MONEY MORAL DILEMMA: Should Fannie contribute to Mae's council tax?

PDave_2

Crispy_Ambulance wrote: »

The fact is, the student has no liability to pay. The non-student does. However, the non-student also has access to benefits - Housing Benefit, Council Tax Benefit, Tax credits etc and if Mae is on a low enough income, she will be able to claim Council Tax Benefit to help her with the cost.

If only this were the case! The problem is that many councils consider a house with both students and non-students as being 'multi-occupancy', which means that the liability defaults to the Landlord, not on the non-student, and thus the non-student is not eligable for Council Tax benefit.

Needless to say I was the non-student on the above benefits who had to fork out £600 odd because the students were 'obviously' more exempt than me...
</rant at York council>

creme_brulee

claim for second adult rebate for the non-student

Gemma8421

Hmmm.... interesting one.

If the non student moved in with another full time worker then the council tax would have been 100%. If the student moved in with another student then the entire property would not have been charged.

Personally, I think this should have been discussed before signing any contract. As they are friends I am sure in most cases the student would have understood the non students prediciment re: money and helped by contributing. Although students are not required to pay council tax....

I live with a non student (I am a student) and I am not expected to pay anything.... so all good for me!!

bandraoi

If it was two workers living in the house, then Mae would have to pay 50% of the council tax. I see no reason why she should have to pay more because Frannie chooses to study. Frannie should pay 25% of the bill. If she wanted to avoid it, she should have moved into a house with all students.

As for the argument that if she was living along she'd have to pay 75%, and she's no worse off.
The same could be said for the cable tv, the phone line rental etc.
She's not living alone, she's sharing. One of the reasons people share is to split the costs.

Biscuits

I've been in this situation twice.

1)

I finished university a year before my 3 flatmates, so I had to start paying council tax. I just went for the by the book approach, which means I paid the discounted rate of 75%, being the sole non-student resident, and they paid 0.

2)

I now live with a student and a non-student. I pay 50% and the other non-student pays the other 50%.

It's simple enough to me - the students don't pay tax, and non-students do. If people aren't happy with that they should make different living arrangements, or agree on how they're going to do it before-hand (e.g. I have a student friend who agreed to pay council tax because the other flatmates wouldn't have him otherwise).

I think the core issues is that the 75% system is flawed though, as it discourages students and non-students from mixing, and forces people to compromise on payments. It would be better if the amount of council tax due was the ratio of non-students to number of residents. Of course then you'd get tax payers moving in with students in the hope that they can convince the students to chip in so they can get a lower rate. :rotfl:

mrweeble

Just to point out that it is not always that possible to negotiate in advance. When I was a student at the end of the first year me and a three mates signed a one year joint tenancy, then AFTER we had moved in, my exam results came showing I had failed and had to drop out. Therefore I had to get a job (it was before the minimum wage came in, but when it did a few months later I got a payrise to take me over it - just), leaving me in a similar situation, to that described except I would have been liable for 75% of the tax on a four bedroom property.

As it was another housemate also dropped out meaning both of us were liable for 50%. I forget what we actually did, I think the other two students contributed a little towards it, but we paid the bulk. It wasn't as high back then as it is now, so wasn't too bad.

I think we should get rid of this unfair tax anyway, local income tax is the way to go.

Cerisa

No, because the student loan isn't even enough to live on, which is why students don't have to pay council tax.

anne99

Because of just this problem, my son (in his first post-college job) realised that he couldn't afford to share a big flat with his student friends. He would have been landed with 75% of the council tax for a five-bedroom flat.

JParker

Why do most people assume that the student can't afford to pay her share. In my experience the poor students are the ones too lazy to get a job to supplement their loans and parental contributions. Having said that, the situation should have been resolved before the student moved in.

stationaryace

about to have this situation with my OH- bit different as we share all the bills anyway, so we're just seeing it as extra money saved as stated several times, each situation is different so hard to make any blanket statement, but if i was sharing with someone else (and when the finances weren't pooled) i would offer to contribute something like 12.5% of bill which would be funded by my part-time job :A would stop it being cause for arguments in future if money got tight