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Hello Legal Beagles, hopefully you may be able to help me with the following issue:
I am the only tenant working full time in a house of students. This would normally make me liable for council tax (with a 25% reduction). However, the house is listed as a HMO, thereby transferring this responsibility to the landlord.
I recently received a CT bill from the council. Upon phoning them, they corrected their records and forwarded the bill to the landlord.
This is the tricky part: Upon reviewing my signed AST, I noticed the following clause under 'Tenant Obligations' - 'Be liable for Council Tax unless a valid Student Exemption Certificate is handed into the Council which will be submitted by the tenants'
This is how I am interpreting all this:
- Since the house is listed as a HMO, the landlord is liable, by law to pay the council the CT
- Since I signed an AST stating I was ‘liable’, the landlord can attempt to recover this money from me?
Any comments/advice would be much appreciated. I am in a situation where I am facing a hefty council tax bill for a large 6 bedroom property (over £1,000), when I only rent a single room, which seems a bit unfair.
Thank you for reading…
I am the only tenant working full time in a house of students. This would normally make me liable for council tax (with a 25% reduction). However, the house is listed as a HMO, thereby transferring this responsibility to the landlord.
I recently received a CT bill from the council. Upon phoning them, they corrected their records and forwarded the bill to the landlord.
This is the tricky part: Upon reviewing my signed AST, I noticed the following clause under 'Tenant Obligations' - 'Be liable for Council Tax unless a valid Student Exemption Certificate is handed into the Council which will be submitted by the tenants'
This is how I am interpreting all this:
- Since the house is listed as a HMO, the landlord is liable, by law to pay the council the CT
- Since I signed an AST stating I was ‘liable’, the landlord can attempt to recover this money from me?
Any comments/advice would be much appreciated. I am in a situation where I am facing a hefty council tax bill for a large 6 bedroom property (over £1,000), when I only rent a single room, which seems a bit unfair.
Thank you for reading…
