Council Tax: Living with students

saajan_12

CIS said:

..

Keep in mind that a HMO for council tax and a HMO for licensing are two different things, each with their own definitions.

The link given above for the HMO legislation is incorrect in that the definition was changed - the link is for the original legislation and not the revised the legislation. It changed in 1995. It now reads,

a dwelling which   
(a) was originally constructed or subsequently adapted for occupation by persons who do not constitute a single household;
or
(b) is inhabited by a person who, or by two or more persons each of whom either--
      (i) is a tenant of, or has a licence to occupy, part only of the dwelling;
or
      (ii) has a licence to occupy, but is not liable (whether alone or jointly with other persons) to pay rent or a licence fee in respect of, the dwelling as a whole

Thanks for the correction, for my reference would you have a link to the updated regulations? 
Sounds like the new definition now includes properties constructed or adapted for multiple occupation, but outside that the conclusion could still be the same for a joint tenancy not falling into a Council Tax HMO?

CIS

saajan_12 said:

Thanks for the correction, for my reference would you have a link to the updated regulations? 
Sounds like the new definition now includes properties constructed or adapted for multiple occupation, but outside that the conclusion could still be the same for a joint tenancy not falling into a Council Tax HMO?

Legisaltion.gov is a pain for not updating & annotating all legislation. If you don't already know it's been changed then you'd never know to check, which leaves people in a circular argument. I have access to a law databased who luckily keep it up to date and annotated to make life easier !

It was amended in 1993

 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1993/151/regulation/2/made
and 1995
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1995/620/made
The 1993 legislation replaced the 1992 regs and then the 1995 regs changed 'and' to 'or' between subsection (a) and (b). It now reads as,
“Houses in multiple occupation, etc
Class C a dwelling which
(a)was originally constructed or subsequently adapted for occupation by persons who do not constitute a single household;
and or
(b)is inhabited by a person who, or by two or more persons each of whom either—
(i)is a tenant of, or has a licence to occupy, part only of the dwelling; or
(ii)has a licence to occupy, but is not liable (whether alone or jointly with other persons) to pay rent or a licence fee in respect of, the dwelling as a whole.”.

The change in legislation added the 'constructed or adapted' criteria (which is rarely argued by councils) but the part regarding multiple occupancy still remains as the second possible criteria and so continues to have effect.