Council Tax

kittiwoz

Altarf wrote:

Council tax is charged on a property and once it has been decided if that property is liable to tax then the liable person has to pay. Whether they are a student or not is irrelevant if the property is taxable.

For example, a student owns a property which they live in and they rent out rooms to other students (not uncommon these days). Fine, the property is exempt as it is only occupied by students.

However one of the students finishes their course, gets a job, but continues to live there. As the house is no longer occupied only by students, then it is not exempt. It is liable to 75% of of the council tax, as all but the working person are disregarded.

But, and this is the big but, in this example the person who is liable to pay is not the working person but the student who owns the house.

This is true for your example because the tenants rent rooms, not the whole house. This only applies for an HMO which is "a house lived in by a number of people who all pay rent, but no-one is responsible for paying the whole of the rent". Most student houses are not HMOs, all tenants are "jointly and individually responsible" for the full rent. So although no tenant IS paying the full rent on the house they are all liable for it as a group and if one tenant was to leave the rest would have to make up the deficit. In this case it is the tenant who is liable for council tax and not the landlord.

jennifernil

Ask your council for the correct form now, fill in the bits you need to do and keep it handy. Then, as soon as you matriculate, take the form to the university Registry and ask them to complete the rest of it. You then return it to your council offices . They may take some time to process it. Taking it in personally may help speed things up.
You need to fill in a form every year, so it is a good idea to get several at the start to save extra journeys. Try to send in the next one before the end of the first 12 month period or you will get a bill.

Bossyboots

jennifernil wrote:

Ask your council for the correct form now, fill in the bits you need to do and keep it handy. Then, as soon as you matriculate, take the form to the university Registry and ask them to complete the rest of it. You then return it to your council offices . They may take some time to process it. Taking it in personally may help speed things up.
You need to fill in a form every year, so it is a good idea to get several at the start to save extra journeys. Try to send in the next one before the end of the first 12 month period or you will get a bill.

My son simply turns up at the uni office, asks for the letter required for council tax exemption and they print it off, stamp and sign it and he sends it off to the council with a covering letter. He has rented in different areas and this is all he has done and it has never taken more than 2 - 3 weeks for confirmation to come through that it is all sorted.

jennifernil

I expect it can vary from council to council. Here in Glasgow the council require students to fill up and get stamped the official council form.
For students moving to a new place where they have not paid council tax the council will not be billing them quickly, but the OP has her own place and is already paying this tax, therefore she needs to get the bills stopped from a certain date. Councils are notoriously slow at stopping charging you, so the sooner she can get her form in the better.
OP, ask your council if they need a particular form filled in, if not then get the appropriate form from your Uni.

Altarf

kittiwoz you are of course correct with your example.

However I wanted to demonstrate that there are certain, and not uncommon, circumstances when a student can be liable for council tax and that Chadsman was wrong when they asserted "Any student following a recognised full time course of study such as a degree is not liable for council tax. Anyone who says otherwise doesnt know what they are on about.".

lellie

Our uni student services centre does forms that they print out and you just send them to the council.

bestpud

Our uni gave the letters out when we registered. I took it in person to my local council, where it was photocopied and they just put the details into the computer there and then. They backdated it to the start of the course, even though I didn't take it in until a couple of weeks after I started. It took another couple of weeks to take effect.

I would advise anyone who needs to deal with a council dept to go in person and make sure you get a signed receipt stating what you went in for, what you handed in or what evidence you supplied and what they told you. Some of them don't like being asked, but i've been stung too many times in the past and won't leave without it!

hth

bestpud

kittiwoz

Having followed your link (and found out something new) I understood what you were trying to say Altarf. It's just that I know that people don't always bother to follow links and you didn't really make clear in your post why it would be student who owns the house who would have to pay the council tax in your example, i.e. they are the landlord and the house is an HMO. I just thought I'd clarify that generally the tenant is liable and that the landlord would only be liable in certain circumstances such as the example that you gave.

Altarf

kittiwoz, yes the thing that catches a lot of students out is that for it to be exempt from council tax it has to be a property that only students live in. If anyone aged over 18 other than a student lives there then the property is not exempt, so 75% of the council tax will be payable if one non-student lives there and 100% if it is two or more. This can catch people out when you have a group of students renting a house, but one of them comes to the end of there course or drops out, but doesn't move out.

Now the second problem is who is liable to pay the council tax. The law does not have a concept of 'fairness' with this, but there is a strict legal hierarchy.

If the owner of the property lives in the the property they are liable - even if they are a student - for the whole amount. It is not the non-student tenant that is liable.

If the owner does not live there, then all the tenants - even if they are students- would have equal liability for the whole amount. The council does not have to split the debt as everyone is equally liable, they can just chase who they can catch for the money.

So it may be a non-student that causes the property to be liable for council tax, but it may be a student that ends up paying it.

asot

Does anyone know when you have to commence paying council tax after being a student? Is it your graduation date onwards?