Section 223(3) TCGA 1992 treats some periods away from your home as if you lived there: up to three years for any reason, any length of time working in a job whose duties are all performed outside the UK, and up to four years where your UK place of work stops you living at home. You must normally have lived in the house as your main residence both before and after the absence, although the after condition is relaxed where work prevents you returning. Separately, the last nine months of ownership always qualify.

Which absences are treated as occupation?

Section 223(3) lists four heads. HMRC’s Capital Gains Manual explains them at CG65030 and CG65040.

Head What qualifies Limit
s223(3)(a) Absence for any reason 3 years in total
s223(3)(b) Working in an employment or office all of whose duties are performed outside the UK, or living with a spouse or civil partner who does No limit
s223(3)(c) Prevented from living at home by the situation of your place of work, or by a condition reasonably imposed by your employer requiring you to live elsewhere 4 years in total
s223(3)(d) Living with a spouse or civil partner to whom head (c) applies 4 years in total

CG65030 explains the purpose: to avoid keeping detailed records of short absences, and to protect people who are obliged to be away. Section 223(7B) defines a period of absence simply as a period when the house was not occupied by you as a residence. How the house is used meanwhile does not affect these rules; CG65050 states that it may be let during a qualifying absence without loss of relief.

What are the before and after conditions?

Section 223(3A) and (3B) set two conditions, described at CG65046:

  • Condition A: before the absence there was a time when the house was your only or main residence.
  • Condition B: after the absence there was again such a time, or, for heads (b), (c) and (d) only, you, or a spouse or civil partner you lived with, were prevented from resuming residence because of the situation of your place of work or a reasonable employment condition.

The periods of residence do not have to be immediately before or after the absence, and there is no minimum length. CG65050 says it is the quality of occupation that counts: the house must be your home, not occupied for a temporary purpose. It also makes a point that catches many sellers. The final nine months exemption does not count as a period of residence after the absence. If you leave, never move back and then sell, a three year absence for any reason gets no relief.

How does the rule for working abroad work?

Head (b) has no time limit, but every duty of the employment must be performed outside the UK. CG65040 says you can ignore trips back to the UK for holidays, but not duties actually performed in the UK, even if they are only incidental to the main overseas duties. A few days of UK meetings can therefore take a posting outside head (b), leaving you to rely on heads (a) and (c). The rule extends to someone who lived abroad with a spouse or civil partner in such a job, and those provisions apply to disposals on or after 6 April 2009, replacing the earlier concession ESC D3.

How does the four year rule for work in the UK work?

Head (c) applies where the location of your work, or a condition your employer reasonably imposes, prevents you living in the house. CG65040 confirms that this head also covers the self employed. Head (d) extends the same four years to a spouse or civil partner living with the worker.

CG65067 gives HMRC’s example. A man bought a house in Eastbourne in June 2010 and lived there until July 2011, when his employer required him to work in Edinburgh. In October 2014 he was transferred to Inverness and he sold the Eastbourne house in May 2020 without returning. Because his job prevented his return, Condition B is met for head (c) and four years from July 2011 qualify. Head (a) is not available, because he never moved back, so the period from August 2015 to July 2019 gets no relief. The final period exemption covers the end of ownership.

How do the different heads combine?

The heads are cumulative, and CG65030 says relief should be given in the order most favourable to you. If one head’s limit is exceeded, relief is given up to the maximum (CG65066). In HMRC’s example at CG65065, a Bournemouth homeowner was sent by his employer to Glasgow from October 2010 to October 2015, then to Cologne until March 2017, then toured Europe until November 2017 before moving back home. HMRC allocates four years of the Glasgow period to head (c), the fifth year to head (a), the Cologne posting to head (b) and the seven months of travel to the balance of head (a). The whole absence of seven years and two months qualifies. Treating the Glasgow years under head (a) first would have used up the three year allowance and left the travel unrelieved.

The limits are totals across the whole period of ownership, not per absence. Two separate two year absences for personal reasons give three years of relief and one year chargeable.

How does the final nine months work?

If the house has been your only or main residence at any time, the last nine months of ownership qualify in any event, whatever the property is used for (section 223(1) and (2); CG64985). The period was 36 months before 6 April 2014 and 18 months from then until 5 April 2020. It remains 36 months under section 225E where, at the date of sale, you or your spouse or civil partner are disabled or a long term care home resident and you have no other relevant interest in a residence. CG64986 defines long term as resident, or reasonably expected to be resident, for at least three months.

GOV.UK confirms the final period applies even if you have nominated a different home, which is why it is central to the tactics in choosing which home is your main residence.

What about the gap before you move in?

Section 223ZA, for disposals from 6 April 2020, treats up to 24 months before you move in as residence if, within the first 24 months of ownership, you moved in, nobody else lived there in the meantime, and either construction, renovation, redecoration or alteration was completed or you sold your previous main residence (CG65000). It replaced the concession ESC D49.

What else trips people up?

  • Owning or renting another residence while away. HS283 says you need a nomination in favour of the original house if you want the absence to count as its main residence period.
  • Living in job related accommodation is a separate rule under section 222(8), where a house you intend to occupy is treated as your residence.
  • Pre 6 April 2009 concessions ESC D3 and D4 were put into statute from that date, so older guidance may still refer to them.

The general working of the relief is in private residence relief explained. Letting the house while away is covered in letting your former home, and any tax due on a UK home must be reported within 60 days of completion through the 60 day property return.

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Reviewed by Christine Anderson, Broker, Solar Protect. Last reviewed 8 October 2026. Part of Accountapedia, the Solar Protect guide to UK tax and accounting. This page is general information, not personalised advice.