Any person who has their Sole Or Main Residence within a care home, nursing home or similar establishment should be disregarded for Council Tax purposes.
The home must be registered with the County Council and would normally include any of the following:
Hostel including bail hostels, probation hostels that are used for the provision of personal care required due to old age, disablement, past or present alcohol or drug dependence or mental disorder
Mental nursing home
Nursing homes (registered under the Registered Homes Act 1984)
Residential care home
In all of the above cases the actual residents of the home would be disregarded when assessing the overall level of Council Tax to be charged.
The main area of concern however is the following:
Whether there has been a change in the Sole Or Main Residence of the person – this can be particularly difficult to determine if the person also has an address elsewhere. It is most likely that some time will elapse prior to being able to make the decision and it will require written confirmation from either the home or from relatives.
If it is deemed that the person's main residence has changed, then an exemption may apply to the former residence Class E subject to the previous premises remaining unoccupied.
It should also be noted that where there is a period between the actual occupation of the home and the decision to establish the home as the person's residence, consideration should be given as to whether the disregard should be backdated to the actual date of occupation.
Careful consideration needs to be given as to whether the home is also the main residence of employee or owners of the home. If this is the case then the discount can only be awarded if the numbers of persons resident is less than two.
Once granted it is unlikely that the circumstance of the individual will change and therefore reviews can be set accordingly
The High Court agreed with a Valuation Tribunal that a dwelling was not a residential care home and that the residents could not be disregarded for the purposes of Council Tax discount. On this basis, a 50% no resident discount was not applicable for the dwelling in question. Justice Moses dismissed Mr Bogdal’s appeal.
Schedule 1 of the LGFA 1992 provides a list of persons that can be disregarded for Council Tax purposes. Paragraph 7 provides for “patients in homes in England and Wales” to be disregarded.
“Care home” means
(a) a care home within the meaning of the Care Standards Act 2000 or
(b) a building or part of a building in which residential accommodation is provided under section 21 of the National Assistance Act 1948:
“Independent hospital” has the same meaning as in the Care Standards Act 2000.
The legislation referred to in (a) provided that registration was not required in respect of a small home if only persons receiving board and personal care there were persons “carrying on the home”, employed there or their relatives. A small home was defined as an establishment having fewer than four persons receiving board and personal care.
Mr Bogdal contended that the dwelling was a small home that did not have to be registered and that the occupants (himself, his mother and another elderly lady) should be disregarded for discount purposes, thereby qualifying for a 50% no resident discount. Justice Moses agreed with the Tribunal’s findings that the dwelling was not a small home but an ordinary domestic dwelling. Evidence was placed before the Tribunal that neither Mr Bogdal’s mother nor the other elderly lady were receiving personal care. Justice Moses also concluded that there was no evidence to support the notion that the dwelling was an “establishment”.
The appellant subsequently appealed to the Court of Appeal which held that it was not an establishment as there was no element of organisation in the way it was run.
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