Council Tax

kittiwoz

sarkky1 wrote:

i am in my third year at college,the first year being a NQ certificate,cos i had been away from school for 15 years and wanted an easy time of it ,lol...anyway, last year which was a HNC course then this year which is a HND i am only entitled to 1/4 off my council tax.but it makes me exempt for 9 months,and pay the full for the other 3 months,,,and,what i normally do is ,when i join course i get a letter to take to council and then they work it out for me .....but if they are wrong.i'd love to know,,,,ps .i live in dundee and i am married,a home owner,my hubby works full time,and we got 3 kids,,,any advice thanks.x.x.

I don't quite get what you are saying your current situation is with council tax but I think what it should be is this: You are doing a full time course so you are a "disregarded person" for council tax purposes, in the same way as your kids. But since not all persons resident at the house are disregarded council tax is payable on the property and it is your husband who is liable for it. However because he is the only liable person living in the house he qualifies for a 25% "single person discount". This should be the case for the full duration of your course, i.e. if your HND lasts 2 years the 25% discount on the property will apply for the full two years including your Summer holiday, but it does not apply for the months when you are between courses when you and your husband are jointly liable for the full bill.

Jaxkesa. It does sound like the house you live in is an HMO. I think you should contact the council to explain this. I think that what will happen in this case is that the council tax will be calculated on the portion of the house that you rent rather than the whole property and the council will contact your landlord for payment. There may well be a clause in your contract that allows the lanlord to recover the money from you since I think this is common practice.