Council Tax reduction due to temporary "no residents" / "single resident" status refused

davidbowers

Hi all,

Firstly thank you for providing this forum, it is greatly appreciated to be able to glean others opinions that have been-there-and-done-that.

My wife and I had to travel back to New Zealand in July 2020 as a result of my wife's mother passing away in June that year, in order to take care of her elderly father who wished to remain in the family home, who then himself passed away the following January 2021.  I had to return to the UK in December 2020 for work reasons, however my wife stayed on in order to sort out his affairs / estate, returning the following June 2021.

As my wife and I were the only residents of the house in Luton during the time that we rented it, it was therefore [un]occupied as follows:

From 02/07/2020 until 09/12/2020 there were no residents of the dwelling.

From 10/12/2020 until 13/06/2021 there was one resident of the dwelling.

On our return, I put in a request to Luton Council for the appropriate discount to be applied to our council tax, but this was refused as follows:
<<<
I have considered your application but it appears that you do not qualify at the present time.  I regret, therefore, that I am unable to grant you a reduction.

This application has been refused because the vacation was not a permanent vacation as she has now returned to the property.
>>>

My understanding of [Section 11 of The Local Government Finance Act 1992] is as follows:

<<<
(1)The amount of council tax payable in respect of any chargeable dwelling and any day shall be subject to a discount equal to the appropriate percentage of that amount if on that day—

(a)there is only one resident of the dwelling and he does not fall to be disregarded for the purposes of discount

Furthermore:
(2)...the amount of council tax payable in respect of any chargeable dwelling and any day shall be subject to a discount equal to twice the appropriate percentage of that amount if on that day—

(a)there is no resident of the dwelling

(3)In this section . . . “the appropriate percentage” means 25 per cent.

>>>

So, my question to the forum is as follows: in your opinion, which section of the act has been used as the basis for the rejection of the requested discount as outlined above, and how would you suggest that I proceed over and above raising a complaint with Luton Council, which I have already done and will no doubt hear further from them in the coming weeks?

Best regards, David

lincroft1710

Sorry David, but I believe the council are correct. There have been many appeals under similar circumstances especially where armed services personnel were concerned. Although away on a tour of duty it was deemed that as the ASP concerned intended to return home after this, their spouse could not claim the single person discount. This ruling dates back around 25 years and I'm fairly certain Luton council themselves had at least one of these cases and I have certainly been present at more than one of these appeals but not as a participant. 


Obviously your circumstances are more tragic, and I am not intending to be flippant, but the basis is the same as someone who goes off on a 6 month cruise, locks up their house with the vast majority of their possession still inside and fully intends to return there


This link states it better than I did!

https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/council-tax/get-money-off-your-council-tax/money-off-council-tax-for-empty-homes/home-is-empty-because-you-re-in-the-armed-forces-and-away-on-duty/#:~:text=If someone in your household,tax charges, in these circumstances.

davidbowers

Many thanks for your reply, and I fully understand what you are saying (and no flippancy detected)...