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Students and Council Tax
rose28454
Posts: 4,967 Forumite
My son has recently moved to London and is sharing a flat with 5 students but he is working himself. When he moved in in April he was taking the room of a student who had moved out so was paying the rent to this person who was officially still the tenant. However the lease is renewed in July and it seems that as the only working person he will be liable for all the council tax ( with a 25% reduction ). This will be about £65.00 per month on top of his rent of £570.00 per month.
Does anyone know any way of getting around this? However the flat is in Baker Street and is a fabulous place to live so I have told him he may have to just bite the bullet and pay. I have tried to bring him up to be honest and I am only trying to find a loophole. Can anyone help?
Does anyone know any way of getting around this? However the flat is in Baker Street and is a fabulous place to live so I have told him he may have to just bite the bullet and pay. I have tried to bring him up to be honest and I am only trying to find a loophole. Can anyone help?
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There is no way round it (legally) whatsoever, and i'm afraid he'll have to pay 75% of the council tax. It's the council's rules!! He'd be better off living in a house with other working people!
sorry :-(Should've = Should HAVE (not 'of')
Would've = Would HAVE (not 'of')
No, I am not perfect, but yes I do judge people on their use of basic English language. If you didn't know the above, then learn it! (If English is your second language, then you are forgiven!)0 -
Yes maybe but the flat is absolutely fabulous and apparently the rent is reasonable for Central London( it includes hot water, heating and porterage) and is next door to Madame Tussauds and above the tube station. I will just see if anybody else knows a way round it.0
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As said, he is liable to pay, trying to get round it could prove very costly if he is found out.
The rest of us have to pay, he is earning, why should he not pay?
BTW..........£65 per month CT for a flat in central london that can sleep 5 sounds very reasonable.0 -
jennifernil wrote: »The rest of us have to pay, he is earning, why should he not pay?
Because he is paying 75% of the council tax for the whole flat rather than one fifth of the total council tax if all the tenants were working.I'm a Forum Ambassador on the housing, mortgages & student money saving boards. I volunteer to help get your forum questions answered and keep the forum running smoothly. Forum Ambassadors are not moderators and don't read every post. If you spot an illegal or inappropriate post then please report it to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com (it's not part of my role to deal with this). Any views are mine and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.com.0 -
That may indeed seem a bit unfair, but did he not check out the situation first?
There is plenty information available about all this!
How come it is so cheap in London for CT? My daughter has a small 3 bed flat in Glasgow (the bedrooms are small) and does not pay anything at present as she is a student. If she did have to pay, even with the 25% reduction it would be £1350 per annum.0 -
At least the flat is where it is - City of Westminster has the second-lowest council tax in London and one of the lowest in the country.
To put it in perspective, I currently live on my own in a Band B property in London Borough of Southwark and my council tax per month (including the 25% discount) is £67. At my previous address in London Borough of Bexley, I shared a Band D property with one other liable resident and my 50% share of that was about the same, £65-ish. So although it is a bit rough on your son that he has to pay for the whole flat, I'm afraid it is the law, and my point is that he's quite likely to have a similar liability if he were to move to a flat in another borough, so I still reckon he has a good deal. Yes, he should bite the bullet and pay it.
Operation Get in Shape
MURPHY'S NO MORE PIES CLUB MEMBER #1240 -
In general it isn't - it's about the same as elsewhere - but there are two extremely cheap boroughs, Wandsworth and City of Westminster.jennifernil wrote: »How come it is so cheap in London for CT?Operation Get in Shape
MURPHY'S NO MORE PIES CLUB MEMBER #1240 -
There is absolutely no way around this believe me. My friend went through the very same thing. Its just the rules. As previously said, that amount is very reasonable for a London 5 bed flat. We only have a one bed flat and pay £132 a month! He would be better off sharing with other professionals rather than students. Unless he can try to negotiate with the others that they somehow split the £65 a month, although when i was a student theres no way i would have paid something i didn't have to..
Sorry its bad news
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Yes maybe but the flat is absolutely fabulous and apparently the rent is reasonable for Central London( it includes hot water, heating and porterage) and is next door to Madame Tussauds and above the tube station. I will just see if anybody else knows a way round it.
I'm afraid the info you have is absolutely correct. However if the rent+council tax is reasonable for the room (he might find in a house of workers, though the CT would be less as split between more people - the actual rent may be higher) why not just pay it? Maybe a little down the road one of the students will move out and he could push for the new tenant to be a worker in order to have someone to split CT with... this wouldn't affect the other students financially.0 -
jennifernil wrote: »That may indeed seem a bit unfair, but did he not check out the situation first?
There is plenty information available about all this!
How come it is so cheap in London for CT? My daughter has a small 3 bed flat in Glasgow (the bedrooms are small) and does not pay anything at present as she is a student. If she did have to pay, even with the 25% reduction it would be £1350 per annum.
I'm afraid that is the price you pay if you want a 3 bedroom flat to yourself as a single person.0
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