Single resident
The full council tax bill assumes that there are two or more adults living in the property. If there is only one adult living in your home, you will get a discount of 25 per cent.
Please note that if someone moves out on a temporary basis, for exemple to work away, then this discount may not apply.
If you wish to claim please complete our online single resident discount form.
Unoccupied home discount
As from 1 April 2004, if a property is furnished and no-one's main home then there will be a discount of 10 per cent. However, a 50 per cent discount will still apply in certain cases:
- If the property is a second home and is a caravan
- If the property is job related accommodation provided by your employer and you are liable for council tax at this property and for your main home at another address in this country.
If a property is unoccupied and unfurnished for more than six months no discount will apply and a full charge is payable.
More information on empty properties can be found under Council tax and exempt properties.
For further details regarding the above please use our online council tax enquiries form.
Some other people will get discounts because they, or the people who live with them, are not counted when adding up the number of adults living in a property. You will not be counted for council tax if you come into one of these categories:
- Youth Training trainees, apprentices and some student nurses
- Patients resident in hospital
- People who are being looked after in care homes
- People who are severely mentally impaired
- People staying in certain hostels or night shelters
- 18 and 19-year-olds who are at, or have just left school, for whom Child Benefit is payable
- Careworkers on low pay, normally working for charities
- People caring for someone, for at least 35 hours a week, who is resident in the same property and is not their partner, or child aged under 18
- Members of visiting forces or some international institutions
- People who are in prison (unless they are in prison for non-payment of council tax or a fine)
- Members of religious communities (monks and nuns)
- Foreign language assistants
- Former students (under 20) ceasing college between 30 April and 31 October
- Students' spouse/dependant who is not a British citizen
- Full time students - complete our online student discount form.
If you have not been given a discount and think that you should get one, please contact the Council Tax unit.
If you have been given a discount and your circumstances change so that you are not longer entitled to receive one, you must tell the council. If you don't, you could be liable to pay a penalty of £70.
More information
Please note: The above documents are in Portable Document Format (PDF). You will need a suitable reader to view them. A reader can be downloaded free from the Adobe website (full instructions for downloading the reader are provided on the site).