Only one bill is sent to a dwelling regardless of how many people live there.
Even if several people live in the same dwelling, there might only be one person who is responsible for paying the bill (the ‘liable person’.)
To work out who has to pay for your home, look down the following list and, as soon as you reach a description which fits somebody in your home, that person is liable.
- A resident freeholder (e.g. an owner-occupier);
- A resident leaseholder (e.g. an assured tenant);
- A resident statutory or secure tenant;
- A resident licensee;
- A resident;
- A tenant who has a lease of six months or more, but does not live at the property.
- The owner (where there are no residents)
(A resident is someone aged 18 or over who lives in the dwelling as his/her only or main home.)
If the description fits more than one person, then each person is jointly and severally liable with the others, which means that any one of them, or all of them, can be required to pay the full amount of Council Tax payable; each person is not only liable for a proportion of the tax. However, full-time students cannot be made joint and severally liable with non-students.
Joint and several liability also applies to husbands and wives resident in the same dwelling and to unmarried couples living as husband and wife. From 5th December 2005, joint and several liability also applies to same-sex couples.
In some special cases, the above list does not apply as it is always the owner who is liable, not the people who live there. These cases are listed below:
- Residential care homes, nursing homes and some hostels;
- Residences which are occupied by more than one household and the residents pay rent separately for different parts of the dwelling; or which are specially built or altered so that people of different households can live in them (known as Houses In Multiple Occupation or HIMOs);
- Residences which are for let for less than six months to a tenant who’s main residence is elsewhere;
- Residences provided to asylum seekers under Immigration and Asylum Act 1999;
- Residences of Ministers of Religion;
- Residences of religious communities;
- Residences of domestic servants.