CG65579 | Private residence relief: dependent relative: mother or spouse's mother

If the claim is made in respect of a dwelling-house occupied by the claimant’s mother, or their spouse’s mother, there is no requirement that the mother should be old or infirm.

If the dwelling-house is to attract relief the mother must be:

· a widow, or

· living apart from her husband, or

· a single woman in consequence of dissolution or annulment of marriage.

The stepmother of an individual, or of that individual’s wife or husband, will not qualify under this paragraph but may qualify under CG65574 if the more stringent conditions explained at CG65575 and CG65577 are fulfilled.

If the individual’s mother or mother-in-law has never been married, she cannot fall within any of the three categories above. But you should allow relief if, had she been married, one of the categories would apply to her. For example, if an individual’s parents never married but she provided a dwelling-house for her mother after her father died her mother should be regarded as a widow.

Note that this rule continues to refer to only “husband and wife” situations as it concerns conditions that must be met at 5 April 1988, which pre-dates the introduction of civil partnerships and same-sex marriage.