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Council tax - does a landlord get a reduction if one tenant is a student?
lad22
Posts: 81 Forumite
Hello! I can't seem to find the answer online. I know a landlord is liable for council tax if rooms are rented out separately. In this instance, there will be one student and one professional. The council tax will be in my name as live-out landlord. So how can the student apply for an exemption if his name won't be on it? And can that exemption be passed onto me? I understand that if it was a joint tenancy, basically the student is treated as if they don't live there, and that means that the property is treated as if it only has 1 occupant (who then gets a 25% discount). However, it's not a joint tenancy. It seems a bit unfair if I have to pay council tax for 2 people if they happened to know each other and therefore had a joint tenancy agreement. they have agreed to live with each other, but didn't know each other before and so wanted separate agreements. Thank you!
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lad22 said:Hello! I can't seem to find the answer online. I know a landlord is liable for council tax if rooms are rented out separately. In this instance, there will be one student and one professional. The council tax will be in my name as live-out landlord. So how can the student apply for an exemption if his name won't be on it? And can that exemption be passed onto me? I understand that if it was a joint tenancy, basically the student is treated as if they don't live there, and that means that the property is treated as if it only has 1 occupant (who then gets a 25% discount). However, it's not a joint tenancy. It seems a bit unfair if I have to pay council tax for 2 people if they happened to know each other and therefore had a joint tenancy agreement. they have agreed to live with each other, but didn't know each other before and so wanted separate agreements. Thank you!
Where the landlord is liable under Class C for a HMO then all of the usual rules for council tax discounts still apply (there's one real exception, which is irrelevant here). Whether it's a joint tenancy or not makes no difference to the discount.
In practice the landlord needs to apply for any disregard from council tax but, legally, the student providing the information to the council would be sufficient.
I no longer work in Council Tax Recovery but instead work as a specialist Council Tax paralegal assisting landlords and Council Tax payers with council tax disputes and valuation tribunals. My views are my own reading of the law and you should always check with the local authority in question.1 -
Thank you, appreciated.CIS said:lad22 said:Hello! I can't seem to find the answer online. I know a landlord is liable for council tax if rooms are rented out separately. In this instance, there will be one student and one professional. The council tax will be in my name as live-out landlord. So how can the student apply for an exemption if his name won't be on it? And can that exemption be passed onto me? I understand that if it was a joint tenancy, basically the student is treated as if they don't live there, and that means that the property is treated as if it only has 1 occupant (who then gets a 25% discount). However, it's not a joint tenancy. It seems a bit unfair if I have to pay council tax for 2 people if they happened to know each other and therefore had a joint tenancy agreement. they have agreed to live with each other, but didn't know each other before and so wanted separate agreements. Thank you!
Where the landlord is liable under Class C for a HMO then all of the usual rules for council tax discounts still apply (there's one real exception, which is irrelevant here). Whether it's a joint tenancy or not makes no difference to the discount.
In practice the landlord needs to apply for any disregard from council tax but, legally, the student providing the information to the council would be sufficient.0 -
Sorry, it's not an HMO - no licence required and only 2 residents. Does that make a difference? Or is it just treated as one anyway?0
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It is an HMO.
It is a house, and it is in multiple occupation.
It just doesn't need to be registered as such, because there's only two sets of occupants.1 -
Ok, thanks. Makes sense.0
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Council Tax has its own definition of a HMO for its own purpose. In this case it is a council tax HMO.lad22 said:Sorry, it's not an HMO - no licence required and only 2 residents. Does that make a difference? Or is it just treated as one anyway?
I no longer work in Council Tax Recovery but instead work as a specialist Council Tax paralegal assisting landlords and Council Tax payers with council tax disputes and valuation tribunals. My views are my own reading of the law and you should always check with the local authority in question.0
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