Second automatic UK test: the "only home in the UK" rule

Most people know that spending 183 or more days in the UK triggers UK residency. That is the first automatic UK test. But there is a second automatic UK test that operates on entirely different logic: not how many days you spent in the UK, but whether your only home is here.

Under the second automatic UK test (RFIG20330), you can be UK resident for a full tax year having spent as few as 30 days in the UK, if your UK home was available throughout the year and you had no genuine overseas home to offset it.

This catches a specific group: people who have left the UK but have not yet let their flat, or who are staying in temporary overseas accommodation that does not qualify as a real home. During that window, the UK flat can make them resident regardless of how little time they spent there.

If you want to check whether this test applies to your situation, the SRT questionnaire works through all six automatic tests in the correct order and gives you a determination in about 10 minutes.

Key points

The second automatic UK test is about home status, not day count, there is no 183-day threshold
Four conditions must all be met: a UK home available 91 consecutive days; 30 of those days in the tax year; physical presence in that home on 30+ separate days; and no genuine overseas home (or an overseas home used fewer than 30 days)
Physical presence, not the midnight rule: the 30-day presence count at your UK home uses any part of a day, an afternoon visit counts the same as an overnight stay
Letting your UK flat removes it from the "home" category during the letting period; this is the most direct way to avoid AUT2
Corporate or serviced accommodation abroad is not a "home": if your overseas base is a company flat or serviced apartment, it may not qualify as a genuine overseas home, leaving the UK flat as your only home

What the second automatic UK test requires

The second automatic UK test is set out at paragraphs 15-17 of Schedule 45 to the Finance Act 2013 and explained at RFIG20330. All four of the following conditions must be met in the same tax year:

You had a home in the UK at some point during the tax year, and that home was available to you for a continuous period of at least 91 days (which may straddle more than one tax year).
Of those 91 or more consecutive days, at least 30 must fall within the tax year being assessed.
You were present in that UK home on at least 30 separate days during the tax year. Presence for any part of a day counts, the midnight rule does not apply (RFIG20360).
During that qualifying period, either you had no overseas home at all, or you had an overseas home but were present in it on fewer than 30 days in the tax year.

Meeting three of four conditions is not enough. All four must be satisfied simultaneously.

HMRC works through the test in five stages (RFIG20350):

Were you present in a UK home on at least 30 days? (No → test fails)
Was that home available for at least 91 consecutive days? (No → test fails)
Did at least 30 of those 91+ days fall in the tax year? (No → test fails)
Did you have no overseas home? (Yes → test passes; No → continue)
Were you present in the overseas home on 30 or more days? (Yes → test fails; No → test passes)

The 91-day availability condition

The 91 days must be consecutive, not cumulative. The period can straddle the 5 April/6 April boundary; what matters is that at least 30 of the consecutive days fall within the tax year being assessed.

A property is "available" during any period when it is legally and practically accessible to you as your home. It is not available when it is let to tenants, when it is undergoing major renovation that renders it uninhabitable, or when you have permanently given up access to it.

A property that is simply empty, you have gone overseas but the flat remains with your belongings, and you retain the right to return, is available. Someone who leaves the UK in August without letting their flat will typically have had the property available from 6 April, giving 91 days of consecutive availability well before Christmas. The threshold is easy to meet for anyone who departs mid-year without letting.

The 30-day presence condition (not the midnight rule)

The 30-day presence test for AUT2 uses a physical presence rule, not the midnight rule (RFIG20360). Any day on which you are present at the UK home, even briefly, counts as one of the 30 days. An afternoon collecting belongings, a one-hour stop before catching a flight, a day visit without staying overnight: all count.

The same physical presence rule applies to the overseas home: if you had an overseas home, days on which you were present there even briefly count toward the 30-day threshold that would save you from AUT2.

The count is property by property. If you have two UK properties and spend 20 days in each, neither reaches the 30-day threshold individually. Aggregating across multiple properties is not permitted.

The overseas home condition

If you had no overseas home at all during the qualifying period, AUT2 passes automatically (assuming the other three conditions are met).

If you did have an overseas home, the test checks how much you used it:

Overseas home usage	AUT2 result
No overseas home	Test passes, UK is the only home
Overseas home used fewer than 30 days	Test passes, overseas home is not genuinely used
Overseas home used 30 or more days	Test fails, overseas home displaces UK as "only" home

What counts as a "home" for SRT purposes

The word "home" does a lot of work in AUT2. Whether your UK flat is still your "home" and whether your overseas accommodation qualifies as a genuine "home" are both governed by the same definition (RFIG22120, RFIG22130).

HMRC's definition (RFIG22120):

A person's home is a place that a reasonable onlooker with knowledge of the material facts would regard as that person's home.

Ownership is not required. A rented flat, a long-term sublet, even a vehicle or vessel used with sufficient permanence can qualify. What matters is the nature of the person's connection to the place, not their legal title.

The permanence and stability test

A place must be used with "a sufficient degree of permanence or stability" to qualify as a home (RFIG22140). Transient accommodation, a hotel, a series of short-term lets with no settled base, does not meet this test. Accommodation can be temporary and still count as a home; what matters is whether the person has a genuine, settled base there.

HMRC looks at factors including:

Whether the individual keeps personal belongings there
Whether family members live there
Whether the individual returns there as a base after travel
Whether the individual has an ongoing right to occupy
The degree to which it functions as the person's centre of personal life

Temporary absence does not end home status. If you leave a property temporarily, for a work trip, a holiday, or a move overseas, but retain an ongoing right and expectation to return, the property remains a home during the absence. This applies even if it sits empty.

What is not a home

HMRC sets out at RFIG22150 the situations in which a property does not qualify as a home:

Situation	Status
Property let commercially to third parties (no retained right to live there)	Not a home during the letting period
Property used only as a holiday home or temporary retreat	Not a home
Corporate or serviced accommodation taken for a work stint	Not a home
Property that has never been habitable	Not a home
Abandoned property	Ceases to be a home from the date of abandonment

The letting rule is the most commonly used defence against AUT2. If you let your UK flat to tenants on a standard tenancy agreement, the flat ceases to be your home during the tenancy. It cannot be the "UK home" for AUT2 purposes while let. This is why the standard advice for people leaving the UK is to let the flat as soon as possible after departure.

The corporate accommodation issue cuts the other way. If you move abroad into a company flat, serviced apartment, or month-to-month temporary rental, that accommodation may not qualify as a genuine overseas home. If it does not meet the permanence and stability test, you have no overseas home for AUT2 purposes, and the UK flat, still available and used even 30 times, is your "only" home.

Worked example: Oliver (no genuine overseas home)

Oliver is British and leaves London in September 2025 to start a contract role in Singapore. He does not let his London flat, it sits empty, with his belongings inside, and he retains the keys and the tenancy in his name. His employer puts him in a serviced apartment in Singapore on a month-to-month basis.

He returns to London twice during 2025-26: a 15-day trip at Christmas (staying in his flat throughout) and a long weekend in March (4 days in the flat). Before his departure in September, he had been in the flat through April, May, June, July, and most of August, adding around 60 days of presence in the flat in the first half of the year.

AUT2 check for 2025-26:

Condition 1: UK flat available from 6 April 2025, Oliver has not let it, it has been available the entire year. 91 consecutive days are clearly met. Condition A satisfied.
Condition 2: The 91-day period started 6 April 2025, so more than 30 days of it fall in the tax year 2025-26. Condition B satisfied.
Condition 3: Oliver was present in the flat for approximately 79 days in total (60 + 15 + 4). Condition C satisfied.
Condition 4: Does Oliver have an overseas home? The Singapore serviced apartment is month-to-month, temporary, and provided by his employer. It is accommodation for a work stint, not a genuine home under RFIG22140. Oliver has no overseas home for AUT2 purposes.

Result: AUT2 is met. Oliver is UK resident for 2025-26 despite spending most of the year physically in Singapore. The serviced apartment, however convenient, does not create an overseas home that would save him.

What would have changed the outcome: If Oliver had let his London flat on a standard tenancy from September 2025, the flat would have ceased to be his home from that date. Whether AUT2 applies would then depend on whether the pre-September period of availability met the 91-day threshold, in this case, it would be borderline. Alternatively, if Oliver had signed a long-term lease on a Singapore flat (not a month-to-month corporate arrangement) and spent 30 or more days there, the overseas home exclusion would apply.

Worked example: Nadia (genuine overseas home)

Nadia is British and moved to Madrid in April 2024. She signed a two-year lease on a Spanish flat and has lived there since. She still owns her UK flat, which she has not let.

In 2025-26, Nadia makes two UK trips: a 14-day trip in summer and a 20-day trip over Christmas. She is in her UK flat for all 34 days of those trips. She spent 38 days in her Madrid flat during 2025-26.

AUT2 check for 2025-26:

Condition 1: UK flat available for the full year. 91 consecutive days: satisfied.
Condition 2: At least 30 of those days fall in the tax year: satisfied.
Condition 3: 34 days present in the UK flat: satisfied.
Condition 4: Does Nadia have an overseas home? The Madrid flat is a two-year lease, fully established, with the permanence and stability of a genuine home. Nadia was present there on 38 days in the tax year, 30 or more days.

Result: Condition 4 fails to trigger AUT2. The Madrid flat is a genuine overseas home and Nadia used it for 38 days. The overseas home exclusion applies. AUT2 does not make Nadia UK resident.

Nadia is not caught by AUT1 (183-day rule) either, she spent only 34 UK days. Whether she is UK resident depends on the automatic overseas tests and, if those do not settle the position, the sufficient ties test. The second automatic UK test is not what determines her status.

Key lesson: a genuine, well-established overseas home used 30 or more days is the primary defence against AUT2 for someone who retains a UK property. The two-year lease, not just the physical presence in Madrid, is what makes the Madrid flat a genuine home.

AUT2 vs the accommodation tie, a direct comparison

The second automatic UK test is frequently confused with the accommodation tie in the sufficient ties test. They are different tests at different stages of the SRT with different consequences.

Feature	AUT2 (second automatic UK test)	Accommodation tie (sufficient ties test)
SRT stage	Stage 2, automatic test	Stage 3, ties test
Effect if met	Conclusive: UK resident, analysis stops	One tie of up to five; combines with day count and other ties
91-day availability	Required	Required (same rule)
Presence threshold	30 days in the specific home (physical presence, not midnight rule)	1 night in most cases; 16 nights for close relative's home
Overseas home exclusion	Yes, genuine overseas home used 30+ days breaks AUT2	No equivalent exclusion

The 91-day availability condition is shared, but everything else differs. AUT2 is the stronger test: if it applies, residency is settled without reference to day count, ties, or any other factor. The accommodation tie is one data point in a multi-factor Stage 3 analysis.

If AUT2 does not apply; because you have a genuine overseas home used 30+ days, the accommodation tie may still apply at Stage 3 (the UK property remains available 91+ days), contributing to your overall tie count. Not triggering AUT2 does not mean the UK property is irrelevant to the rest of the SRT.

Interaction with split year treatment

The "home" concept governs both AUT2 and several split year cases, and the same definition applies across all of them (RFIG22130).

Case 3 split year treatment applies when you cease to have any UK home during the tax year and do not acquire a new one for the remainder of the year. The overseas part of the year runs from the date you permanently ceased to have a UK home.

The interaction with AUT2 creates a practical conflict. If you leave the UK in October but do not let your flat, leaving it available and used 30+ times, AUT2 may apply to make you resident for the whole year. Case 3, which depends on you ceasing to have a UK home, is unavailable if the flat never stopped being your home.

The practical resolution: let the flat on a proper tenancy as soon as you depart. From the date the tenancy begins, the flat ceases to be your home, the AUT2 clock stops, and Case 3 potentially becomes available from that date.

For a full account of the split year cases and how each applies, split year treatment covers all eight cases and when they interact with the home definition.

Common questions

What is the second automatic UK test?

The second automatic UK test (RFIG20330) makes you automatically UK resident if four conditions are all met: your UK home was available to you for at least 91 consecutive days; at least 30 of those days fell within the tax year; you were physically present in that home on 30 or more separate days; and either you had no overseas home or you had an overseas home but used it for fewer than 30 days in the year.

Does owning a UK property make me tax resident?

No. Ownership alone is not enough. The property must be your home (meeting the permanence and stability test, not commercially let), must have been available for 91 consecutive days, and you must have been physically present there on 30 or more occasions. An investment property you never stay in, or one let to tenants, does not trigger AUT2.

Can I be UK resident if I spent fewer than 183 days in the UK?

Yes. The second automatic UK test has no overall day threshold. If you spent 30 days in your UK home and had no genuine overseas home, you can meet AUT2 and be UK resident regardless of your total UK day count.

What if I let my UK flat to tenants?

If the flat is let to tenants on a standard tenancy agreement, it ceases to be your home during the letting period. It cannot be the "UK home" for AUT2 purposes while let. Letting the flat is the most direct way to remove the AUT2 risk.

Does staying in a UK hotel count as a "UK home" for AUT2?

No. A hotel is transient accommodation. It does not meet the permanence and stability test (RFIG22140) and will not be treated as your home for AUT2 purposes. The same applies to a series of short-term rentals with no settled base.

Is my overseas corporate apartment a genuine overseas home?

Probably not. Corporate or serviced accommodation taken for a work stint, or month-to-month temporary rentals, typically fail the permanence and stability test. If HMRC views your overseas base as temporary accommodation rather than a genuine settled home, you have no overseas home for AUT2 purposes, even if you physically live there full-time during the year.

What is the difference between the second automatic UK test and the accommodation tie?

Both require a UK home available for 91 consecutive days, but that is where the similarity ends. AUT2 is an automatic test at Stage 2 of the SRT: if it applies, you are conclusively UK resident. The accommodation tie is one of up to five ties at Stage 3: it combines with your day count and other ties to determine residency. AUT2 has a 30-day physical presence threshold and an overseas home exclusion; the accommodation tie does not.

What is the statutory basis for the second automatic UK test?

The test is set out at paragraphs 15-17 of Schedule 45 to the Finance Act 2013. HMRC's explanation of the conditions is at RFIG20330, with supplementary guidance on the time-spent rule at RFIG20340, the five-stage decision process at RFIG20350, the 30-day physical presence rule at RFIG20360, and the definition of "home" at RFIG22120 to RFIG22150.

The second automatic UK test draws its line around home status rather than day count. Keep your UK flat available for 91 consecutive days, visit it 30 times, and have no genuine overseas home, and the test makes you UK resident for the year regardless of where you lived in between.

If you have retained a UK property after leaving, or are planning to leave without immediately letting your flat, the SRT questionnaire will work through whether AUT2 applies to your situation. It covers all six automatic tests in the correct statutory order and produces a clear determination in about 10 minutes.

For context on how AUT2 sits alongside the other five automatic tests, how the six automatic tests work covers the full sequence and the order in which HMRC applies them.

This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute tax advice. For complex situations, professional advice from a qualified tax adviser is recommended.