As a renter in an Household of Multiple Occupancies - am I liable for council tax?

sourpuss2021

pinkshoes said:

I had the opposite. I rented a 3 bed house with 2 other girls working for a local companies. They then stated they were actually students in France and working abroad for a year was part of their studies. I ended up having to pay the CT on my own! I was not impressed with them! I eventually found another student to take my place in the house.
 

Ouch!  What bad luck for you!  

I had another variation of this. My French student lodger assured me he had student status, as his summer internship formed part of his degree.  But his university, being French, would only provide a letter written in that language. The council refused to accept it - and so, no discount!

ian1246

Op - I think you'll be responsible for the payments. If your a student, odds are you had a guarantor? You might want to give them a heads up if you don't have means to pay, since the landlord will be well within their rights to go after your guarantor potentially.

HampshireH

And of course if you leave presumably you still need somewhere to live and council tax will still be something you need to pay (albeit potentially cheaper).

I would suggest you don't make any quick decisions and you work out how much living elsewhere is going to cost you 

For example would you seek lodgings instead? Just make sure whatever you do you factor in all costs. No point in leaving one place for another you can't afford

theartfullodger

Does your tenancy state you will have to pay landlord council tax if your change of status becomes an issue??

But see, from the experts in these matters..
https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/benefits/help_with_council_tax

""" 

When landlords pay the council tax

Your landlord usually pays the council tax if you live:

• in a house in multiple occupation (HMO) – check with your council if you are not sure

  """"

avocia

HampshireH said:

That clause relates to return of your deposit?

There should be another clause about bills during the tenancy. Contribution to bills is seperate to rent even if managed in one payment.

My view whilst the owner may be liable to pay council tax they have set up a student house whichbis meant to be exempt. On this basis they won't haven't included it in your monthly amount due.

You have deviated from that by failing to remain a student and therefore are now not exempt.

Does your contract have anything in it about what happens if you fail to remain a student?

Hopefully for the landlord it does as why should the landlord pay full council tax when he let to a group exempt from paying only to find out now one hasn't remained so.

So yes landlord is responsible but yes depending on your tenancy they can claim the cost back

I've read the entire contract, and the word 'student' or anything similar is not mentioned once. Even council tax is only mentioned in this one clause that I've attached to the post, so based that it seems they really didn't consider this. I mean, they're a big letting agent, so they probably don't let exclusively to students and this is just a generic contract.

avocia

anselld said:

Firstly, liability to the Council is determined by the type of tenancy agreement.  The Council Tax definition of HMO differs from the Housing Act definition so that if you are in a "Joint and Several" tenancy with the other residents it is not an HMO for CT purposes.  If you have a joint tenancy then you are liable to the Council for CT.
If you have an individual room tenancy then the Landlord is liable to the Council.
So the first thing to check is how many tenants signed the agreement?

It's room only (you can see that hidden under the docusign text in the screenshot I attached. We all signed individual agreements and none of us had met before moving in.

avocia

ThisIsWeird said:

How much notice do you have to give them before you move out? And I presume, being a 'room only' type of rental, you are not responsible for finding a replacement student if you do? IE, you can leave at any point, giving the required amount of notice?

I suspect (but don't know) that the situation is as described by previous posters; the LL specifically had students to avoid the requirement for CT, which he/she would have been personally liable for as it's a 'room only/individual' tenancy. 

Now you are not a student, the LL will be liable for CT and will clearly be looking for you to pay it, and I think that's fair enough - it should have been understood by you from the off. However, worst case scenario is surely that 'you' would only be liable for the CT for as long as you are there, so hopefully just one month of CT, perhaps two if including the notice period? In which case you need to weigh up the cost of this CT amount (unpleasant, but not punitive) with what the LL could try and claim (successfully, I imagine) from your deposit amount - essentially the same amount, I guess? Once you leave, the LL can change the CT requirement back to 'student/individual' as before, and stop paying the CT charge again.

Or, the LL may possibly be prepared to allow you to leave right away, so could continue to (rightly) claim that all occupants are still students. This would presumably save them a lot of hassle and paperwork, but clearly this option shouldn't then end up costing you anything, and you should have your full deposit returned to you.

So, most likely - as far as I understand this - you are (rightly) liable. And the best approach would be to 'fess up to the LL so you both agree how to sort it. AfaIk, worst case is that this should not cost you more than 1 or 2 months of CT - ie for whatever time you remain.

This is just my understanding and interpretation of the situation, and in no way am I an authority or expert on this. 

I suppose the differences in this situation from what you've interpreted it as could be important though. Firstly, the contract makes no reference to students or student status. Simply that it is a room only letting in a house of multiple occupancies. Secondly, bills are included in the cost of rent - and even if the contract says they can draw from the deposit any outstanding bills I am liable for paying - I am not legally liable for council tax. So I could absolutely win that argument with the deposit protection scheme adjudicators. Essentially, what I'm saying is it looks like the agency hasn't covered their !!!!!! properly here.

avocia

theartfullodger said:

Does your tenancy state you will have to pay landlord council tax if your change of status becomes an issue??

But see, from the experts in these matters..
https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/benefits/help_with_council_tax

""" 

When landlords pay the council tax

Your landlord usually pays the council tax if you live:

• in a house in multiple occupation (HMO) – check with your council if you are not sure

  """"

It does not say this, no.

ThisIsWeird

avocia said:

I suppose the differences in this situation from what you've interpreted it as could be important though. Firstly, the contract makes no reference to students or student status. Simply that it is a room only letting in a house of multiple occupancies. Secondly, bills are included in the cost of rent - and even if the contract says they can draw from the deposit any outstanding bills I am liable for paying - I am not legally liable for council tax. So I could absolutely win that argument with the deposit protection scheme adjudicators. Essentially, what I'm saying is it looks like the agency hasn't covered their !!!!!! properly here.

No mention of 'student status' in the contract? That sounds like potentially good news, tho' unlikely to make it open-and-shut.

I presume the LL/agent asked at the start of the tenancy for you all to confirm your 'student' status, and on that basis he made the zero-CT claim. But how clear was it made that you had to be a student, and would otherwise be liable for the CT if not? Did you know and expect all the other occupants to also be students at the time you moved in? Was it made clear that any change to your student status would instantly need bringing to their attention?

Not having it mentioned in the contract 'could' leave the tenants to be understandably quite casual about all of their understanding of their tenancy and bills; if asked, it would likely be, "we pay for energy, food, BB and stuff like that, and the LL pays the insurance, the CT, and that kind of thing, doesn't he?"

Anyhoo, it would appear that the LL will now have to start paying CT, and will likely be chasing you for it! Worst case would appear to be a CT claim to you for however long you remain there, and at whatever discounted rate applies.

If so, it looks as tho' you have a choice, either;

1) pay up, move out (if you want to), and then get all your deposit back, or

2) you challenge the claim based on the lack of detail and clarity in both the contract and the initial information provided at the start of your tenancy. Ie, you always felt it was pretty clear which bills the tenants were liable for, and that everything else would obviously be handled by the LL. It comes as a complete surprise, therefore, that not being a student would have any bearing on this. As much as CT ever crossed your mind - which it didn't, really - you always assumed/understood that it was being paid by the LL, end of. I mean, when you dropped out, none of the other student-tenants pointed out to you that this could change the CT status of the house either, did they? So, you refuse to pay, you offer the leaving notice, and you make your claim for your deposit as normal. If he tries to deduct the CT, then you challenge this in the usual way. No idea how that will turn out, but I can't see it being easy for the LL to justify, and you won't be worse off in any case. And you might just win.

You could also offer to move out asap, and explain that this will allow him to get another student in, hopefully right away.

dimbo61

I smiled when I read your post.
I am a student Landlord of a HMO in Manchester.
We require our student groups to complete the online " student exemption form with Manchester City Council " when they first sign up as they have University numbers.
All tenancies are Joint and Several 
Never ever in all the time we have been Landlords have the council tax people asked us to confirm that our tenants are still students in January or April.
So who told the Lettings Agents that your no longer a student ?
Has the Council tax office been informed your no longer a student ? and sent you a council tax demand for 75% of the council tax from when you dropped out of your course ? With your name on the demand !
PS we also state in the signed addendum that if a student drops out of his/her course that they are responsible for any council tax payments incurred.

PPS, Landlords and Letting Agents cannot access the Manchester City council tax website to check if your no longer a student data protection laws so Again who informed the Lettings agents.

I very much doubt that the University will be sending out emails to Manchester City council tax people every time a student drops out of a course !

Lettings Agents and Landlords can't kick tenants out with 28 days notice.

Maybe if you can  claim housing benefit you will be exempt from Council tax