Council Tax - 'not counted' for bill - still liable?

Mikeyorks

Bit of advice from the experts, please.

Situation : Son part of joint tenancy (4 of them) in student only flat in London. Now all gone their separate ways, having mainly finished Uni, but CT not finalised. Question revolves around year in which they were all f/t students - and where 3 of them have filed their Student exemption certificates - but the 4th has not. So their remains a 75% bill - which the local authority is insisting they are all liable for (despite 3 of them now being 'disregarded' as regards the bill.

Can anyone who works in that area give me the definitive, please? As this section appears to support the council view :

11. Am I still liable if I am not counted for the bill?
If you are the liable person and you get a discount or are not counted, your bill may be reduced. But you will still be responsible for paying the smaller amount.

......... whilst this (in [my] italics) appears to contradict it :

3. Does only one person have to pay in each dwelling?
In some cases, more than one person is responsible for seeing that the bill is paid. People who are joint owners or joint tenants are jointly liable. Generally, spouses and partners of people who are liable are jointly responsible for paying the bill if they live in the same dwelling.
Students and people who are severely mentally impaired are not jointly liable.

.. both from the same DirectGov source :

http://www.local.odpm.gov.uk/finance/ctax/ctaxbillguide.pdf

Not quite sure the author should be offending the 'mentally impaired', by linking them with students in that manner, but as the 'student' is proven by acceptance of the certification .......... leaves me a bit puzzled as how to advise him. The logic of remaining 'liable', whilst also being 'disregarded' ... does leave me a bit puzzled.
They've managed to put the entity on hold a couple of weeks whilst they pursue the missing Certificate - but as she's the ex-gf of one of them, then the Certificate may not happen.

MarkyMarkD

I don't understand why the matter of the council tax is still being resolved for a year which has finished a while ago.

It should have been paid ages ago.

Why didn't they simply sort out the exemption issue at the time they moved into the property, rather than something like a year or so later?

But anyway, answering your question, I don't think the two sections are contradictory as you suggest.

Section 3 makes it clear that students are not jointly liable. So the only person liable to pay the council tax is the resident who has not proved their student status.

Section 11 then requires that resident to pay the 75% reduced amount.

So, as things stand, the council have no right to pursue the residents who have proved their student status.

You should also refer to the exemptions section on page 13 which explicitly states

However, dwellings
occupied by a mixture of full time students and
people who are not full time students will receive
a bill. It will be for the members of the household
to decide how to apportion the bill but the full
time students will not be liable for the council tax;

(my emphasis).

CIS

Since April 2004 a student can no longer be held liable with a non-student for any Council Tax due on the property - unless the student held a higher interest in the property than the non students (ie the student was the resident owner).

The main question is what where the dates they occupied the property ( and the period of the debt ) .

The regulations you need are the Council (Administration and Enforcement) Regs 1992 amended in in the LGFS 2002 - http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2003/pdf/ukpga_20030026_en.pdf

Mikeyorks

Grateful to you both for your help .... many thanks.

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

I don't understand why the matter of the council tax is still being resolved for a year which has finished a while ago.

It should have been paid ages ago.

Why didn't they simply sort out the exemption issue at the time they moved into the property, rather than something like a year or so later?

The simple answer to all of that comes in the one word .... 'students'! Not quite sure if I'm more puzzled as to how they managed to satisfactorily get the first 2 years correctly exempted - or more angry that, having achieved that, they then jointly opt out and make a complete mess of the exemption for the 3rd year.

Don't think I envy the task of the CT units of a Council in a big Uni catchment area - must be a bit of a nightmare. However, this bit at least is now well under way - and the help is much appreciated. Thank you.