Electoral role and council tax

darius67455

Hi all, looking for some advice. We have recently moved to a caravan park where we bought a lodge. It’s a 12 month site so we are allowed to live here all year round. We don’t have to pay council tax as we pay ground rent to the site owners.
the problem we are having is that now we have moved here we are not on the electoral role which has caused our credit scores to drop massively. 

My question is, if we register on the electoral role will we be forced to pay council tax?
thanks

Torry_Quine

The two things are separate. 

Mark_d

My understanding is that you have to pay council tax for your main residence...but I suggest checking with the council.

Are you avoiding the electoral role in the hope of dodging your council tax liability?

Nasqueron

Mark_d said:

My understanding is that you have to pay council tax for your main residence...but I suggest checking with the council.

Are you avoiding the electoral role in the hope of dodging your council tax liability?

The rules seem pretty iffy but my limited reading of it is that OP thinks as it's a holiday home (caravan, lodges etc) it is exempt without understanding that as it's a main residence they do have to pay (unless maybe the "ground rent" also includes council tax which is paid for them? I have no idea if this is a thing but seems unlikely). See guidance here

Are holiday homes exempt from council tax?
As long as we are talking about caravan holiday homes (including statics, tourers, lodges, etc) then yes, a true ‘holiday home’ of this nature is exempt from council tax. However, this isn’t the case if you live in a holiday home full time – since it’s then no longer a holiday home, and instead becomes your actual home. Therefore, if you live in a static caravan or similar all-year-around, then you will be expected to pay council tax on it.

Nasqueron

Oh and OP - your score is meaningless, ignore it. 

darius67455

Nasqueron said:

Oh and OP - your score is meaningless, ignore it. 

Must mean something because I can’t borrow anything since moving house. Dropped from 900 ish to 300

p00hsticks

darius67455 said:

Nasqueron said:

Oh and OP - your score is meaningless, ignore it. 

Must mean something because I can’t borrow anything since moving house. Dropped from 900 ish to 300

But that's not directly related to your score, it's to do with the underlying factors such as you not being on the electoral roll. 

Nasqueron

darius67455 said:

Nasqueron said:

Oh and OP - your score is meaningless, ignore it. 

Must mean something because I can’t borrow anything since moving house. Dropped from 900 ish to 300

Doesn't mean anything as no lenders ever see it, they only receive the data on your file and run it through their own scoring systems, you're just mixing correlation with causation. A house move is fairly common to trigger a brief period where lending is less likely until you are registered etc. It would be more sensible to read up on the rules as you are not exempt from council tax even in a lodge if it's your primary residence