Council Tax and COVID

Fredolow

Hi everyone,
I'm hoping someone can help me with a Council Tax issue I'm now having that is related to this COVID crisis we're all having to go through. I receive a single occupancy discount of 25% since my wife moved away with work (100 miles away). She rents a city apartment and pays single occupancy council tax there. I'm self-employed and work from home. Between us we travel back and forth bi-weekly at weekends.. The plan was to sell our owned property (where I live) to buy a property nearer to where she is working. Of course COVID scuppered all of that and recently she has been back with me working from home due to the COVID situation, with the plan to return to her rented accomodation (for which she still has to pay all council tax, rent and bills) when the COVID situation subsides enough that staff are allowed back to work in the office.

I've just received a letter from the council stating that their checks by 'Transunion' indicate that I may no longer be the only person living at my property. Well, truth be told I'm not but that's only a temporary measure due to COVID and I'm sure we can't be the only people who have formed our own bubble and been forced into this situation due to this virus. I'm actually quite surprised that the council are sending out letters like this in the middle of a pandemic. Anyway, I'd like some advice on where I stand with this. We don't know when the pandemic is likely to end and thus my wife doesn't know when she will be going back to the office. Under normal circumstances she wouldn't be here. If anyone can offer any information on how best to handle this it would be appreciated. My work has already taken a hit due to COVID and I begrudge losing my CT discount as well if it's also caused by this bloody virus. Thanks in advance of any reply.
Cheers
Dave

Penguin_

The council are correct aren't they? you aren't the only person living at your property, so you lose your discount. You may be able to apply again if & when your wife returns to her city flat.

macman

Very simple. If your wife is now living with you at the home address then you are not entitled to SPD. ''Temporary' doesn't come into it, you lost SPD entitlement as soon as she moved back in.
The reason for her move is understandable, but irrelevant for CT purposes.
It may well be the case that her main residence has always been the owned home, in which case you were not entitled to the SPD originally.
Transunion: the credit check has shown that she still has credit products registered at the owned address, so it is reasonable to assume that it is still her place of residence.

Penguin_

macman said:

Very simple. If your wife is now living with you at the home address then you are not entitled to SPD. ''Temporary' doesn't come into it, you lost SPD entitlement as soon as she moved back in.
The reason for her move is understandable, but irrelevant for CT purposes.
It may well be the case that her main residence has always been the owned home, in which case you were not entitled to the SPD originally.

That's correct. When my Dad was living away, when working in the Army, my Mam couldn't claim it as they classed his main residence as the marital home, even though he spent less than 3 months (in total) a year there.

macman

To clarify, you are only entitled to claim SPD on your sole or main residence. If you have 2 properties, as in this case, you cannot claim SPD at both of them. 
Whether owned or rented, the city flat is a second home for CT purposes, and that will continue to be the case unless the OP and his wife were legally separated or divorced, in which case the owned home would cease to be her main residence.

Fredolow

Ok, thank you all for your input. I suppose I'd feel better about it if the council in our area wasn't so utterly useless.

To be clear, the rental property is my wife's main residence. She spends 99% of her time living there and only comes back for one night once a month. If that is the case I don't see how she can be classed as living here. So, I will reluctantly go back to paying the full amount for nothing for while she is here but as soon as she leaves I'll be going back to single person.

calcotti

Explain the circumstances in full to the council. Give them a copy of your wife’s Council Tax bill for the property she ‘normally lives’ at. You may be able to maintain the 25% discount.

Jeremy535897

Normally a married couple has one sole or main residence. If one spouse works away all week, returning to the jointly occupied home at weekends, the main house is the jointly occupied one, and the other is the second property. The attached link suggests there might be some flexibility in unusual circumstances:
https://lgfa92.co.uk/council-tax-occupancy-sole-main-residence/

calcotti

Jeremy535897 said:

Normally a married couple has one sole or main residence. If one spouse works away all week, returning to the jointly occupied home at weekends, the main house is the jointly occupied one, and the other is the second property. The attached link suggests there might be some flexibility in unusual circumstances:
https://lgfa92.co.uk/council-tax-occupancy-sole-main-residence/

It's that slight wriggle room that I was thinking of when I replied. If OP and partner can be treated as temporarily living apart due to work commitments it's possible that a discount may be applicable - but it's a stretch. One think OP hasn't said is how long this situation has existing for - that may have some bearing on the outcome. That deals with the situation prior to COVID. If the discount is accepted as applicable in that situation then it may be arguable that being in the same house now is a temporary situation and the normal situation is still to be apart and the discount can still apply. All a bit thin though!

macman

Fredolow said:

Ok, thank you all for your input. I suppose I'd feel better about it if the council in our area wasn't so utterly useless.

To be clear, the rental property is my wife's main residence. She spends 99% of her time living there and only comes back for one night once a month. If that is the case I don't see how she can be classed as living here. So, I will reluctantly go back to paying the full amount for nothing for while she is here but as soon as she leaves I'll be going back to single person.

No it's not. The definition of 'main residence' is admittedly poorly defined in statute, but there is plenty of subsequent case law which defines it more clearly. It's not determined by the number of nights you spend in each property. For as long as you remain married or not legally separated, her main residence is the house you own. 
As to paying the 'full amount for nothing', you fail to understand the basis of CT, it's not a tax on services, but a property tax, and you and your wife occupy 2 properties, You were not entitled to the SPD when she started renting, and that has not changed. If you request it back when she leaves, then it will almost certainly be rejected. And you may also be back billed for the SPD incorrectly claimed since she started renting.

CIS

The 'sole or main residence' issue is down to case law - if your wife can show that the other property is her 'sole or main residence' then it can remain as such, even if she then temporarily stays elsewhere.

The test is an objective one - based on the overall situation, where would the 'man off the street' say she was resident (taking account of Dr's, security of tenure, intention to return, electoral roll etc etc).  Feeding in to this is additional case law which indicates that a property occupied just for the purposes of employment, even long term, is not likely to be a 'sole or main residence'.

For as long as you remain married or not legally separated, her main residence is the house you own.

That's not an absolute, a married couple can retain entirely separate 'sole or main residences', if the factual situation supports that.