to think that all the housemates should pay council tax?

[InterferingSister]

This is none of my business but I want to put it to the MN jury anyway :)

Background: My brother shares a house with 5 other people. Four work, including my brother, and two are students. They've all known eachother since uni and have houseshared before with no problems.

They moved into a new house together a couple of months ago and now the two students are refusing to contribute towards the council tax payment. Their argument is that students don't have to pay council tax if they are living by themselves or with other students, so they shouldn't have to pay just because they're living with friends who aren't students. (As they are living in a house where the majority work, this exemption does not apply, nor is there any reduction in the amount payable). The working housemates are a bit like this and don't see why they should subsidise their friends' living costs.

Both sides are absolutely convinced that they are right. Neither side will back down on principle and it sounds to me like there could be a major falling-out over this, which would be a crying shame as they've been such good friends for years.

AIBU to think that all the housemates should contribute equally to the council tax and that if the two students didn't want to pay, they shouldn't have agreed to the house share?

sugarandspice - you didn't get 25% off the bill, you, as a student were exempt from Council Tax, therefore your fellow housemate had single occupancy CT, ie 25% off the bill. Your housemate was liable for all the CT and you were liable for none of it. Had you needed to seek any payments for hardship, such as through the Access to Learning Fund, any CT payments on your outgoings would have been disregarded.

However, should you have chosen to share the household outgoings between you, that was for you to agree to, and no doubt you did for a happy house-share. Though, you may decide you're owed some money here!

Students aren't liable to Council Tax. A letter confirming their status will exempt them from making a payment in the eyes of their local authority. Perhaps your brother's household needs to give some thought to everyone's income and ability to pay. As students, they won't have a lot of money to live on, and any job they do have won't equate to a full-time wage.

YANBU
Council tax is per household. The only deductions for people of this age group are if 1) there is only one adult in the home or one working person and the rest students or 2) all are students. As neither of those apply the students need to contribute.

If they want to avoid council tax they should live with other students.

Students only get CT exemption if they live with all students. They do not get it individually by virtue of being students.

I had more disposable income as a student than I have ever had since, BTW. House shares and part time jobs meant my life was pretty cushty.

They should have agreed before they moved in. And it is pretty tight to object to chipping in for 1/6 of a bill - if they'd been that worried they could have rented with other students!

CT is charged per household, as teh council told me when my wanker ex insisted I pay it all because he was a student, despite the fact I was already subsidising him and he had a full-time job on his internship year! (Bitter, me?)

If the students know that Council Tax exemption exists for students, then they also know which conditions must be met for it to apply. They chose to move not a houseshare where those conditions would not be met.

So regardless of what discussions took place, they know they are liable and are not good friends to their working housemates.

Maryz I don't know how much the bill is. I'm getting the details second hand from my mum [nosy emoticon for me too] who mentioned it being around £20 per person if everyone paid. I don't think she knows either though so that's just a guess.

Yes, EllaDee, I think it's pretty tight too and certainly not worth losing a set of friends over I think splitting the bill 5 ways with the two students paying half each of a full share would be a perfectly acceptable compromise for the sake of keeping things friendly.

Agree with the posters saying the council tax is based on the house not a charge levied to each individual. There is no student discount so the makeup of the individuals makes no difference at all.

I remember this one! I moved into a house back in the '90s with three others, though I was on the dole at the time, trying to finish my thesis and find a job at the same time! I had a right old argument with the council, who refused to grant any reduction in the bill because of my status. Their argument was that 2 people = full occupancy so the entire bill must be paid if there are more than that number in the household who are working. And they wouldn't pay my share of the CT in addition to my dole and housing benefit, either. Knocked a massive chunk of my tiddly cashflow sideways. Housemates pointed out they could have got a person in to the vacant room who had a job, so I was jolly well going to pay my share.

It is a loophole and for a lot of students who are about to be faced with even larger tuition fees, it is something which ought to be sorted. Though I'm darned if I can see how it could be done fairly. (But then I think that one person living alone should pay half CT and not 3/4!)

Don't get me started on tuition fees. They have to pay diddly-squat until they start earning a decent salary so all this nonsense about impoverished students makes me I studied abroad and paid the whole lot upfront. I was living off a handful of pasta with a spoonful of tomato sauce for every meal, with a treat of ravioli on Fridays, while my friends at uni in the UK were going out every night and spending their student loans on Fosters. Poor students my...

Anyway.

YANBU.... shared house = share all the costs. Bleating 'I'm a student' is just pathetic.