The types of Council Tax discount you may be entitled to.
Changes in entitlement to a discount or exemption
We must be informed within 21 days of any change which may affect the discount - if not, a penalty of up to £70 could be incurred. If you haven't previously told us about a change it will be backdated and you will have to make payment of any arrears promptly.
Single person discount
Your bill may be reduced if a permanently disabled person (whether an adult or child) lives in the dwelling. Disabled band reduction page.
Empty properties and second homes
From the 1 April 2023 there is no reduction for unoccupied & unfurnished properties.
Properties that have been empty and unfurnished for over two years will pay a 100% premium, i.e 200% Council Tax. (Effective from 01 April 2019)
Disregarded persons
The person responsible for paying the bill can make a claim for a person/s who has their sole or main residence in their property being disregarded. If all but one of the adults who has their sole or main residence in the property fulfills the criteria in any one of the categories listed below, the discount will be applicable.
The types of people who may be disregarded for discount purposes are as follows:
- Persons who are apprentices
- Persons who are full-time carers
- Persons who are full-time students
- Persons still in receipt of Child Benefit
- Prisoners
- Youth Training Trainees
- Persons who are severely mentally impaired
- School College leavers
- Patients in Nursing and Care Homes
- Student Nurses
- Hospital patients
- Persons residing in hostels
- Religious Communities
- Spouses of certain students
- Diplomats
- Members of International Headquarters and Defence Organisations
Please note that these disregards do not affect the level of the charge if the property concerned is not your sole or main residence.
Level of discount
If all but one of the resident adults are disregarded the discount will be 25%.
If all the resident adults are disregarded then the discount will be 50%.
The discount continues for as long as the qualifying criteria are met.
We must be informed within 21 days of any change which may affect the discount - if not, a penalty could be incurred. If you haven't previously told us about a change it will be backdated and you will have to make payment of any arrears promptly.
New for 2014
Annexe discount
From 1 April 2014 annexes which are used by the occupier of the main house as part of the main home, or annexes which are occupied by a relative of the person living in the main house will be entitled to a 50 per cent reduction in the Council Tax payable on the annexe.
The 50 percent reduction is on top of any other discount you or your relative may be entitled to. For example, if your adult son is living in the annexe on his own. He will be liable for Council Tax and be entitled to a 25 percent single occupier discount and a 50 percent annexe discount.
The criteria for the annexe discount is:
- The annexe must form part of a single property which includes at least one other property. ie. the annexe must be within the grounds of the main house (not necessarily attached) and must be included in the title deeds of the main house and not registered separately.
And either:
- The annexe is being used by the resident of the main house, as part of their main home,
or
- The annexe is lived in by a relative of the person who lives in the main house. For this purpose a relative is defined as: a partner, parent, child, step child, grandparent, grandchild, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, nephew and niece (also includes great grandparent, great grandchild etc. and great great grandparent etc).
Other reductions available for annexes
If you have a close relative who lives in the annexe and they are over 65 years of age we may be able to award an exemption from Council Tax for the annexe.
Contact us
If you need to get in touch about Council Tax, please use our dedicated online form.