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 the mother of his wife or her husband, 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 is a relative and may qualify under CG65574 if the more stringent conditions explained at CG65575-65578 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.