Council tax liability is not a status that attaches to a couple. It is created afresh for each single day, for the people who were resident on that day.

Councils often keep billing an old address because nobody told them anything changed. Are you jointly liable for council tax with your partner covers the position while you are together.

For any day you both fell within the liability rules at the same address. That happens either because you were both on the same rung of the section 75 hierarchy, or because section 77 caught the one of you who was not.

Two people on the same rung

Section 75(3) of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 makes two or more people who fall within the same paragraph of section 75(2) on a given day jointly and severally liable for the council tax on that dwelling and that day. Two joint tenants are in that position, and so are two joint owners living there.

The ladder itself is set out in what the council tax hierarchy of liability is.

And the partner who was not on the tenancy at all

Section 77 catches a partner who is not on the tenancy, not on the title, and would not otherwise be liable. Where a liable person is married to or in a civil partnership with a resident of the dwelling, the two are jointly and severally liable for that dwelling and that day.

The same applies to two people who are not married but are living together as if they were, and to two people living together as if they were civil partners. Whose name is on the bill makes no difference.

Note the words the sections keep repeating

And any day, on that day, and that day. Those five words appear in section 75(1), section 75(3) and section 77(1), and they are the answer to the whole question.

Council tax liability is fixed day by day. Once a partner has moved out they are no longer a resident, so no new liability arises against them from that day and no joint and several liability can be created against them.

Residence is the test, not the tenancy

Section 99(1) defines a resident as an individual aged 18 or over with their sole or main residence in the dwelling. When that ends, so does the basis for liability.

The tenancy continuing, the mortgage continuing or the marriage continuing makes no difference to council tax. There is no trailing or residual liability after the residence stops.

Which days you are on the hook for

Why the date has to be evidenced

A council that has never been told will keep the account running in both names. Put the date in writing, and see does moving house clear your council tax arrears for what happens to the old balance.

The liability that already arose is untouched, and it is joint and several, which means the whole of it. For every day the former partner lived there the council may recover the entire amount from either of them, with no half share and no apportionment.

This is what joint and several liability means

Section 75(3) and section 77(1) both say the persons concerned are jointly and severally liable, not liable in shares. Somebody who moved out in October owing nothing personally can be pursued two years later for all of the arrears from April to October.

Nothing in the Act or the administration regulations obliges a council to pursue everybody, to pursue them equally, to pursue them at the same time, or to exhaust one before turning to another.

You can be pursued for a bill you never saw

Regulation 18(2) of the Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) (Scotland) Regulations 1992 makes a person who is jointly and severally liable with the addressee liable to make the payments the notice requires. That is the mechanism by which a former partner who never saw a demand is pursued years later.

What people assume, and what the statute says

You can ask, and there is no right to either. There is no statutory right to an apportionment as against the council, and nothing obliges it to pursue the other liable person.

What you can actually ask for

• That the notice be addressed in the joint names of everybody the council knows was liable. Regulation 19(3) makes that a duty where it appears there are jointly liable persons.
• That the council’s record show the exact date your liability ended, so that the day the clock stops is not in dispute.
• That the council pursue the other party as well. That is a request to its discretion, and it may be refused.

A separation agreement does not bind the council

Nothing in the 1992 Act or the administration regulations requires a council to take account of a minute of agreement or a court order about who pays what. Whether you have any claim against the other party is a separate question for a solicitor.

Where a liability dispute goes

Liability is for the council first, with an onward appeal to the Local Taxation Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland, which took over on 1 April 2023. Liability appeals run to 4 months.

The date you moved out, your new address and the evidence for both, in writing. Everything about your exposure turns on that date being on the record.

What to include

• The address, the account reference and the exact date your residence there ended.
• Your address since then, and the council area it is in.
• Evidence of the move, such as a new tenancy, a new council tax account or a redirection.
• The name of the person who remained, so the council can address the notice jointly.

There is no duty to volunteer a move, but there are duties to answer

No provision in the Scottish administration regulations says a person who stops being resident must notify the council. Three duties are reactive instead.

You have 21 days to answer a council’s written request for information about who lives at a dwelling. You also have 21 days from realising it to tell the council in writing that an exemption or a discount assumption it told you about is wrong.

And the penalties for ignoring them are real

Schedule 3 to the 1992 Act sets the Scottish figures at £50 for failing to supply information or to notify, and £200 for a repeat failure after a penalty has already been imposed. A right of appeal against a penalty lies to the First-tier Tribunal.

The higher figures published for England and Wales are in a different paragraph of the same Schedule and do not apply in Scotland.

It does, and there is a hard one-month deadline on the best part of it. A person who separates from a partner who was entitled to Council Tax Reduction, and who applies within one month, has the application treated as made on the date of the separation.

The timings that matter

The one-month rule and the six-month backdate are different mechanisms and a council telling you only about the first is under-advising you by five months. Can Council Tax Reduction be backdated deals with both.

Six months is a ceiling, not an entitlement

Regulation 26(8) of the Council Tax Reduction (Scotland) Regulations 2021 takes the latest of three dates, so good cause that began nine months ago yields six months and good cause that began three months ago yields three. The good cause must also have been continuous right up to the application.

And check the whole household position again

A separation changes the adult count as well as the income. A single adult in the property attracts a 25% discount, and what Council Tax Reduction in Scotland is covers the means-tested scheme, which can reach 100% of the liability.

The council can enforce against either of you for the joint period. A summary warrant is granted by the sheriff on the council’s certificate, without a hearing, and it carries a 10% statutory addition.

What it authorises

Paragraph 2 of Schedule 8 to the 1992 Act authorises recovery by attachment, money attachment, earnings arrestment, and arrestment with an action of furthcoming or sale. What happens if you do not pay your council tax in Scotland sets out the sequence that leads there.

Whether a charge for payment has to be served before an earnings arrestment on a summary warrant is not settled, so ask a money adviser what applies to your account. How you know if you have a wage arrestment covers the signs of a deduction that has already started.

The routes that stop a deduction

An approved programme under the Debt Arrangement Scheme stops an existing earnings arrestment and freezes interest, fees and charges, and whether council tax arrears can go into a Debt Arrangement Scheme covers eligibility.

A statutory moratorium is the exception. It does not stop an earnings arrestment that was already running: section 197(5)(d) of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016 lets a creditor carry on executing an earnings arrestment, a current maintenance arrestment or a conjoined arrestment order that came into effect before the moratorium began.

A Time to Pay Order is competent on summary warrant debt where the sum outstanding is £25,000 or less excluding interest, a limit in force since 10 July 2000. Our council tax debt advice page sets out how we help.