What Happens To Council Tax Arrears When You Move Council Areas?

What you end up with is two live relationships. One council billing you going forward, and another recovering what is owed for the period you were there.

The bigger risk is quieter than enforcement. If the old account is never properly closed the council carries on billing an address you left, which is why whether moving house clears your council tax arrears is worth reading alongside this.

Which council chases the arrears after you move?

The council that issued the bill. Council tax is a debt owed by a person in respect of a particular dwelling and a particular day, so it does not move house with you.

Why the debt is personal rather than attached to the property

Section 75(1) of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 makes the liable person the first in the hierarchy to apply in relation to a dwelling and a day. Section 99(1) defines a resident as an adult with their sole or main residence there.

Nothing in the Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) (Scotland) Regulations 1992 transfers a debt to another council, and nothing extinguishes it on a move. Regulation 19(1) keeps each demand notice tied to one dwelling and one financial year.

What your new council can and cannot do

Your new council has no interest in the old balance. It cannot collect it, will not add it to your new bill, and has no power to write it off.

The two accounts belong to different local authorities, and any arrangement on the old one has to be agreed with the council you left. How to reach the right council team about council tax arrears covers who to ask for.

Two councils, two jobs

When exactly does liability end at the old address and start at the new one?

Day by day. Liability at the old address ends on the last day you fell within the section 75(2) hierarchy there, and liability at the new one begins on the first day you fall within it there.

There is no notice period and no formula

The unit is the day. There is no minimum period and no apportionment calculation.

The bill is then adjusted, instalments cease, and the council serves a notice stating the liability up to the date it ended. What makes you liable to pay council tax in Scotland sets out the hierarchy the test runs through.

Send the evidence with the date

• The account number and the property address.
• The exact date your liability ended, with the tenancy end date or completion date.
• A forwarding address and an email address they can actually reach you on.
• Who is taking over the property, if you know.
• A request for a closing statement and written confirmation the account is closed.

What happens to any credit sitting on the old account?

Ask for it back rather than leaving it. A council can only carry a credit across to a new dwelling where it is the same council and there is no gap in your liability.

The two conditions, and why a boundary breaks them

Regulation 23(4) allows the transfer only where you become liable, to the same levying authority, for a different dwelling in respect of the same day on which the old liability ended. Cross a council boundary and neither condition is met.

So the credit is repayable to you under regulation 23(3)(a) instead. The same is true where you stay with one council but leave a day’s gap between the two addresses.

Claim your discounts again at the new address

Entitlement does not follow you. A single person discount of 25 per cent has to be claimed at the new property, and so does Council Tax Reduction, as how to apply for Council Tax Reduction explains.

There is a linking rule that helps movers. A claim made within one month of first becoming liable can be treated as made from that earlier date under regulation 26(1) of the 2021 Regulations, with no good cause test, and whether Council Tax Reduction can be backdated explains why that is a different thing from backdating.

Can the old council still take money from your wages where you now live?

Yes, anywhere in Scotland. A summary warrant already granted is not tied to your address, the dwelling or the sheriffdom it came from, and an earnings arrestment attaches your employer rather than your postcode.

What the warrant authorises

Paragraph 2 of Schedule 8 to the Local Government Finance Act 1992 authorises recovery by attachment, money attachment, earnings arrestment, and arrestment and action of furthcoming or sale. Nothing in it expires when you move.

Where the arrestment lands is decided by who pays you. What a summary warrant means and what to do about it covers the stage that comes before it.

The officer, unlike the warrant, is not automatically Scotland-wide

Rule 14 of the Act of Sederunt (Messengers-at-Arms and Sheriff Officers Rules) 1991 lets an officer collect a summary warrant debt or execute diligence only in a place where they hold a commission. Rule 14(3) limits practice to the sheriffdom of that commission.

In practice the large firms hold commissions across all six sheriffdoms, so this is invisible to most people. It does explain why a different firm’s name can appear on the paperwork after a move, and which sheriff officers Scottish councils use sets out who acts for whom.

The charge for payment question, which is not settled

On an ordinary court decree the position is settled. Section 90(1) of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 makes a charge for payment, served and expired unpaid, a precondition of an earnings arrestment, and section 90(3) sets the period at 14 days in the United Kingdom.

On a summary warrant it is not settled. Schedule 8 to the Local Government Finance Act 1992 authorises an earnings arrestment directly and says nothing about a charge, while section 90(1) carries no summary warrant exception on its face.

No web page should tell you the answer either way. Ask a money adviser or the sheriff clerk what applies on your own account before relying on it.

Do you have to tell the old council you have moved?

There is no free-standing duty in Scotland to volunteer it. There are three reactive duties, each carrying 21 days and a penalty, and there is a very practical reason to write anyway.

The three duties and what they cost

Those are the Scottish figures. The £70 and £280 penalties published on many pages are the England and Wales ones and do not apply here.

Why to write regardless

Until you tell them, the council keeps billing a house you no longer live in, and every month of that becomes arrears in your name. Reminder notices and final notices go to the address the council holds.

Post redirection helps for a while and then stops. By the time the balance surfaces the council may already have applied for a summary warrant, and how quickly a council can take action over council tax arrears shows how short that runway is.

If you were never liable for the period

Then the argument is about liability rather than affordability. Send dated evidence of when you left, ask for the account to be amended, and note that liability appeals go to the Local Taxation Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland, which took over that work on 1 April 2023.

How long can the old council chase the arrears for?

Council tax sits on the twenty-year long negative prescription in section 7 of the Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act 1973, because Schedule 1 paragraph 2(fd) excludes it from the five-year rule that clears most consumer debt.

When the twenty years start, and what enforcement does to them

The twenty years run from the date the obligation became enforceable, on the wording substituted into section 7(1) on 28 February 2025.

Enforcement does not send the clock back to the start. Since 28 February 2025 a relevant claim, which includes executing diligence, extends the twenty-year period until that claim is finally disposed of.

Before that date it restarted the period, and a great deal of published advice has not caught up. What the 20-year rule for council tax debt in Scotland means sets out the current position.

Acknowledgement and the burden of proof

A payment or a written acknowledgement does not affect the twenty-year period at all. Section 10(1) of the 1973 Act now applies only for the purposes of sections 6 and 8A, and section 7 is not among them, so acknowledgement has no part in the twenty-year rule.

Section 13A, inserted on the same date, puts the burden on the creditor. Where a question arises about whether an obligation has been extinguished, it is presumed to have been extinguished unless the creditor proves otherwise.

What that means in practice

None of it makes an old balance safe to ignore, because twenty years is a long period and a live claim holds it open. How far back a council can chase council tax arrears covers the practical side.

Ask for a breakdown by financial year rather than counting years yourself. Moving is not a waiting game.

What can you do if you cannot afford the old arrears and the new bill?

Protect the live account first, then deal with the arrears as a separate piece of work. The current year is the one that can still lose the right to pay by instalments and pick up a fresh summary warrant.

A simple order of work

• Set up a direct debit for the new bill so the current year cannot default.
• Ask the old council for a full statement of the arrears by year, including the surcharge and any fees.
• Offer a written arrangement on the arrears, based on income and expenditure.
• Name the year each payment is for, every time you pay.

That last point matters more than it sounds, because there is no statutory rule setting the order. What order council tax payments are allocated to explains why the instruction has to go in writing at the time.

The formal routes

Ongoing current-year council tax cannot go into the Debt Arrangement Scheme and has to keep being paid alongside it. Our council tax debt advice page and mygov.scot’s council tax guidance set out where to start.

Moving out of Scotland is a different question

How liability works elsewhere in the United Kingdom is outside the scope of this page. What a Scottish council can do to recover in another part of the United Kingdom is a separate question it does not answer either.

The debt remains owed and the council can pursue it. Take advice on your own facts, and a free money adviser is the right person to ask.