Liability to pay Council Tax normally falls to one or more adults who are solely or mainly resident in a property. Where there is more than one person resident, look at the following list and working from the top down stop when you reach a category which applies to someone in your home, he or she is the liable person :
- Resident freeholder (so for owner-occupied property the owner will be liable)
- Resident leaseholder
- Resident statutory/secure tenant
- Resident licensee
- Resident
Husbands and wives, and unmarried couples living together are both responsible for paying the bill. People who are joint owners or joint tenants are also jointly liable, whether or not they are actually shown on the bill. Where there is no resident in the property then the owner is liable. The owner is also liable, instead of the residents, for certain prescribed classes of dwellings as follows :
Class A - residential care homes, nursing homes and some hostels;
Class B - properties lived in by religious communities (such as monasteries and convents);
Class C - properties occupied by more than one household where the residents share certain facilities such as a kitchen or bathroom;
Class D - properties which are not the owner's main home, but which are the main home of someone whom the owner employs in domestic service;
Class E - properties lived in by ministers of religion;
Class F - properties provided to an asylum seeker under Section 95 of the Immigration & Asylum Act 1999.
