Council tax when you move house

Four moves in 2026/27, split by the day

Every figure below is the yearly charge for two adults divided by 365 and multiplied by the days spent at each address. The moving date itself is counted at the new home.

The total for the year can rise or fall sharply depending on where you go. A move from Wandsworth, one of the lowest charging councils in England, to a home of the same band elsewhere usually raises the daily cost, while a move from Glasgow to Edinburgh changes little. Moving between nations also changes the band system: Wales uses nine bands set on 2003 values, England and Scotland eight bands on 1991 values, so the same house would not necessarily carry the same letter.

Liability is a daily question

Section 2 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 says that liability to council tax is determined on a daily basis, and that whatever the situation is at the end of a day is taken to have applied all day. Who is liable, which band applies and which discount is due are all read that way. In practice that gives three simple results:

• the day you move in is charged at the new home;
• the day you move out is not charged at the old home, because at midnight you no longer live there;
• a discount that starts or stops on a given day, for example when a partner moves out, changes the bill from that day.

The council therefore never charges you twice for the same day as a resident. The only way to pay twice is to be liable for a second property as its owner, which is covered further down.

Who the council bills at each address

Section 6 of the 1992 Act sets an order of priority. The first person on the list who fits is liable: a resident who owns the freehold, then a resident leaseholder, then a resident tenant, then a resident with a licence to occupy, then any other resident, and only when nobody lives there, the owner. Couples who live together are jointly responsible, as GOV.UK explains, so either of them can be asked for the whole bill. For houses in multiple occupation and a few other kinds of property the owner is billed instead of the people living there.

For a tenant this order matters at the end of a lease. If you move out before your tenancy ends, the days in between are not charged to you as a resident; but a tenant with a lease of six months or more can still count as the owner of an empty home, and some councils bill the tenant for those days on that basis. Checking the end date of the tenancy against the moving date avoids a surprise final bill.

Telling both councils, and what each one does

Most councils have an online form for moving in, moving out and moving within the area. Give each of them the same date, the new address, the name of the landlord or buyer if you know it, and a forwarding address for the final bill.

The old council closes the account on the day before you move, recalculates the year by the day and sends a final bill. If you paid on the standard plan, you may have paid ahead: a household leaving in late February will have cleared the full year by the January instalment, so the council owes it the surplus. If you paid less than the days due, the balance is payable in the instalments left, or at once if few months remain.

The new council opens an account and sends a demand notice. The number of instalments depends on when the notice is issued, under Schedule 1 of the 1992 instalment rules: a notice issued from May onward gets fewer payments than the usual 10, and one issued between January and March is payable in a single sum. The page on monthly payments works through those rules, including the right to ask for 12 instalments in England and Wales.

Paying for two homes during the move

Buyers who complete on a new home before selling the old one, or tenants whose leases overlap, are often liable for two properties for a while. You live in one, so that one is billed with the normal rules. The other is nobody's main home, so it is billed to you as its owner or leaseholder, and the amount depends on its state and on the council:

• an empty home that is unfurnished is normally charged in full, unless the council grants a local discount; after a year empty a premium can apply, as the page on empty properties explains;
• a home left furnished but not lived in counts as a second home, and in England councils may charge a premium on it from 1 April 2025;
• a few situations are exempt under the Exempt Dwellings Order 1992, such as a home empty because its sole resident has moved into a care home or hospital, or a property repossessed by a lender.

Suppose you complete on a Band C house in Plymouth on 1 May 2026 but carry on living in your old flat until 31 July, the day you move in. Plymouth bills the 91 days from 1 May to 30 July to you as the owner of an empty, unfurnished house, at up to the full rate: for that band, £541.15. The bill for the flat you are living in carries on as normal over the same weeks. The GOV.UK page on second homes and empty properties lists what councils can and cannot charge.

Moving to or from a Scottish home

In Scotland the council tax bill also carries Scottish Water's water and waste water charges, and those are split by the day exactly like the tax. A move into a Band C home in Aberdeen on 1 October therefore brings a bill for 182 days of £2,133.21, a total that already includes both water charges. Bands in Scotland are set by the local assessor rather than the Valuation Office Agency, and a new owner or tenant has six months from becoming liable to propose a change of band to the assessor.

Proving the date you moved

Councils can only split the year correctly if they know the date. When nobody tells them, the account at the old address simply continues, and the bill may be sent to you for months after you left. Evidence that councils commonly accept includes a completion statement from a solicitor or conveyancer, the start and end dates of a tenancy agreement, a letter from a landlord confirming when keys were returned, or the date of a final meter reading. If the council later accepts an earlier date, the account is corrected back to that day and any overpayment is credited.

Leaving the country, moving into care, or moving in with family

If you move abroad, the old council issues a final bill up to the day before you left and the property is then billed to whoever is liable next, which may be you as its owner if it stays empty. If you move permanently into a care home or a hospital, your former home can be exempt while it is empty, under class E of the Exempt Dwellings Order. Moving in with relatives changes their bill rather than creating a new one: if you become a second adult who counts, a single person discount there ends on the day you arrive.

A short checklist for moving day

• tell the old council the date and give a forwarding address for the final bill;
• register at the new address with the same date, and give the band shown on the official search;
• claim any discount or exemption again at the new account;
• cancel the Direct Debit to the old council only after its final bill is settled;
• keep the completion statement or tenancy dates in case the council asks for proof.

A new band at the new home

The band is a property of the home, not of the household. Before you commit to a rental or a purchase, look the address up on the Valuation Office Agency search in England and Wales, or with the local assessor in Scotland, and put that band into the calculator. If the band looks wrong for the street, a new resident has a window to challenge it: the page on checking your band explains how comparable homes are used.

Moving into or out of a shared house

When an adult joins or leaves a shared home, the account does not close: the council just changes the discount from the date of the move. If two adults lived there and one leaves, the one who stays can claim 25 % off from the next day. If you move into a home where only students live and you are not a student, the exemption ends that day and the household receives a bill for the rest of the year, which you may be asked to pay in full or with the 25 % discount if you are the only adult who counts.