Student Council Tax appeal, advice wanted!

windswept_seascape

OK,

On next Thursday (13th Nov) I will be at a council tax appeal and was wondering if anyone could give me some golden nuggets of advice.
Here is the story....
I am a full time student at Bristol university, I am fortunate enough to live with my girlfriend who is also a full time student doing a PGCE course.

Last year she applied to do a Maths Enhancement Course in Bath after graduating from her non mathmatic course in Bristol
http://www.bathspa.ac.uk/courses/teaching/enhancement-courses.asp
, she was accepted on this but as shown on the link above the course starts in January, so she worked at a local shop, payed taxes and council tax (minus of course the 25% student exemption as she was living with myself), so far no problem.
We emailed Bristol City Council asking if we would be exempt from council tax completely whist she was doing her course (as we would both be full time students and entitled to 100% discount) , we have an email from them saying essentially, yes this is fine, when you start your course send/bring us your proof you are on the course. This was great news as it meant we could continue living together and not pay lots of money, otherwise she would have done the course at her parents (who already pay council tax).

Fast-forward to the beginning of this year, the council say that the course does not run for a whole year and therefore she is not a student, therefore has to pay 75% council tax.:mad:

This we complained about trying to show them that it was a full time course and there was no way she could be employed whilst on the course; however every time we spoke to the council we got a different person and nobody seemed to understand what we were asking. We tried saying that as the 6 month MEC course runs onto the 12 month Bristol PGCE course and you cannot do the PGCE without the MEC surely it is 18 months as a full time student. (you also HAVE to have a place on the PGCE before being accepted on the MEC)

The real issue we have is that every other council (South Gloucester, Bath etc) gave students on EXACTLY the same course in the same 'class' a student exemption. Bristol Council even gave a fellow student of my girlfriend's a student exemption. How can different councils behave differently, surely the law is the law?

Here is the student exemption form from Bristol Council (pdf)

http://www.bristol.gov.uk/ccm/cms-service/stream/asset/?asset_id=21520002

The MEC was 26 weeks in total if I remember and was certainly over 21 hours work a week (easily 42), the only criteria which it did not fit was lasting for an academic or callender year, but we did not want exemption for a year, only the time that she was on the course, and arguably the course followed on to the 12 month PGCE. - unfortunatly the loaction was split ... unlike the following
http://www.beds.ac.uk/courses/bysubject/edustu/pgce-secextmat-bc

which is essentially the MEC and then the PGCE all in one and at one univeristy, that would certainly have a student exemption, so why did we not?

So, thank you for reading this far, the tribunal is on next thurday (i know i've left this late) but was wondering whether anyone had any advice on what to say / not to say. My girlfriend did pay the council tax so they owe her money if we 'win' and we owe them nothing if we lose.

Thank you in advance for any help, and if the above made no sense let me know.

CIS

Unfortunately they do count as separate courses and therefore must both meet the criteria for the disregard. The legislation is clear on the definition of a qualifying course.

A course must be for at least 21 hrs per week and last a minimum of 24 weeks of 1 academic year, or calendar yr if the establishment doesn't have a set year.

The rules are covered under the council tax (discount disregards) order 1992 - schedule 1, part 2, section 4 , specifically point a.

As someone who deals with 100's of student council tax cases a year I would say that the council made the correct decision however the tribunal may rule otherwise although I would suspect not.

windswept_seascape

many thanks for your speedy reply, I still do not understand why other councils ALL ruled differently to Bristol in this matter, it seems an expensive lottery, especially as they had previously told us it would be ok. Is there anything I should or should not say at the tribunal?