Council tax on property with licence to occupy to store belongings but not move in

golden_doodles88

Hi, 

I am hoping people can help me. 

Some friends and I signed a tenancy agreement for a student property (although two of us aren't students and therefore liable to pay council tax) where the tenancy agreement on the tenancy contact started 1st July 2023 with a Licence to Occupy but stipulation that "the tenant will be allowed to store belongings in the address but will not be permitted to reside there. The AST start date is 1st September."

During this period there was still work going on in the property and we only able to drop things off and return the keys in a single day. It also still had to be deep cleaned. We collected our keys on 1st September 2023 and even had difficulties with one of the rooms being uninhabitable for the first 2 weeks due to a flooding issue they hadn't resolved. 

I contacted the council to set up our bills which ran from 1st September to March 2023. However, they recently sent an adjustment notice saying we owed them for the period of July and August as they had been sent the contract and the tenancy commenced from then. I rang them up and explained that, as per the contract, we were not permitted to move in until September 1st and we were not paying rent for this period. However, they said they only go off the tenancy commencement date and recommended that I speak to my landlord to get in writing that the tenancy actually started from September 1st. I then phoned the student letting agency and they said to email them the issue and they will discuss with their manager, but they don't think that they can do that since there is the licence to occupy clause on the contract. 

I am now waiting for them to get back to me, but I would appreciate any advice from this forum. 

lincroft1710

I think by the landlord giving you "Licence to Occupy" suggests the responsibility for CT has passed from the LL to you. Your belongings were in the property, so it can be said you were in occupation. The fact the property had not yet been deep cleaned is irrelevant and the fact that work was being carried out may also not be relevant  

Wonka_2

Maybe (or maybe not) irrelevant to your question but did you pay rent for the July/August period ? And was it full rent ? And what happened to the other bills over that period ?

Bookworm105

Council tax is based on the hierarchy of liability as follows (with 1 coming before 2):

1. A freehold owner/occupier living in the property
2. A leasehold owner/occupier living in the property
3. A tenant living in the property
4. A person living in the property who is a licensee (not a tenant, but has permission to stay there)
5. Any person living in the property (this includes people living in the property with or without permission of the owner)
6. An owner of the property, where the property is unoccupied
   
   

Your licence to occupy puts you at 4. The owner/landlord remains at 6.
As lincroft says, you have technically taken possession so are "in occupation" even though, as with most student lets, you are not allowed to stay over because the LL needs access to do works in that period and therefore must grant a licence so access to the property can be shared rather than reserved for your exclusive use as under the tenancy itself.

You are therefore responsible for the whole CT, not the LL.
Worth checking with your student union as they will intimately know what your council's stance is to giving discounts and exemptions to students during the summer holidays.

Bookworm105

Wonka_2 said:

Maybe (or maybe not) irrelevant to your question but did you pay rent for the July/August period ? And was it full rent ? And what happened to the other bills over that period ?

read the post...."not paying rent for this period"
although that is irrelevant anyway, as a squatter paying no rent can be liable for CT (#5) before the ultimate owner (#6) is.

propertyrental

Surely 4 above does not apply as OP and joint tenants were not  "A person living in the property"

But I'm no CT expert.

Bookworm105

propertyrental said:

Surely 4 above does not apply as OP and joint tenants were not  "A person living in the property"

But I'm no CT expert.

a reasonable challenge as I posted that from a council website so naturally it uses "plain English" aimed at the barely literate, therefore let us return to the statute wording: 
Local Government Finance Act 1992 (legislation.gov.uk)

he is such a resident and has a contractual licence to occupy the whole or any part of the dwelling;

and resident is defined as:
“resident”, in relation to any dwelling, means an individual who has attained the age of 18 years and has his sole or main residence in the dwelling.

In the old days, the default position was a student's "term time" address was their main residence, and the parental one was not. I'm not up to date whether that has been changed, but OP has documentation concerning that property for a full 12 months ...?