You should pay Council Tax if you are the:
- resident freeholder
- resident leaseholder
- resident statutory or secure tenant
- resident licensee
- resident
- owner (where the property has no residents)
A resident is a person who is over the age of 18, occupying the dwelling as their main or only home.
All the people in the household that fall into the same category are responsible for paying the Council Tax, for example joint tenants. Partners whether married or not are also liable even if they do not have the same interest in the property.
If you do not pay your Council Tax bill, you could be taken to court. Find out what happens if you do not pay.
People not counted for Council Tax
We ignore certain people when counting those living in your home to calculate your Council Tax. These are known as disregarded persons.
A person is disregarded if they are:
- under the age of 18
- a student, apprentice, YTS (Youth Training Scheme) trainee, student nurse or foreign languages assistant
- severely mentally impaired
- a prisoner, convicted or on remand, except where imprisonment is for non-payment of fines or Council Tax
- under the age of 20 and undertaking or have just completed a qualifying course of further education
- a young person or persons for whom child benefit is payable
- a patient usually resident in hospital, residential care homes, nursing homes or hostels providing a high level of care
- low paid careworkers either living with the person for whom care is being provided or in accommodation provided by their employer in order to administer care
- caring for someone with a disability who is not a spouse, partner or child under the age of 18
- a resident of certain hostels or night shelters
If everyone in the property is disregarded there will still be a Council Tax bill, but there will be a 50% discount.
If you're a landlord
You will be liable to pay Council Tax if:
- your dwelling is in multiple occupation, such as a hostel or a group of bedsits where the residents pay the landlord separately for different parts of the property
- you rent residential care homes, nursing homes, mental nursing homes or certain types of hostels providing a high level of care
- you rent a monasteries or convents
- you rent a dwelling which is not the owner's home but which is the main home of someone the owner employs in domestic service
- you rent a vicarage or another dwelling where a minister of religion lives and works (where the owner-occupier is a Church of England minister of religion, the church is responsible for the bill)
- your dwelling is occupied only by asylum seekers who have been housed by Social Services
If you think you should not pay Council Tax
You can ask for us to review your bill.