Can I Register To Vote At My Parents' Address?

It is common for people to have two separate addresses; usually due to the nature of their job. Through this blog post, we will explore whether or not it is possible for someone to use their parents’ address to register for voting. Additionally, we will also look at different situations related to children staying over at their parents’ home and the impact of their stay on the taxes and benefits of their parents.

Can I Register To Vote At My Parents’ Address?

Yes, you can register to vote at your parents’ address. However, you should be able to prove that you are a permanent resident at their house, even if it is on certain days of the week or certain weeks during a year. If you only visit them for short periods of time during the year and do not treat their home as a place of residence you will not be able to register to vote by using their address.

It is common for people to have two residential addresses especially when they work or study far from their own home. Unlike council tax payments, you do not need to have one main residence and a second home in the case of casting a vote. In fact, if you live in two separate places (usually divided between weekdays and weekends), you can cast a vote from both places as long as they don’t fall within the same constituency. This rule does not apply in the case of UK Parliamentary Elections. If someone casts a vote in such a case, they will face a fine of an indefinite amount.

If you are moving house, you should re-register to vote using your new address. However, if you are moving close to or in the midst of national elections, you can use your previous address or your parents’ address to cast your vote.

To be able to register to vote in the UK, you must be:

above 18 years of age
a citizen of the UK or Ireland
a qualifying Commonwealth citizen who is living in the UK

Getting registered to quick and convenient. You can register to vote online by providing information regarding the following:

your address
your date of birth
your national insurance number

Do I Have To Pay Council Tax If I Live With Parents?

Should you choose to live with your parents at certain of the year, you may have to contirbute to certain husehold expenses. It may be the case that you will have to pay council tax if you live with your parents; this depends on a varied set of circumstances, which include the following:

your age (whether or not you are above 18 years of age)
if you are a full-time student
whether you are employed or receiving state benefits
whether you are living with parents to take care of them
if you are living with your parents because you need care

Council tax is not applicable to all the residents of a household but is, in fact, mandatory upon those adult members of a family who are either registered to pay council tax for their home or considered as liable, depending upon their position in the hierarchy of liability.

However, a full council tax is applied with the understanding that the premises are occupied by two adults. In case, they are partners or spouses, both of them are jointly liable to pay. If they have children younger than 18 years of age, the children are not liable for payments. If they have children above the age of 18 but they are full-time students, council tax will not be levied upon them either.

If you have not been living with your parents earlier and have recently moved in with them, your addition to the household may have an impact on the council tax reductions that they were in receipt of earlier. Any changes to a household must be reported to the local council office so that they may advise accordingly.

How Long Can I Stay At My Parents’ House Without Affecting Benefits?

You can stay at your parents’ house without affecting their benefits claim as long as your place of residence is not their main residence. This means that you may choose to stay with them for a few days or sleepover in the night or stay over or if they are taking care of you for any reason (or vice versa); however, there must be evidence to prove that you have a permanent residence of their own where they are responsible for paying rent, council tax and monthly utility bills.

If someone regularly stays at another place for a few nights each week, doesn’t have a permanent residence of their own or their bills are addressed to someone else’s address home, they will be considered as living with them and due to this change in your circumstances, your parents’ benefits will be affected.

However, it is generally when someone above the age of 18 years who are classified as a non-dependant adult, is staying with someone that their Housing Benefit or Council Tax may be reduced. The reason is that the authorities expect them to contribute towards household expenses, even if they are not expected to contribute by their parents.

What Happens To My Parents’ House If They Go Into Care?

If your parents move into a care home facility and their house becomes unoccupied, there are many options on how the premises may be used; but this depends on the results of your parents’ financial assessment carried out by local councils.

Should your parents have sufficient funds in the form of savings and investments available to bear the expense of their care home fees (whether partially or wholly) their house remains untouched with regards to care home costs. However, if their savings and investments are not enough to pay for care home costs, their house would be considered for sale for payment of care home fees by local councils.

This too has certain conditions:

The house must not be occupied by a relative over 60 years of age, a disabled relative or a legal dependant below 16 years of age
Both parents qualify for permanent care home residency

Additionally, in case of any of the following situations, your parent’s house will not be accounted for in the means test for care home fee estimates by local councils:

One of the partners/spouses continue to live in the house
A former spouse, who is also a single parent continues to live in the house

Even if your parent’s house does come under consideration during the means test, the local authorities extend a grace period of 12 weeks in such cases so that the claimant(s) and their family members are able to make a decision about their finances and property. This means that irrespective of your decision regarding your parent’s house, they will be moved into care home residency and expenses for the first 12 weeks will be borne by the state completely.

During this time, you and your parents can discuss the options at hand on how to deal with their property.

Can I Take Over My Mum’s Council House?

Yes, you can take over your mum’s council house if you are able to fulfil the following conditions:

The council house is your main home
You have lived there for at least 12 months
It is a secure tenancy
There is no partner to inherit the council housing tenancy

If the tenancy agreement of the premises in question started before April 1, 2012, you will gain succession rights to the council house of a family member if you’ve lived at least a year with them. However, if the tenancy agreement started on or after April 1, 2012, you have succession rights only if you meet all the conditions that are pre-set in the tenancy agreement.

In order to show evidence that you’ve lived in your parent’s home for at least 12 months prior to their death, you may need to provide bank statements, bills or letters addressed to you, marking the council property as your postal address. However, if there is a surviving spouse or unmarried partner, their right of succession will supersede yours.

If you and your mum were joint tenants to the council housing property, you will become the sole tenant after her passing away. However, if there has already been a previous succession of the property in question, a second succession may not be possible; until there is an exception made by council authorities.

Conclusion:

From the above discussion on parental homes, we can conclude that one may use their address to register to vote as long as it is being used as a place of residence at certain times of the year. Additionally, one must keep in view that this may impact the council tax support and benefits that the parents were claiming earlier as the addition of a household member of working age is likely to reduce both. After weighing all the pros and cons of individual situations, an appropriate decision can be made and if you decide to register to vote from your own address, you will find it to be a convenient process that can also be done online.

FAQs: Can I Register To Vote At My Parents’ Address?

Can I live at 2 addresses in the UK?

Yes, you can live at two addresses in the UK. However, only one of them will be counted as your main residence for council tax while both will be considered for electoral purposes.

Are you allowed to tell people who you are voting for?

Yes, you are allowed to tell people who you are voting for. However, you are not obliged to either. It is a personal choice of voters to disclose such information.

What is the open register?

The open register is an extract of the electoral register which can be nought by companies to reconfirm the identities of people when they do business with them.

How do I opt out of the open register?

If you are already registered to vote, you can choose to opt-in or out of the open register by completing an online form. If you are about to register to vote, you can check your preferred option when you apply to register to vote online.

What information does the electoral register hold?

The electoral register holds information regarding the names and addresses of registered voters. The purpose of this register is to assure that only registered voters participate in the electoral process.