Council Tax When Someone Moves to a Care Home: Class E Exemption

What Happens to the Council Tax Bill

When a person permanently moves into a residential care home or NHS hospital, the property they leave behind may qualify for a Class E exemption under The Council Tax (Exempt Dwellings) Order 1992. Class E makes the council tax bill zero for as long as the property remains unoccupied and is still owned or leased by the person in care.

This applies regardless of the person's condition. But families dealing with dementia and other severe cognitive impairments often encounter Class E at the same time as the SMI disregard — and there are important interactions between the two.

Class E Requirements

A property qualifies for Class E when:

1. The owner or tenant has permanently moved to a care home or hospital as their sole or main residence
2. The property is unoccupied — no one else lives there
3. The person in care still owns or holds the lease on the property

All three must be true. If someone else moves in, even a family member looking after the house, Class E ends. If the property is sold, Class E ends.

Class E applies from the date the person permanently moves to the care home. There is no time limit — it continues indefinitely as long as the conditions hold. It is not capped at six months or two years (though some councils conflate it with other empty-property exemption classes that do have time limits).

Interaction with the SMI Disregard

Before the care home move, the person may have been receiving the SMI council tax disregard or Class U exemption at the property. When they permanently enter care, the property is no longer their sole or main residence. The SMI disregard at that address ends.

But two things happen next:

The period before the move. Any SMI relief the person was entitled to before moving to care remains claimable. If the family never applied for the SMI discount while the person lived at home, they can still file a backdated claim covering the period from when the conditions were first met up to the date of the permanent care home admission.

The period after the move. Class E takes over. If the property is unoccupied, the bill goes to zero under Class E rather than under Class U. The mechanism changes but the financial outcome is the same — no council tax.

What If the House Is Not Empty

Class E only applies to unoccupied properties. If a spouse, partner, or other family member remains living in the home after the person with dementia moves to care, Class E does not apply — the property is still occupied.

In that case, the household composition changes. The person who moved to care is no longer a resident for council tax purposes. The remaining occupants are counted normally. If only one adult remains, they qualify for the 25% single-person discount in their own right — not as an SMI-related discount, but as a single occupant.

After Death: Class E Ends, Class F Begins

When the person in care dies, Class E exemption ends. Class F exemption then applies — it covers properties left unoccupied after the owner's death. Class F lasts until six months after probate or letters of administration is granted, provided the property remains unoccupied and unsold.

After Class F expires, if the property is still empty, it becomes subject to the standard council tax charge — and potentially to the long-term empty property premium that some councils now levy on homes unoccupied for more than a year.

Executors should be aware of these transitions. There is no gap between Class E and Class F — one ends on the date of death and the other begins immediately — but Class F has a finite duration.

Backdating the SMI Claim Alongside Class E

Families often discover the SMI disregard only after a parent has moved to a care home or died. They may find years of overpaid council tax from the period when the person lived at home and qualified for SMI relief but never claimed.

This is still recoverable. A backdated SMI claim can be lodged for the historical period, even after the person has moved to care or after their death. The refund covers the period from when the statutory conditions were first met (latest of residency, medical onset, and benefit entitlement) up to the date the person permanently left the property.

If the person has died, the executor or administrator can file the claim. The refund goes to the estate.

There is no statutory time limit on backdating SMI claims. The claim covers a different period than the Class E exemption — SMI covers the period while the person lived at home; Class E covers the period after they left.

For the full process on filing backdated SMI claims — including for the period before a care home move — our SMI Council Tax Exemption Guide covers evidence reconstruction, date alignment, and dealing with councils that resist historical claims.

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