiting Family

fortheboat

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]HI

My Mother in Law currently receives single occupancies discount on her council tax. My wife and I are early retired and currently sailing around the world, and have been for the last seven years. We use my Mother in Law address as our postal address for our bank/credit card statements. When returning to UK we do visit her for 2-3 weeks within a year, along with other family members. Our own house is currently rented out. She has been told that she may lose the benefit as we are seen as occupants of her house, as our names have being found against the address. We only use the address for a point of contact for our mail and visiting when in UK.

Can this benefit be stop under these circumstances.

Thanks for any help or advise given

David[/FONT]

xylophone

Has your MIL explained the circumstances to the council?

bluecelticgirl

Hi David what about setting up a P.O. Box with Royal Mail to avoid this happening in the future? I believe they can also deliver your mail from your P.O. Box to your mother in law's address or any other you give them if you have mail that will need to be dealt with.

I can see why the Council would think you are living there and I have no idea how they will deal with it when your mother in law explains but perhaps the above is a solution moving forward

agrinnall

You need to be able to provide proof to the council that you are not resident at your MiL's address. That might not be so easy as you presumably have no fixed address while you are sailing. Maybe you could send the council a postcard every time you get to a new port ;-).

CIS

A holiday does not make a property your 'sole or main residence' therefore you aren't resident for council tax purposes, other benefits would not see you as resident either - that being said it does no harm to contact the local authority and explain the circumstances to head off any misunderstanding further down the line.