Council Tax help

Bellee

Thank you everyone for your help.

oldbikebloke

The legal position for CT liability for a married couple assumes they live together and are therefore both labile for the property they occupy together. But your post implies you do not routinely live together and in reality actually live in separate properties.  There are some rather subjective rules which allow husband and wife to each claim 25% single person discount (SPD) SPD on their respective properties if they are "living apart" and each obviously have their own property in circumstances where they are effectively leading separate lives, but remain married. Patently from the little you have said so far, that clearly cannot be the case as you are not "apart" in the true sense (divorced, "separated" or whatever). 

However, if he is not not claiming 25% SPD then it is irrelevant whether you are on or off his bill.

One thing for sure, you cannot be "taken off" your own property since it remains your property and you remain liable for the CT on it 

If you and he are both claiming 25% SPD on your respective properties, then the situation needs more explaining as you are married and do not appear to be living separate lives. That is a complex situation for a CT specialist - there is one such on here who makes a living from advising on such CT cases - you may be lucky and he'll see this post.

Bellee

oldbikebloke said:

The legal position for CT liability for a married couple assumes they live together and are therefore both labile for the property they occupy together. But your post implies you do not routinely live together and in reality actually live in separate properties.  There are some rather subjective rules which allow husband and wife to each claim 25% single person discount (SPD) SPD on their respective properties if they are "living apart" and each obviously have their own property in circumstances where they are effectively leading separate lives, but remain married. Patently from the little you have said so far, that clearly cannot be the case as you are not "apart" in the true sense (divorced, "separated" or whatever). 

However, if he is not not claiming 25% SPD then it is irrelevant whether you are on or off his bill.

One thing for sure, you cannot be "taken off" your own property since it remains your property and you remain liable for the CT on it 

If you and he are both claiming 25% SPD on your respective properties, then the situation needs more explaining as you are married and do not appear to be living separate lives. That is a complex situation for a CT specialist - there is one such on here who makes a living from advising on such CT cases - you may be lucky and he'll see this post.

Very helpful thank you. We are married and spend a lot of time together. Although we each separately pay our own council tax, I could be at his for weeks at a time. I had never really thought about it but my husband raised it and that’s why I posted on here. We both claim the discount but I don’t want either of us to be in trouble for this with us being a married couple and wondered whether I could just be added to his bill or not. It would be really helpful if the person you are referring to could advise. It is a unique situation in that we have no plans on officially living together and one of us giving up our property as that’s what works for us. Thanks again. 

dimbo61

Say you went to live with your husband in his house permanently then he needs to pay full council tax on that property.
You would have to pay 100% Council tax on your empty property as well ! 
Unless you 
1 Sold the property
2 Rented out the property.
I take it that you and your husband both owned your home's before you met ?

Bellee

dimbo61 said:

Say you went to live with your husband in his house permanently then he needs to pay full council tax on that property.
You would have to pay 100% Council tax on your empty property as well ! 
Unless you 
1 Sold the property
2 Rented out the property.
I take it that you and your husband both owned your home's before you met ?

Hi, yes I understand that. We both owned our homes before we met but I have no intention of moving in with him. 

comeandgo

Bellee said:

dimbo61 said:

Say you went to live with your husband in his house permanently then he needs to pay full council tax on that property.
You would have to pay 100% Council tax on your empty property as well ! 
Unless you 
1 Sold the property
2 Rented out the property.
I take it that you and your husband both owned your home's before you met ?

Hi, yes I understand that. We both owned our homes before we met but I have no intention of moving in with him. 

I love your situation.  That would be my ideal.  

Bellee

comeandgo said:

Bellee said:

dimbo61 said:

Say you went to live with your husband in his house permanently then he needs to pay full council tax on that property.
You would have to pay 100% Council tax on your empty property as well ! 
Unless you 
1 Sold the property
2 Rented out the property.
I take it that you and your husband both owned your home's before you met ?

Hi, yes I understand that. We both owned our homes before we met but I have no intention of moving in with him. 

I love your situation.  That would be my ideal.  

It’s perfect I don’t understand why this isn’t more common! Our friends and family often question our situation and although my husband would like me to move in, no thanks 🤣 

bhoys18

Hi I don't  know if I'm on the right page but here goes  I've just found out that my single person's council tax discount ceased in 2012 so I've been paying full council tax since then and when I got intouch will my council they said they will only back date it to April 2020, so want to know can I claim the last 8 years back from them as they say they can't prove ive been living on my own, am I entitled to the overpaid tax back

MovingForwards

bhoys18 said:

Hi I don't  know if I'm on the right page but here goes  I've just found out that my single person's council tax discount ceased in 2012 so I've been paying full council tax since then and when I got intouch will my council they said they will only back date it to April 2020, so want to know can I claim the last 8 years back from them as they say they can't prove ive been living on my own, am I entitled to the overpaid tax back

Please start your own thread.

CIS

The legal position for CT liability for a married couple assumes they live together

It doesn't. The default position is that a person is only ever resident at the property which is their 'sole or main residence' - this may or may not be together, there is no default position that a couple are resident together.

Very helpful thank you. We are married and spend a lot of time together. Although we each separately pay our own council tax, I could be at his for weeks at a time. I had never really thought about it but my husband raised it and that’s why I posted on here. We both claim the discount but I don’t want either of us to be in trouble for this with us being a married couple and wondered whether I could just be added to his bill or not. It would be really helpful if the person you are referring to could advise. It is a unique situation in that we have no plans on officially living together and one of us giving up our property as that’s what works for us. Thanks again. 

I've popped in as mentioned above.

It all depends on where the 'reasonable person' would say your 'sole or main residence' is, looking at the facts of the situation.

In this situation, you cannot be added to the council tax account unless you are resident at the property with him.

Just being at a property, even for weeks, does not necessarily make you resident there - it would take a proper look at the whole situation in order to give more of an opinion on it but this is the sort of case that, should it be argued, would likely end up at a tribunal for a decision.