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Original poster

Students/council tax with non student housemate

41 replies

Miljah · 27/10/2019 23:30

Can anyone advise?

DS Y2 Uni. 4 person house share, no council tax as they are all students meeting the criteria.

One leaves, room needs filling. A young person, non-student, on NMW is interested. But he apparently will be liable for a sum that is 75% of the council tax.

How does that work?

Why is he not just liable for 25%, given that the house share is for four?

OP posts:
FunnyInjury · 27/10/2019 23:33

Students get a 100% discount and aren't counted, so the other person (same as a single person household) is liable for council tax, but as a single person, is then entitled to single person discount of 75%.

Students shouldn't share with non students for this reason! It doesn't seem fair, but he either he pays it, or they all share it 🤷‍♀️

FunnyInjury · 27/10/2019 23:34

Sorry, single person discount of 25% I meant to say Blush

FuckYouBing · 27/10/2019 23:34

It's because students are exempt from paying council tax. When someone who is not exempt is living in the house they have to pay it but they get a single person discount so only pay 75% not a 100%.
Hopefully some ok be will be able to explain it better than me.

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LemonPrism · 27/10/2019 23:57

He would have to pay that amount whether he lived there or somewhere else. Don't think of it as a tax on the house but as a personal tax

mapleleafshiba · 27/10/2019 23:59

That's exactly correct: 1 person that is not exempt from council tax pays just 75%. 2 or more- 100% but obviously it's divided between them. It's a pain in situations like your son's household.

As students our student cards ended early June whereas our tenancy ended June 30th. We had to pay council tax for those 3 weeks even though we hadn't graduated yet.

You can also be made to pay council tax between undergraduate and masters degrees if there is a month or so between your undergrad student card ending and your masters' beginning. They can be super strict on it. We had to pay and we really didn't have the money.

Original poster
Miljah · 28/10/2019 00:00

Thanks everyone.

So that's them fekked! 😕

OP posts:
LookImAHooman · 28/10/2019 00:12

Why are they fekked? They’re not liable - unless someone is making them chip in to the 75%, which they shouldn’t be doing.

WallyWallyWally · 28/10/2019 05:16

My understanding (though it’s a long time since I was a student) was that the entire household is liable for council tax, not the individual. It’s not a personal tax. So they have to decide together how to pay it. The non-student can choose to pay it all, but he’s not solely liable for it.

But yes, in short, they need to get another student in if they wish to be 100% exempt.

lastqueenofscotland · 28/10/2019 07:30

That is correct but he is liable no one else
If he can’t afford it then they need to find someone else

Icedlatte · 28/10/2019 07:33

Wally I believe you have that the wrong way around, the non-student Is the one liable, the students are not liable at all.

ongranaryplease · 28/10/2019 07:37

DD (student) lives with her 3 best friends, all are students except one who works. So she has to foot the council tax bill. She does get the 25% discount. But there’s never been any mention of DD and the other students having to chip in - her graduate friend wanted to pay it herself as it was her who decided to live with students. But she is a very lovely girl and they are all best friends so I could see it may cause tension between less friendly people

WallyWallyWally · 28/10/2019 07:49

What do we mean by “liable”? I mean: who would the council pursue in the event of the council tax bill not being paid? My understanding is that the council would pursue the household as a group, not just the non-student. The household, as a group, gets a discount if 25%, but they are jointly liable for paying the bill.

Students
^If you're a student and live alone or share the rent with other students, you may be exempt from paying council tax.

If you're a student, but are sharing with someone who is not a student, you may be eligible for council tax reduction.^

I’m in Scotland BTW, maybe it’s different there.

Plexie · 28/10/2019 07:59

Haven't there been issues in similar circumstances where the non-student left without paying the Council Tax and then the Council pursued the remaining students to pay it? Feel sure I've read that on here before.

Also, for the non-student, presumably Council Tax on a 4 bedroom property is considerably higher than a one bedroom flat, or a house share with other non-students. So not really in their interest to share with students.

LIZS · 28/10/2019 08:02

75% is correct. Ds had to pay this prorata on his student rental after his graduation as others were continuing students.

CodenameVillanelle · 28/10/2019 08:03

Technically all housemates would be liable, because they are all on the bill. So students who want to keep the 100% discount need to live with only students.
However it might be expected that the sole working person pays the whole 75%, which would be more than 75% of a one bed flat, and more than if they shared with one other working person, so they should only share with workers if they don't want to end up with a big bill.
Students and workers don't really mix.

Weepingwillows12 · 28/10/2019 08:03

Years back when I was in university, we lived with a non student (dropped out early in course so wasnt intentional choice to live with non student). They didnt pay their Bill's and council came after us students to pay it. Had to pay to avoid ccj in the end. I dont know if things have changed but I would advise not living with a non student.

AthollPlace · 28/10/2019 08:04

Students are disregarded when council tax is calculated, ie it’s calculated as if they don’t live there. So one non-student living alone makes the property liable for council tax, but as they live alone they get a discount of 25%. Only the non-student is liable, the council cannot pursue the students if the non-student fails to pay.

If this person is going to move in I’d make him aware he’ll be responsible for the full 75% and nobody else will pay a penny. If he doesn’t agree then don’t let him move in.

FamilyOfAliens · 28/10/2019 08:05

DD shared a house with three students when she was working.

The students were exempt, she was liable. She got a 25% single person reduction.

In answer to your question, wally, if the bill wasn’t paid, the council would pursue the person whose name is on the council tax the bill. In DD’s case, that was her. They would not have pursued payment from students because, being exempt, their names were not on the bill.

And they weren’t a “household”. They were a group of people house-sharing.

cheesenpickles · 28/10/2019 08:06

I had this when I graduated. Basically council tax is a single amount of the property as a whole and not dictated by amount of people. HOWEVER, if it's an HMO I think the rules are slightly different but I was liable for the full amount though after some toing and froing it was actually the landlord's responsibility where it was an unregistered HMO.

LIZS · 28/10/2019 08:10

If they are desperate to fill the room they could agree to share the ct bill, assuming that is cheaper than paying for a vacant room, and it splits the other bills 4 ways rather than 3. Technically it is only the responsibility of the one on the bill though.

S0upertrooper · 28/10/2019 09:18

I am married and last year I was a student so I was exempt from paying council tax which meant DH paid council tax as a single person. As soon as my course finished we went back to paying full amount.

SuperMeerkat · 28/10/2019 09:24

Isn’t the obvious thing here to do just say that the house is only available to students?

DappledThings · 28/10/2019 09:37

I lived with 2 students for a while. I had to pay 75% of the council tax because I was liable for it but received the single person discount of 25% because I was the only occupant who was liable.

My housemates weren't affected and your DS won't be but anyone moving in should have it made very clear that the students won't be contributing to the CT and that the new person is aware of how much it will be.

Lexplorer · 28/10/2019 09:52

My dd was doing a masters in a house share with ba students. After the start of the year the uni decided it could only offer a two year masters instead of a one year because of staffing issues. But a two year masters is considered a part-time degree and so she became liable for council tax for the two years. I was quite cross at the time because I thought the university should stump up for a hardship payment seeing as it was their doing. No chance! £100 a month is quite a lot to add on when you're not expecting it. But as others have said, you are liable for the whole amount for the house minus the single person's discount. And it's nothing to do with the other students.

Hwory · 28/10/2019 10:00

The council I work at we don’t put (full time) students on the council tax bill so the only person that would be chased is the non-student.

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