Non student moving into Student Accomodation

scope

I once rented a room in a student house and being new in this country knew nothing about council tax.. Months after I moved out I got a letter through to my parents address abroad with a court date for unpaid council tax (first I heard of it).. I called the council and despite being unemployed, because I didnt claim any benefit there was no proof I was unemployed and had to pay.. So yes, you will have to pay, but you do get a discount for being a single person.

lynnexxxo

dmg24 wrote: »

Not sure that MSE is really about suggesting people commit fraud?

Ok, yeah you are right. Why not stay at your parents and become a regular visitor to your girlfriends flat, agreeing to pay a share of the bills as you are there a lot.

Lavendyr

lynnexxxo wrote: »

Can't you just live unofficially in the student house, and remain on the voters role at your parents house?

Electoral roll has nothing to do with council tax in many areas - you can be paying council tax while living in one place and be on the electoral roll in another (or not at all). To do what you suggest would be completely wrong.

You should be able to pay 75% of the tax, but every other person living in that dwelling will have to prove that they are students in order for you to obtain the discount.

minimoocow

Hello!

I did exactly that - I had a 3 yr course and my bf and 2 other mates were on a 4 yr course so I was a non-student living in a student household.

The situation was as follows:

Students are exempt but only if the WHOLE household are students. Therefore as I was living there the property became liable for tax. NB Anyone on the bill is liable - not just the person who is not a student which is why some landlords/students don't like to share with non-students as if the non-student doesn't pay then they could be made to and it can get messy.

In my case I agreed I would pay the whole bill. I got a 25% discount as it was classed as a single discount but was still rather expensive at the time!

HTH

MMC

smousie

Sometimes if the council knows that a particular property is only usually rented by students then they automatically exempt it from council tax without enquiring further. Technically you should be paying 75% council tax, but you could probably get away with it. I'd imagine the landlord probably has the council tax bill in his name and claims student exemption so he pays nothing - just tell him you're a student and nobody's any the wiser.

elmer

All students have to provide verification for their Council Tax status once a year via a current certificate from their university, so I dont think that you would get away with just saying you were a student.
we are currently chasing several of our students and after the next round of reminders, all exemptions not verified will be cancelled back to last years review and billed accordingly.

Elmer