Full Time Employed living with Students in House Share

[mattfender]

Hi There,

I'm just wondering if i'm entitled to pay the council tax for the whole property if I am the only full time employed occupant of the house. As full time students, they are exempt from paying tax. The house is a band F category so the monthly payments are quite high...

They did offer me a 25% discount once all the students provide their University Certs.. but it is still quite a colossal amount to be paying a month.

Hope you can help!

Cheers!

Matt

[bizzybob]

Re: Full Time Employed living with Students in House Share

Sadly you may well have to pay 75% of the total yourself; the way it works is complex, they have offered a 25% discount, and that is what you should grab imho, or find other accommodation.

Hilligdon Council explain it quite neatly here

http://www.hillingdon.gov.uk/article...udent-discount

[LegalBat]

Re: Full Time Employed living with Students in House Share

Late reply - but maybe not too late?
From my reading of the LGFA 1992, I would say...
If it is an HMO then the owner is liable for CT.
If one of the students is the owner then you are not liable (the resident owner would be, and would be entitled to a 100% disregard).
If you and the students all have an equal legal right of occupation (and it's not an HMO) then the liability is all yours (apart from your 25% reduction).

[Greyfox]

Re: Full Time Employed living with Students in House Share

Situation I am aware of is that the council tenant of a flat... Mother ...is a mature student, but has a "lodger" *ahem* who is working, and a daughter 22 who also lives there and has a Subway job...and a non working younger daughter who is 13 years old.
Mother has announced today that the Council Tax has been "transferred" into working daughter's name, despite no change to the tenancy agreement.
Unless "working daughter" pays all the Council Tax, and her "keep" then she can "Get Out"...
Can Mother ACTUALLY transfer any Council Tax liability to working daughter without consent?? Without any tenancy change?

Working daughter of 22yrs is petrified!!

Please assist with advice

[Snoopy1948]

Re: Full Time Employed living with Students in House Share

From my memory, if this is indeed an HMO, then the owner should be responsible for the council tax bill and recover that from each occupier in the rent which presumably everyone pays an equal share of. That is assuming that everyone has their own room and a share of communal areas. If that is the case, you should contact the local council and request consideration that the property is treated as an HMO and they will investigate accordingly.

If however you are renting the whole house and everyone is listed on a single tenancy agreement, then you would have to endure 75% of the gross charge providing everyone else provides their student certificate. On the surface that is grossly unfair as the actual rent is proportional.

[LegalBat]

Re: Full Time Employed living with Students in House Share

Situation I am aware of is that the council tenant of a flat... Mother ...is a mature student, but has a "lodger" *ahem* who is working, and a daughter 22 who also lives there and has a Subway job...and a non working younger daughter who is 13 years old.
Mother has announced today that the Council Tax has been "transferred" into working daughter's name, despite no change to the tenancy agreement.
Unless "working daughter" pays all the Council Tax, and her "keep" then she can "Get Out"...
Can Mother ACTUALLY transfer any Council Tax liability to working daughter without consent?? Without any tenancy change?

Working daughter of 22yrs is petrified!!

Please assist with advice

Okay, looking at section 6 of the Local Government Finance Act , I would say:-
If the mother is a council (secure) tenant and is resident then she should be solely liable for Council Tax (I'm assuming that the "lodger" is not a joint tenant). But if the mother is a housing association tenant then any adult who is resident would technically be jointly liable with her.

Either way, she cannot simply transfer liability. Nobody can. Liability is established by applying the facts about who is living there and what right they have to live there, to the hierarchy of liability in s6.

However, in the real world, I know very well that many local authority Council Tax departments don't get the law right. I have experience of successfully challenging a couple of them at Tribunal - and they seem completely surprised when they lose - this is the "We've always done it like that so it must be right." school of law.

In your particular example though, the mother has an absolute right to kick her daughter out if she doesn't comply with whatever conditions the mother chooses to set (as long as the mother is living there - otherwise she may be subletting and breaking the law). So although the daughter may or may not be liable for the CT from the local authority's perspective, if the mother wants her to pay it, she hasn't got much choice.

[LegalBat]

Re: Full Time Employed living with Students in House Share

Yes, I think that's right, Snoopy1948 (although you've missed out the possibility that one of the students is the owner).

If you want to work out whether it's an HMO, you need to consider the definition in the Regulations:-

Class C covers HMOs:-

Houses in multiple occupation, etc

Class C	a dwelling inhabited by persons who do not constitute a single household, each of whom either–
	(a)is a tenant of, or has a licence to occupy, part only of the dwelling; or
	(b)has a licence to occupy but is not liable (whether alone or jointly with other persons) to pay rent or a licence fee in respect of the dwelling as a whole.

[Snoopy1948]

Re: Full Time Employed living with Students in House Share

[QUOTE=LegalBat;654430]Yes, I think that's right, Snoopy1948 (although you've missed out the possibility that one of the students is the owner).

That's the beauty of minimal information I am afraid, the missing fine details mean that a targeted answer is virtually impossible. And I have just noticed that this thread is six months old and the asker has not come back, al least on this thread, so we assume things are sorted! Although not to his taste perhaps!