Council Tax Deductions - confused about bill!

foodiestudent

Hi there.
I'll try to keep this as short as possible!

We moved into our house at the beginning of August.
I live with two others (one fulltime Student, one unemployed but unable to claim benefits). I work fulltime.

All of us finished our degrees whilst living in this house. I finished on the 31st of October, they both finished on the 31st of August. I am now studying part time, thus am not eligable for discount, and my housemate is studying a postgrad course fulltime.

We had to get uni to fill in forms about the dates we started and finished our degrees for the discount and reduction for the months we were studying, and took them to the council (back in October!)

We've just had a bill saying that we owe £0 - the reason for exemption - we are all students. The only time we were all fulltime students was from 1st August - 31st August!

What do we do? It's very tempting to not pay anything - £702 is a lot of money when I'm on minimum wage and studying part time, but I'm worried the council will change their minds and come back to haunt us (or me- as the only employed person) for it when the April- July bill arrives in a few months time.

Any advice greatfully recieved!

lincroft1710

There have been posts on this forum from people who have received bills in respect of CT owed from 2 yrs ago. So council could realise their mistake and ask for back tax. The right thing to do is obviously inform council they may have made a mistake.

CIS

The exemption is incorrect therefore it is your responsbility as the council tax payer to advise the councilof any error that may have occurred.

I work in council tax recovery and we will remove exemptions that have been given in error even if its several years later.

foodiestudent

I ended up ringing the council yesterday afternoon anyway in a fit of panic, after I realised I'd applied for Council Tax Benefit therefore they knew I'm eligable!

Thanks for the advice - glad to know I did the right thing!