council tax for part time student

Ade22c

just wondering my daughter is a student living in a HMO the HMO is over 4 floors and has 5 bedrooms on each floor with a communal living area / kitchen on each floor. My daughter is on a part time degree course but has been unable to secure a job, and thus her only income comes from family contributing, also with her degree being part time you do not get much student loan help towards the housing let alone any money towards living costs - food, bus etc. 
The other 4 people on her floor are all full time students and as such are exempt from council tax.
So even though my daughter has no direct income and only just enough money from family to live on does she have to pay council tax (believe she will get a single person discount 25%). But seems wholly unfair that she has to pay a full amount despite being 1 room out of 5 and yet having to effectively pay as though she had all 5 rooms ?
Also wondering what qualifies as low income ? To see if she could maybe apply for that ?

lincroft1710

If it is a HMO, and rooms are let separately then the landlord will usually be responsible for the CT

fatbelly

All HMOs are transitioning to the position where the landlord is liable.

If your daughter has received a bill then she needs to alert the council to this

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/houses-in-multiple-occupation-hmos

uptdale

fatbelly said:

All HMOs are transitioning to the position where the landlord is liable.

If your daughter has received a bill then she needs to alert the council to this

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/houses-in-multiple-occupation-hmos

I don't think that is quite right.  Landlords will only be liable where rooms are let separately.  Where the HMO is let under a single tenancy to joint tenants (who are unrelated so that the let falls within the definition of an HMO), the tenants will continue to be liable.

powerspowers

I had a similar situation come up when I was house hunting as a youngster and decided not to live with students due to the 75% council tax liability. 

Starting point would be to apply for council tax reduction. It varies by council so difficult to predict what she’ll get. 

Ade22c

uptdale - she has an individual let and quoted tenancy and pays a different amount than the others in her block of 5 I believe ? so should the landlord then be liable for the council tax?

lincroft1710

Ade22c said:

uptdale - she has an individual let and quoted tenancy and pays a different amount than the others in her block of 5 I believe ? so should the landlord then be liable for the council tax?

If there is a single CT band for the whole building then the LL would be liable for the CT