Council Tax, 1 student, 1 non student

the_mothership

Hi,

If a full time student shares with a non student, Im assuming the non student has to pay some council tax?
Would they be liable for full amount or get 25% off as a single person?

celyn90

A 25 % discount applies to the full council tax rate if a student lives in the house - same as you would get if the non-student was living alone.

You will need to provide the council with proof of student status to be awarded this discount, not just claim for a single person living alone.

CIS

The non student becomes the sole liable party and the student is disregarded which gives a 25% discount.

If the non-studnet is disregarded in any way then a 50% discount may be applicable

roxalana

Technically it is the non student who would be responsible (i.e. liable for non payment!) for the remaining 75% - but some sharers in this situation choose to share it between them.

Lauzy

Hi, this might be somewhere else, but just wondered if my family can get a refund for the last 3 years of me being a student, or does the discount only apply for future years?

Thanks

elmer

You would be exempt as a student if you claimed student staus, but to have any advantage to your family, there would need to be only one other adult in the property who would then get single person discount of 25%. If you have two parents at home it wont make any difference whether or not you are a student. If you are eligible for a discount, you can claim it from when you started as long as you can document it with a student certificate from your university.

Elmer

the_mothership

Ok thanks.
So I'm assuming that means it doesnt matter that the student is the only name on the rent book?

morg_monster

What counts is whose name(s) gets written on the council tax form they send out every year asking who lives in the property. If it only says the student... then they won't charge council tax (although they might check up on you, or your landlord might tell them there is another person living there, if he knows). If they find out you have lied there could be a fine for evasion...

the_mothership

Hi morg_monster, thanks , that's about what I said to the lad involved. Just wanted to be sure I wasnt giving duff advice.
I told him it was best to be as up front as possible cos its not worth losing the roof over his head

JimArnold

All of the above ius true and you should cerytainly be able to get a 25% rebate on this years tax - already paid - I would do it quickly though

Shoshannah

Getting rebates is easy enough.

I am a student and I live with my boyfriend, a non-student. When we moved into our flat he rang up the council to ask about single person's discount and was told (incorrectly) that he was not eligible. I did not discover this until a year later, I assumed he'd been paying the discounted rate. In fact he'd been paying £120 per month instead of the £95 he should have been.

We visited the council offices with my proof of student status and they reduced his payments for a few months to bring it back into line - he had three or four months off with no council tax payments at all.