Who is responsible for paying Council Tax?
To find out who has to pay council tax on your home, read the following list. As soon as you reach a description that applies to one or more people in your home, that is the person "liable" and responsible for paying the bill. The spouse or partner of a liable person may also be held jointly liable.
- a resident
- a resident freeholder
- a resident leaseholder
- a resident tenant
- a resident licensee
- the owner (unoccupied property)
A resident is a person of 18 years or over who occupies the dwelling as their only or main home.
Owner liability
The first type of owner liability applies where a dwelling is noones sole or main residence, the 6th category in the above hierarchy of liability list - usually an empty property.
Although this type of liability also arises in the case of second or holiday homes it also applies to occupied dwellings where the sole or all occupiers are under 18 years of age.. None of them are classed as resident so the dwelling is deemed to be empty and liability therefore lies with the owner.
Classes Owner Liability
- Class A - a residential care home, (mental) nursing home or hostel
- Class B - a dwelling inhabited by specific religious communities, for example monks and nuns
- Class C - a dwelling inhabited by numerous tenants or licensees, this is usually referred to as a house in multiple occupation
- Class D - a dwelling inhabited by resident staff employed for domestic services that is occasionally occupied by the employer
- Class E - a dwelling inhabited by a minister of any religion in order to perform the duties of office
- Class F - a dwelling provided to an asylum seeker or under section 95 of the Immigration Asylum Act 1999
Joint and Several Liability
Payment can be sought from anyone who is jointly and severally liable.
Any persons on the same level within the hierarchy of liability are jointly and severally liable for the Council Tax on a dwelling.
To be classed as jointly and severally liable a person -
- must be over 18 years of age
- have their sole or main residence in the dwelling
- married or cohabiting with another person resident in the dwelling
The Civil Partnership Act 2005 amended the Local Government Finance Act 1992 so that a person who would be solely liable, is resident in the dwelling in question, and he or she is the civil partner or living together as though they were civil partners, with another person who is resident, will be held jointly and severally liable for Council Tax.
Severely mentally impaired persons who are joint owners, are not liable if another person is resident in the dwelling
Anyone who is considered to be jointly and severally liable must be issued with a Council Tax bill before he/she can be expected to pay Council Tax.
It is good practice to issue bills in joint names from the beginning. We may take action against one person initially and then if this person defaults, turn to someone else who is jointly and severally liable at a later stage. It is therefore imperative to include all names of jointly liable people from the start.
Fair Processing Notice
Shropshire Council are required under Section 6 of the Audit Commission Act 1998 to participate in the National Fraud Initiative (NFI) data matching exercise.
Council Tax data will be provided to the Audit Commission for NFI and will be used for cross-authority comparison for the prevention and detection of fraud.
Further information is available in Shropshire Council's privacy policy via the link on this page.