Council tax Council tax liability

To find out who has to pay council tax on your home, take a look at the following list. As soon as you reach a description that applies to one or more people in your home, that's 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 freeholder
  • A resident leaseholder
  • A resident tenant
  • A resident licensee
  • A resident
  • The owner (unoccupied property)

A resident is a person of 18 years or over who occupies the dwelling as their only or main home.

Landlord/tenant liability

For council tax, where a property is no-one’s main residence, it's the owner of the property who becomes responsible for council tax. For details on empty property charges take a look at the 'Council tax on empty property' page.

For the purposes of council tax, the Local Government Finance Act 1992 defines the meaning of ‘owner’ as follows:

'An owner in relation to any dwelling is a person who satisfies the following conditions:

1/ That they have a material interest in the whole or any part of the dwelling; and

2/ That at least part of the dwelling (or as the case may be the part concerned) is not subject to a material interest inferior to their interest.'

It goes further in explaining the term ‘material interest’ as: 'A freehold interest, or a leasehold interest which was granted for a term of six months or more.'

In the case of a weekly or monthly tenancy (or a tenancy subject to notice of less than six months), the immediate landlord is the ‘owner’ for council tax purposes and liable for council tax when the property is no-one’s main residence. However, if there's a six-month (or greater) shorthold assured tenancy the tenant will remain liable for council tax until this particular tenancy period expires.

Once the initial six month (or greater) shorthold assured tenancy has expired the landlord and tenant have three options:

  • They can agree a further shorthold tenancy for an agreed period of time
  • The landlord can seek a new tenant
  • They can move to a periodic or rolling tenancy agreement

Where an assured shorthold tenancy continues as a statutory periodic tenancy, the landlord becomes liable for council tax for any period that the property becomes no-one’s main residence until the tenancy ends. This is irrespective of whether the tenant has to give a notice period, or indeed handed the keys back.

In some cases, where the tenancy continues as a contractual periodic tenancy because the tenancy agreement facilitates this, the tenant is classed as the owner. 

We may ask to see a copy of the tenancy agreement before correct liability can be determined.

Further information regarding the Local Government Finance Act 1992 can be obtained from the Legislation website.

Owner liability

The first type of owner liability applies where a dwelling is no-one's sole or main residence, usually an empty property.

Although this type of liability also arises in the case of second homes or holiday homes, it also applies to occupied dwellings where the sole or all occupiers are under 18 years of age, or where all occupiers are disregarded for example care homes. None of them are classed as resident, and liability therefore lies with the owner.

Classes of owner liability

  • Class A - a residential care home, (mental) nursing home or hostel
  • Class B - a dwelling inhabited by 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 their 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.

Severely mentally impaired persons who are joint owners aren't liable if another person is resident in the dwelling.

Fair processing notice

We're 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 our privacy policy.