Council tax question

Upthestreamnopaddle1

Hi,

I am in a complicated situation and would be grateful for any advice. I bought a house with my parents back in 2020. My parents put approx 50% of their savings into the property and was essentially a "Gifted deposit". I pay the mortgage on the other 50%. We all live in the property and split the bills, council tax etc. The idea was to get me on the property ladder and also a place for them to live whilst moving back from abroad. However the situation has changed in that I have met someone we and we are now engaged, getting married in May 2025. I now spend 90% of my time at hers. Unfortunately my parents are retired and too old to get a mortgage and until they sell their property abroad they cannot offer to pay off my mortgage and transfer the house into their names.

My question is do I need to inform the council that I will be moving in full time with my fiancee? and is it possible to put the council tax of my property where I pay my mortgage in my parents names even though they are not on the deeds?

Many thanks.

DE_612183

Council Tax has nothing to do with who is on the mortgage for a property.

You will need to tell the council you are moving - for electoral register etc.

Mark_d

The people living at each address pay council tax for that property, regardless of who owns the property.

FlorayG

The council aren't interested in your mortgage and in fact they are not even interested in where you live. You can continue to pay the council tax for your parents or they can pay it, but because they live there and you don't, they should be named as residents for council tax purposes. If you want to pay it, you can ask the bills to be sent to your new address. Your fiancee I expect is claiming single person discount, so she will need to declare you moving in there as a resident and will no longer get the discount - you can't be resident in two places, so both councils need to be informed

Upthestreamnopaddle1

Many thanks all for the comments. Makes sense and very helpful

theartfullodger

Mark_d said:

The people living at each address pay council tax for that property, regardless of who owns the property.

Unless it's a HMO. - see from the experts.....
https://england.shelter.org.uk/professional_resources/debt_advice/resources_for_debt_advisers/council_tax_liability_for_houses_in_multiple_occupation_hmos

- and students complicate matters (usually council tax not paid by those individual students

Bigphil1474

As above, the council have no right to know, and wouldn't ask, about the mortgage situation so just re-register at your new address and remove yourself from your current address - it won't make any difference to your current property amount, but if your new other is getting single person discount, they would lose that. Might be worth checking if your parents would be eligible for any support after you move out e.g. after my dad's wife was diagnosed with dementia, they got the single person discount  from their local council. Can't remember the details, might be age related obviously. Also worth checking if they are getting the pension credits they require to get the winter fuel allowance.