A property is exempt if a person responsible for paying council tax has a diplomatic privilege or immunity.
Before you start
You can apply if:
- the home is the main residence in the United Kingdom of at least one person who has a diplomatic privilege or immunity
- the diplomatic privilege is given by the Diplomatic Privileges Act 1964, the Commonwealth Secretariat Act 1966, the Consular Relations Act 1968 or the Commonwealth Countries and Republic of Ireland (Immunities and Privileges) Order 1985. Persons within a class mentioned in relation to a specific organisation in the International Organisations Act 1968 also qualify as a person who is head of an office established in the Hong Kong Trade Act 1946
- the person must not be a British subject, a British citizen, a British Dependent Territories Citizen, a British National (Overseas, a British Overseas Citizen, a British protected person or a permanent resident in the United Kingdom
You cannot get this exemption if someone else lives in the home and owns it or has more legal rights to it. For example,if a homeowner rents a room to a diplomat, the home still must pay council tax.
You will need
You will need to send proof of:
- your Form 3 (formerly known as form TX19, TX31 AND TX35). This should be stamped both by your mission and by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Uploading supporting documents
We may ask you to upload some documents. You can send:
- Word files (.docx)
- PDF files (.pdf)
- Excel files (.xlsx)
- Text files (.txt)
- Pictures from phones or tablets:
- JPEG (.jpg)
- GIF (.gif)
- PNG (.png)
As long as the file is smaller than 50MB. You cannot upload zip files.
What happens next
We will:
- check your claim and look at your documents
- try to give you an answer within 10 working days
- either send you a new bill or let you know why we cannot.
You can check My Account for updates. While you wait, please keep paying the council tax shown on your last bill.
This form should take about 4 minutes to complete.