Council tax payments while WORKING and looking for somewhere to live

dreamer234

A friend of mine recently completed her university degree. She moved back home to look for work for a couple of months, but couldn't find employment.

She decided to move back to her university town to look for work, found a job, and started working three weeks ago. In that three weeks she has been looking for somewhere to live, and has been sleeping on the couch of one of her friends in a student house.

She is getting increasingly worried about what to do:
(a) she is not a tenant, and is almost definitely not allowed to 'live' and work on her friend's couch under her friends tenancy agreement.
(b) her friend's house is let only to students, who do not pay council tax. She realises that she has to pay council tax, but cannot do that at this address because of (a)

She sees her options as
(a) find a place to live, start paying council tax for that property
(b) stop working and move back home

Any advice would be really appreciated. Her number one priority is to make sure she doesn't cause any issues for her friend she is currently staying with. She is very worried that she will have to stop working and become unemployed again because of the cost of finding her own place.

Thanks so much!

happycamel_2

Whilst its not a great situation to be in as long as her stay is brief and informal ie she is a guest, not a resident, she isn't liable for council tax. She shouldn't contribute to household bills (at least not in cash).

Realistically the council aren't going to be worried so long as she finds herself a place in the next month or two. The landlord is probably the bigger issue, but, again, so long as she is a guest and not a sub tenant she should be ok.

Savvy_Sue

If she's been staying on a friend's couch, it could be worth her looking to see if there's a hostel somewhere she could move into while she looks for somewhere more permanent. I put DS2 on a train to London with his rucksack so he could start work there before he'd found somewhere to live ... it took him a couple of days, is all!

billymadbiker

Is she recorded as living 'somewhere'?
ie, is she on the electrol roll at her parents place?. If so, (and that house is not claiming a singil person discount) then I would think she should be ok until she finds somewhere to live permently.

As said above, if she is only living as a 'guest', not making any payments of any kind toward staying there then it is not effecting her in regards to council tax on the property she is a guest in.

Obviously, staying there without the landlords permission is another issue..

CIS

It will be pushing to the point where the council tax will need to start regarding the property as her main residence - the fact she's a 'guest' would not make a difference if she's living in the property as her sole or main home.