Moving in with partner -- arranging council tax

diamondplus

Hi,
Both myself and my partner both have our own houses (with mortgages and a single person council tax discount).
I've almost sold my house and I'm in the process of moving in with my partner. Does anybody have any advise on how to sort the council tax out?
My partner has sent the council an e-mail asking for advice but I suspect the council might be busy given the Covid19 situation.

I'm registered to manage my council tax online, but when I work my way through the online "moving house" wizzard, when I chose the new address (i.e. my partner's address), I'm asked if I'm a tennent or an owner, with no other options. As far as I know, I'm neither.

Any advice?

Thanks in advance.

Martin_the_Unjust

Are you paying your partner rent? Your a tenant.

Are you moving in to live as a couple, man and wife etc, then your an owner, for the purpose of council tax.

[Deleted User]

Martin_the_Unjust said:

Are you paying your partner rent? Your a tenant.

Are you moving in to live as a couple, man and wife etc, then your an owner, for the purpose of council tax.

What ?????? 

Where did that unsolicited advice come from !! 

OP -I dont know the correct answer but I know the crazies have arrived. 

Someone will be along who will know soon 

greatcrested

If those are the only two options, put tenant. You are not the owner.

Else email them the details and explain.

Kynthia

You are neither. I believe you are moving somewhere where you will not be responsible for paying the council tax as your partner is the person owner/tenant responsible for paying rather than you. Moving out of your place doesnt end your responsibility to pay council tax, and that will only end when someone else owns the property or lives in it. If you move out before that you'll need to see if you can claim any exemptions for the property being empty and unfurnished, including the single person's discount, as otherwise you might even have to pay more than you do now.

KatrinaWaves

For my council we have two options for moving, moving within the area and moving out. 

For this situation you would choose moving out as you are going from council tax liability to no council tax liability. Data matching would allow your GFs council tax to be updated and her single person removed, but I would also send an email to the revenues team (or just the generic mailbox to be forwarded) to ensure this is done. 

It is worth checking for unoccupied discounts but many(most) councils don’t offer these anymore. You cannot claim single persons discount when you are not resident. 

CIS

Kynthia said:

You are neither. I believe you are moving somewhere where you will not be responsible for paying the council tax as your partner is the person owner/tenant responsible for paying rather than you.

For this situation you would choose moving out as you are going from council tax liability to no council tax liability

That is not fully correct .

A plain reading of s6 of the LGFA 1992 does refer to the tenant/owner for liability however s6 is specifically modified by s9 of the LGFA 1992 in respect of partners living together as 'husband and wife'.

It is very unlikely that a person can move in together as partners and not be regarded as living together as 'husband and wife' for these purposes - the Valuation Tribunal would almost certainly find that this was met.

S9 of the LGFA 1992 will therefore create the joint council tax liability even where a person is not a tenant or joint owner.

9  Liability of spouses
(1)     Where--

(a)     a person who is liable to pay council tax in respect of any chargeable dwelling of which he is a resident and any day is married to, or is the civil partner of, another person; and

(b)     that other person is also a resident of the dwelling on that day but would not, apart from this section, be so liable,

those persons shall each be jointly and severally liable to pay the council tax in respect of the dwelling and that day.

(2)     Subsection (1) above shall not apply as respects any day on which the other person there mentioned falls to be disregarded for the purposes of discount by virtue of [paragraph 2 (the severely mentally impaired) or 4 (students etc) of Schedule 1 to this Act].

(3)     For the purposes of this section two persons are married to each other if they are a man and a woman--

(a)     who are married to each other; or

(b)     who are not married to each other but are living together as husband and wife.

KatrinaWaves

So, to help the OP, who has to select tenant or owner CIS, what do they put?

CIS

KatrinaWaves said:

So, to help the OP, who has to select tenant or owner CIS, what do they put?

Personally - I would not use the form as it's not technically correct and it could lead to issues further down the line as the council would have the OP's status recorded incorrectly.