Council tax liability (HMO) ??

inama

buggy_boy wrote: »

I think you are getting confused. The LL is in the eyes of the council liable for council tax, the reason councils do this is because they know LL's are less likely to default and disappear than tenants. You are contractually liable to pay the council tax, this can be paid either directly to the council or to the LL who can pay the council, it makes no difference.

In no way are you "off the hook" for council tax.

Where you may be able to argue though and I think correctly is if you have 4 tenants and each tenants contract says the same thing I would argue that each tenant is liable for 25% of the council tax, this is regardless of their exempt status. Their status of exempt having to pay CT is to the council however they still have a contractual liability to pay.

The reason I make this argument is because the wording is not clear and if there was no exempt persons each tenant would not be expected to pay the full council tax bill on their share.

You may also be able to get a single persons discount as all others in the property are exempt.

With regard to the question about not being an HMO on the contract I think it would be pretty clear that it was an HMO so I don't think that would hold any weight.

Thanks, I did assume that if I did have to pay council tax it would only be my share - 25%, but this has not happened in my case.

In response to it is clear that this is a HMO property, I wouldn’t say it is entirely clear as I don’t know the types of agreements the previous tenants have had, whether it was joint or separate and they also did not have a license.

The landlord has just told me that until the 25% student discount has been applied, I should pay the entire cost to him, which is actually quite unreasonable.

CIS

I think you are getting confused. The LL is in the eyes of the council liable for council tax, the reason councils do this is because they know LL's are less likely to default and disappear than tenants

It's undertaken because it's the way legislation works, it's not a council decision.

You may also be able to get a single persons discount as all others in the property are exempt.

The other occupiers are disregarded, not exempt (exempt has a specific usage in council tax legislation).

In response to it is clear that this is a HMO property, I wouldn’t say it is entirely clear as I don’t know the types of agreements the previous tenants have had, whether it was joint or separate and they also did not have a license.

As a council tax HMO the simple fact that it's one property where rooms are individually let makes it a council tax HMO regardless of anything else (although most people would not know it).

The landlord has just told me that until the 25% student discount has been applied, I should pay the entire cost to him, which is actually quite unreasonable.

It is now down to a contractual argument between you and the landlord.

diggingdude

You should look to move. By sharing with students you are getting hammered twice
1) paying all the council tax
2) being in a higher tax band property than 1 person would need.

By taking on students the landlord has screwed you over. Find a professional house share