Council Tax and students

ceewash

My son is a student and next year he will be sharing a house with two others who work and so will have to pay council tax. He has said he will pay a third but obviously he doesn't need to. Can he get a rebate if he pays it? He does not want to tell them he won't pay towards it.

bestpud

No he can't, as far as I am aware.

He really needs to toughen up or less caring housemates will 'eat him alive'!

ceewash

It's a long story!

I have I got this right then - he really has no obligation to pay. The other two should just split the bill?

FreheitOverture

They may be able to get a discount, although that may only be in the case where there is only 1 person living there who is eligible to pay.

But no, he does not have any obligation to pay anything

MrsManda

Students don't count when it comes to council tax so if only students are living in a house then no tax is paid, if there's one non-student living there they get a single person's discount which is 25% off the bill. But in your son's case, he is not obliged to pay anything, but his friends are eligible for the full council tax bill (which they would be whether or not he is there).

But it's up to your son if he decides to split that bill along with all the others.

Fire_Fox

That's completely wrong.

Your son will be exempt from council tax and, if he was living with just one other worker, there would be a 25% discount applied to the bill (as if that person lived alone). However as a tenant his name must still appear on the council tax bill and he is still jointly and severally liable for the full amount if the others choose not to pay. I would not recommend a student ever lives in a house with a group of non-students for this reason.

http://resource.nusonline.co.uk/media/resource/Information%20Sheet%20202.pdf

A_fiend_for_life

ceewash wrote: »

It's a long story!

I have I got this right then - he really has no obligation to pay. The other two should just split the bill?

Best avoided all together - no point picking up unecessary bills. It also gets messy when workers end up unemployed and can't afford the gas and electricity, have normal sleeping patterns etc.

Such mixed accommodation also has the air of a stuffy meeting. No fun.

I remember one house of students, a student finished a year early and ended up trying to pay / negotiate 75% council tax on minimum wage for a band H. £150 per month. Talk about headless chooks.

dieselhead

Fire_Fox wrote: »

That's completely wrong.

Your son will be exempt from council tax and, if he was living with just one other worker, there would be a 25% discount applied to the bill (as if that person lived alone). However as a tenant his name must still appear on the council tax bill and he is still jointly and severally liable for the full amount if the others choose not to pay. I would not recommend a student ever lives in a house with a group of non-students for this reason.

http://resource.nusonline.co.uk/media/resource/Information%20Sheet%20202.pdf

Thats very interesting as I live with one other person who works, when we moved in we registered for council tax and I filled in the student forms and recived the 25% discount. At this point my name vanished from the bills when I rang to ask why my name had been removed I was told that as I was exempt I was not liable for the bill in any way. They knew that I lived there but if the account was to fall into arrears I would not be chased.

melancholly

i always understood that students were not liable - and the article certainly indicates that students will not be chased until after the occupants should be paying. one very important thing is that HMOs will have responsibility with the landlord, so if it is a HMO, it won't be an issue at all.

it's best sorting all this out asap... it can be difficult when students and non-students don't live together. council tax is one big issue, but there may also be problems over the other bills if the student is in the house all the time while the others are out at work at lot - it can get ugly splitting gas and electricity as a result (not necessarily though!). things like this are best discussed before any contracts are signed!

3plus1

ceewash wrote: »

It's a long story!

I have I got this right then - he really has no obligation to pay. The other two should just split the bill?

He has no obligation to split the bill, but if he doesn't want to contribute to the council tax, those two workers probably won't want to live with him.

As already said by other posters, students and professionals don't tend to share for reasons such as this one. If your son doesn't want to pay, he should say something now and let these two other people decide if they still want to live with him, or if they want to find someone else.

bitsandpieces

3plus1 wrote: »

As already said by other posters, students and professionals don't tend to share for reasons such as this one. If your son doesn't want to pay, he should say something now and let these two other people decide if they still want to live with him, or if they want to find someone else.

Yes - in this case, I think what is seen as fair and agreed by the group could be more important than who is legally liable (obviously, for the friends to end up involved in legal action due to unpaid bills by one or more is very much a worst-case scenario!) If I were letting a room in this type of situation, I would expect the student to pay a share of the council tax: the room could also be let to a professional who would chip in for the council tax. Down to what your son and his friends agree, though...