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Council Tax
bscousegit
Posts: 69 Forumite
My daughter is living in a house with 5 other people. 4 are full time students, she and her friend are working full-time.They have received a full council tax bill that she and her working friend are having to pay half each. This does not seem fair as I feel she should only pay 1/6th of the Council tax bill. Any advice to help her would be great.
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That's correct. The students aren't counted so the two remaining adults are liable for the full bill.bscousegit wrote: »My daughter is living in a house with 5 other people. 4 are full time students, she and her friend are working full-time.They have received a full council tax bill that she and her working friend are having to pay half each. This does not seem fair as I feel she should only pay 1/6th of the Council tax bill. Any advice to help her would be great.Lost my soulmate so life is empty.
I can bear pain myself, he said softly, but I couldna bear yours. That would take more strength than I have -
Diana Gabaldon, Outlander0 -
Students are exempt from paying council tax. It may not feel fair to your daughter, but if she and the other person who works were sharing a place on their own they would be paying the full whack between them. So your daughter needs to write this off to experience, not ask/expect the students to contribute, and make sure she doesn't share a property like this in future where the majority are students.0
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Torry_Quine wrote: »That's correct. The students aren't counted so the two remaining adults are liable for the full bill.
Or it could be that the landlord is liable for the full bill.0 -
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Be careful, however, that the Concil Tax definition of HMO is different from the registration/licensing definition. If it is individual tenancy agreements it is a Council Tax HMO. If six people are on a joint tenancy it is not a Council Tax HMO.0
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Thanks for your replies. I must confess I thought as much. Re the HMO registration would that make any difference or is this more to do with ensuring the safety of the tenants given that a HMO is a higher risk?0
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The whole Council Tax system is bizzare and outdated. It needs a major revamp. Our household income is £35k and we pay £2,300 a year - 6.5%.0
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Norman_Castle wrote: »Thats not fair. If the students are exempt their proportion of the bill should be waived and not funded by others who live in the same house. I would assume the system is set up for families where a family member is a student which is not your situation.
Of course it's fair. There are two working adults in the house!
Council tax is based on '2 or more' which is why you can get single persons discount. It's not a 'per adult' charge therefore you can't just get 2/3 waived because 2/3 of the people are exempt, the same way 2 parents don't get exemptions for their children OR pay more once those children become adults.
As for the person paying 6.5% of their income on council tax, the property is clearly in a high band so large or valuable. Your choice to live in it, you pay the council tax.0 -
Students themselves aren't 'exempt' from Council Tax. A property is exempt if it is occupied entirely by students. If there is only one non full time student, they are still eligible for single person discount of 25%.
I would argue that it would be unfair of a non student to knowingly move in with students and expect them to share the bill and therefore reduce their share. Conversely, I would expect students to understand that by moving in with one non-student the property becomes liable for council tax and they should necessarily expects one person to shoulder that burden. It comes down to who made the decision to move in with who and when.0 -
robinwales wrote: »The whole Council Tax system is bizzare and outdated. It needs a major revamp. Our household income is £35k and we pay £2,300 a year - 6.5%.
There are two of you in a four bed house. You could easily downsize and have a lower liability.0
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