The legislation referring to joint & several liability can be found within S6 (2) and S9 Local Government Finance Act 1992
All persons who have an equal interest in the premises and are resident shall be jointly and severally liable.
Joint and several provisions also apply where a liable person has a partner living with him/her.
It does not apply to same sex partners until 1st April 2006
The persons will be jointly liable for any part of the chargeable period where the joint and several liability applies and in the case of a man and wife they will be considered to be married if they are married to each other or not married to one another but living together as though they were.
Joint and several liability does not apply where one of the persons who is liable is severely mentally impaired.
Liability will apply however if all the persons jointly liable are severely mentally impaired.
(Note Exemption Class U)
This section removes students from joint and several liability where they are a spouse/civil partner or living with someone as husband and wife, or where they have an equal legal interest in the dwelling, for financial years beginning on or after 1 April 2004.
The Civil Partnership Bill, which was introduced in the House of Lords on 31 March, will provide for a legally binding form of partnership for same sex couples.
This has a number of implications for council tax legislation. As a matter of policy, the Government has decided that civil partners are to be treated in the same way as married people for the purposes for council tax legislation.
This requires amendments to both primary and secondary legislation.
The Civil Partnership Bill amends two sections of the Local Government Finance Act 1992:
section 9(1)(a) - to provide that civil partners will be jointly and severally liable for council tax in the same way as married couples.
section 18(1)(b) - to provide a regulation making power to deal with a case where a civil partner dies who was liable as a civil partner to pay council tax.
A regulation making power already exists in section 18(1)(b) in relation to a person who dies who was liable as a spouse/civil partner under section 9 of the Act to pay council tax.
Secondary legislation which refers to spouse/civil partners, etc will be amended once the Bill is in force to provide that civil partners are treated in the same as married couples for council tax purposes. Subject to parliamentary approval, it is envisaged that these changes will take effect in autumn 2005.
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