Council tax moving from rented to owning

horsewithnoname

If a person is in rented and gives their month’s notice on the day the purchase is completed, are they responsible for both council tax payments for the ‘crossover’ month? 

They would be living in the house they own, so obviously would need to pay council tax on that, but what about the rental, which would still be ‘theirs’ for the notice month?
thank you

Kim_13

Yes. They are still the tenant until the tenancy ends even if not living there, so their notice has to expire before CT liability reverts to the LL.

They would need to either give notice in advance and run the risk that if completion is delayed, it may mean staying with family etc (at exchange should be safe enough, to cut down the overlap), pay both sets of CT or hope that a new tenant moves straight in and becomes responsible for the CT. I’d say the latter is unlikely - having work done while someone else is liable for the CT and has already paid the rent will make improving the property more appealing for the LL, as it means they aren’t losing money.

Sarahspangles

When I last moved the Council asked me to state I was resident in the house that I bought from the date of completion. This was so the liability was back to back with the former owners. 

Your ex landlord may want to (try to?) pass on their Council tax charge but you shouldn’t be paying it direct. Your landlord can attempt to mitigate their loss by letting the property.

user1977

The mystery person's name will be on both bills for the overlap, though there can be relief if a property is both unoccupied and unfurnished - they should check with the relevant council how to claim that.

housebuyer143

I was about to say, that if one is empty and unfurnished you normally get relief so you are not required to pay. 

Bookworm105

yes they are
legally council tax is a charge per day not per month.
therefore the tenant is liable to the day their tenancy ends, which will be determined by their notice period 

empty and unfurnished relief varies between councils as each now has discretion to set their own rates of relief. Some will give none

Bookworm105

Sarahspangles said:

Your ex landlord may want to (try to?) pass on their Council tax charge but you shouldn’t be paying it direct. Your landlord can attempt to mitigate their loss by letting the property.

no,
the tenant is legally liable for CT during the life of a tenancy, Do you understand the basis of CT? It is subject to the hierarchy of liability whereby a tenant is above a LL.
the LL has no legal requirement to mitigate losses during a notice period since by definition the property is still the tenancy of the person during the notice period

horsewithnoname

Bookworm105 said:

Sarahspangles said:

Your ex landlord may want to (try to?) pass on their Council tax charge but you shouldn’t be paying it direct. Your landlord can attempt to mitigate their loss by letting the property.

no,
the tenant is legally liable for CT during the life of a tenancy, Do you understand the basis of CT? It is subject to the hierarchy of liability whereby a tenant is above a LL.
the LL has no legal requirement to mitigate losses during a notice period since by definition the property is still the tenancy of the person during the notice period

No chance of this landlord mitigating anything! 

Thanks, I’ll tell them to check with the council, the council website is less than helpful on the subject. 

anselld

horsewithnoname said:

Bookworm105 said:

Sarahspangles said:

Your ex landlord may want to (try to?) pass on their Council tax charge but you shouldn’t be paying it direct. Your landlord can attempt to mitigate their loss by letting the property.

no,
the tenant is legally liable for CT during the life of a tenancy, Do you understand the basis of CT? It is subject to the hierarchy of liability whereby a tenant is above a LL.
the LL has no legal requirement to mitigate losses during a notice period since by definition the property is still the tenancy of the person during the notice period

No chance of this landlord mitigating anything! 

Thanks, I’ll tell them to check with the council, the council website is less than helpful on the subject. 

There is nothing to mitigate!  Nothing you have mentioned suggests any liability or onus on the Landlord.  As (most) others have pointed out CT liability continues during the notice period until the end of the tenancy.

horsewithnoname

anselld said:

horsewithnoname said:

Bookworm105 said:

Sarahspangles said:

Your ex landlord may want to (try to?) pass on their Council tax charge but you shouldn’t be paying it direct. Your landlord can attempt to mitigate their loss by letting the property.

no,
the tenant is legally liable for CT during the life of a tenancy, Do you understand the basis of CT? It is subject to the hierarchy of liability whereby a tenant is above a LL.
the LL has no legal requirement to mitigate losses during a notice period since by definition the property is still the tenancy of the person during the notice period

No chance of this landlord mitigating anything! 

Thanks, I’ll tell them to check with the council, the council website is less than helpful on the subject. 

There is nothing to mitigate!  Nothing you have mentioned suggests any liability or onus on the Landlord.  As (most) others have pointed out CT liability continues during the notice period until the end of the tenancy.

Yes, I have read the replies, and helpfully it seems that depending on the council, my friend may or may not have to pay two lots of council tax for one month. I never said about the landlord paying anything, merely that he is not the sort who will pay for anything if he can avoid it ( and if he can’t, he’d slap it on the rent at some point. Be interesting to see what rent it goes on at after🙄)

Sarahspangles

Bookworm105 said:

Sarahspangles said:

Your ex landlord may want to (try to?) pass on their Council tax charge but you shouldn’t be paying it direct. Your landlord can attempt to mitigate their loss by letting the property.

no,
the tenant is legally liable for CT during the life of a tenancy, Do you understand the basis of CT? It is subject to the hierarchy of liability whereby a tenant is above a LL.
the LL has no legal requirement to mitigate losses during a notice period since by definition the property is still the tenancy of the person during the notice period

I do understand CT, I worked for an LA for years including doing some top tier complaints work interfacing with the LGO. My experience is however out of date.

The advice I received at the time I moved was that (unless I owned a second home), I should only be liable for the CT at the property where I was resident. The question was literally ‘Where will you be sleeping on x date’. Perhaps it has changed since then, but liability to the charging authority is different from the contractual arrangement between landlord and tenant. The contract allows the landlord to relet so the CT could be overpaid in a scenario where the tenant leaves early.