Two things about it surprise people. It is worked out day by day, and two adults on the same rung are each liable for the whole bill rather than half of it.

This page sets out the rungs, what happens at the same rung, when a disregard breaks joint liability and when the ladder is displaced altogether. What makes you liable to pay council tax in Scotland covers liability more generally.

Six rungs, running from a resident owner down to a non-resident owner. Section 75(1) says the liable person is the one in the first paragraph of section 75(2) to apply, taking paragraph (a) first and each in turn after that.

The ladder

What resident means

Section 99(1) defines a resident as an individual aged 18 or over who has their sole or main residence in the dwelling. Somebody under 18 is not a resident for this purpose, and neither is somebody whose main home is elsewhere.

Why stopping at the first rung matters

An owner who lives in the property is at rung 1, so a lodger at rung 5 never becomes liable. A landlord who lives elsewhere is at rung 6, so a resident tenant at rung 2 carries the bill, which is the point are tenants or landlords liable for council tax in Scotland deals with.

Because the statute says so. Section 75(1) fixes the liable person in respect of any chargeable dwelling and any day, and section 75(2) applies each test as at that day.

There is no notice period and no apportionment formula

The unit is the day. Liability at an old address ends on the last day you fell within section 75(2) there, and liability at a new one begins on the first day you fall within it.

That is why the date you moved matters more than anything on the tenancy. Does moving house clear your council tax arrears covers what happens to the old account.

And why the date needs to be on the record

A council billing an address it has not been told about will keep billing the last person it knew of. Put the date in writing and keep the reply.

It means each of you owes the whole amount, not half of it. Section 75(3) makes two or more people who fall within the same paragraph on the same day jointly and severally liable for the council tax on that dwelling and that day.

The council chooses who to pursue

Nothing in the Act or the administration regulations obliges a council to pursue everyone, to pursue them equally, to pursue them at the same time, or to exhaust one before turning to another. Joint and several liability is liability for the whole against each.

You can be liable without ever seeing a bill

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. Not receiving the notice is not a defence.

But the council does have to address it jointly where it knows

Regulation 19(3) is mandatory. Where at the time of serving a notice it appears to the council that there are jointly and severally liable persons, it must address the notice in their joint names.

That is a duty to address, not a duty to pursue. It is still worth asking for, because it puts the other person on the record.

Worked households

Usually yes, and section 77 of the 1992 Act is the reason. It catches a partner who is not on the tenancy or the title and would not otherwise be liable at all.

What section 77 does

Where a liable person is married to or in a civil partnership with another person, and that other person is also a resident of the dwelling on that day, the two are jointly and severally liable for the council tax on that dwelling and that day.

Section 77 extends the same treatment 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. The civil partnership limbs were inserted with effect from 5 December 2005.

Note the words the section keeps repeating

On that day, and that day. Section 77 creates liability afresh for each day of residence, which is why it stops when the residence does and why can you be chased for a former partner’s council tax turns on the date somebody moved out.

Section 77 has its own carve-out

Section 77(2) disapplies the extension where the other person is disregarded as severely mentally impaired or as a student. Are you jointly liable for council tax with your partner goes into the couple position in more detail.

Only two of them do. Section 75(4) breaks joint and several liability where somebody is disregarded as severely mentally impaired under paragraph 2 of Schedule 1, or as a student under paragraph 4, and somebody else in the property is not.

Which disregards break it, and which do not

What happens when it does

Where only one of the people concerned is not disregarded, that person is solely liable. Where two or more are not disregarded, those two or more are jointly and severally liable between themselves.

Why this catches people out

A disregard reduces the bill without necessarily removing the person from liability for it. Somebody disregarded as an apprentice or a carer is still on the hook for the whole amount, and which people are disregarded for council tax purposes sets out the categories and what each is worth.

Where regulations made under section 76(1) say so. That subsection lets the Scottish Ministers make the owner liable in prescribed cases in place of the section 75 hierarchy.

The house in multiple occupation case

Class 3 of the Schedule to the Council Tax (Liability of Owners) (Scotland) Regulations 1992, as substituted by SSI 2003/137, covers a dwelling occupied by people who do not form a single household where each occupier is a tenant or licensee of part only of the dwelling. Do tenants pay council tax in a house in multiple occupation sets the test out in full.

Where that applies the hierarchy is displaced entirely. Residents have no council tax liability at all.

More than one owner

Section 76(4) of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 makes multiple owners jointly and severally liable in the same way as multiple residents on the same rung.

The unoccupied property case

Where nobody lives in a property the ladder simply runs to the owner at rung 6. Do you pay council tax on an empty property in Scotland covers what is then charged.

No. A liability order is an England and Wales instrument, and in Scotland a council recovers under a summary warrant granted by the sheriff or by decree in an action of payment.

How the Scottish route works

Paragraph 2 of Schedule 8 to the 1992 Act provides that the sheriff, on the council’s application accompanied by a certificate, shall grant a summary warrant. There is no hearing and you are not a party, which is why what a summary warrant is matters so much to how liability disputes are handled.

A 10% statutory addition goes on the outstanding sum when the warrant is granted. The warrant then authorises four named diligences.

Where a liability dispute actually goes

Liability is a question for the council in the first instance, with an onward appeal to the Local Taxation Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland, which took over from the Valuation Appeal Committee on 1 April 2023. Liability and water charge appeals run to 4 months.

Write to the council with the dates and the evidence, and ask for the account to be reviewed. Say which rung of the hierarchy you say applies and why.

What to put in the letter

• The address, the account reference and the period the bill covers.
• The exact dates you were and were not resident, with evidence.
• The names of anybody else who was liable for the same days.
• Any discount, disregard or exemption that should have been applied.

What you can and cannot ask for

Deal with the arrears in parallel

A liability argument does not pause recovery, so sort the account as well as the principle. Our council tax debt advice page sets out how we help, and how to set up a council tax payment arrangement covers the practical route.