Council tax - HMO - question

CIS

sitesafe wrote: »

If the others are full time students they are exempt as mentioned - as he is the only council tax liable person in the property then I would have thought he'd be entitled to the 25% single person discount. I'm sure when i had a lodger who was a full time student, I still got the single person's discount. He would have to contact the council and apply for it but it's easily done. However i can see your point if he had rented a house to himself he would still get 25% off, whereas he's sharing with others so I guess it's a bit annoying

If we take a property which is a Council Tax HMO then the liability falls on to the joint tenants* (Section 6 of the LGFA92). Section 6 also includes provision that students can't (in most cases*) be held jointly liable - the liability then falls on to the non-student. The non-student is then entitled to claim any normal reductions, i.e. a 25% discount is there is only one non-student.
(*assuming no-one is liable on as a partner as that complicates the matter)

Craig

CIS

saajan_12 wrote: »

If there was more than one non-student sharer in a HMO, all on separate contracts, then who would be liable for the council tax if the council don't class it as a HMO? Can you be made jointly liable with strangers? Even if you agreed an equal split among the sharers, the LL can evict / replace the others with students, which one tenant has no control over, yet their CT bill could sky rocket.

I thought this was partly why the LL was liable to the council in an HMO (and can charge it on to tenants through rent)..

If the landlord can remove/replace someone at will then there isn't a joint tenancy for the property therefore it would fall to be a Council Tax HMO - all tenants on different tenancies falls well within the definition of a HMO under the Council Tax (liability for owners) regulations 1992.

Craig