who gets billed council tax in HMO

Ant555

My daughter is moving into a post-university shared house with friends.  5 people, 4 with jobs (some part time, some full time) 1 full time student.

Council Tax will apply but who gets the bill?
Also, as the moving in date is 1/7/21, I assume they will only pay part of the year?

Thanks

GrumpyDil

Assuming this is a proper HMO where individual rooms are let with access to shared areas then the landlord is liable to pay the council tax. 

If it is a tenancy of the whole house rather than an HMO then the tenants are jointly responsible. And yes they would only be liable for the period after 01/07.

Ant555

I think my term of HMO was incorrect.

Its a joint tenancy, all named on the same contract - The 'workers' know they are liable for Council Tax  , but I was wondering how it gets paid. 
I guess they should look out for a council letter 'to the householder' and not assume its marketing.

GrumpyDil

Yes they need to agree amongst themselves how the bills will be paid.

The slight risk with this sort of arrangement is that one if them will have to put the bills into their name and will be liable to pay them irrespective of what money the individual tenants pay

MovingForwards

They can go on the council website and find the bit about council tax, register and confirm when they moved in and their details.

Ant555

Thanks for the replies - a great help.

>they need to agree amongst themselves how the bills will be paid.
Yes, they already arranged between themselves and split responsibility for the named persons on utilities, broadband etc  but we didnt know how the council tax bill would trigger/switch from the previous tenants to the new ones. - council web site is the obvious answer.

Its all exciting and new to them as the 4 'workers' have been lucky in getting full time jobs in their adopted University town and renting this house, although similar to what they have done as students for the past 3 years, is suddenly a 'real world' experience in finding their own money to pay bills rather than it coming out of a student loan which guaranteed rent was paid.

lincroft1710

There is an alternative to having the CT account in a single name and that is to have all 5 people (or 4 as one is a student, so if full time will be exempt) named on the account.


But the downside is that if the account is in joint names then they became "jointly and severally liable", so if one person or more defaults on paying, the council can chase the others for the money.

Its_not_paranoia

Assuming there is one tenancy agreement on which they are all named, any and all of them are liable for all of the council tax, regardless of who's name is on the bill.

Just like the rent - if any of them didn't pay, the landlord could go after the other tenants for the rent - the council can chase any of the tenants for the rent.

I'd recommend they have an account which everyone puts an agreed amount into each month and all the bills are paid from that. If the agree amount is deliberately a bit high, then everyone get a nice little bit back at the end, rather than someone having to chase round for a £20 each shortfall.

CIS

Ant555 said:

I think my term of HMO was incorrect.

Its a joint tenancy, all named on the same contract - The 'workers' know they are liable for Council Tax  , but I was wondering how it gets paid. 
I guess they should look out for a council letter 'to the householder' and not assume its marketing.

The easiest way is for them just to contact the council.