To think paying 75% of the council tax is unfair?

[NotaSpringChicken]

Any council officers on here at present? Advice appreciated please.

DD has just moved into a shared house with another young woman. It is DDs first job after 4 years as a student and her first house share. The other girl is a mature student, still at Uni, so far so good.

Today council tax bill arrives. DD is expected to pay 75% of the tax as the other girl is a student and therefore exempt. This means DD picks up the whole bill with a 25% discount while the other girl has no bill to pay. She is upset and worried as money is tight for her.

Is the council entitled to do this to DD? She had expected to pay 50% of the bill and the other 50% to be covered by her housemate's student exemption.

[MummytoCSJH]

BackForGood, again can't tag sorry. My partner is not my son's biological father. My son is with his biological dad fortnightly weekends (would be more if not for distance) and my partner has been in his life for 3 years now. Not that I think that matters but just in case you wanted to know, we all get along well. As a student my income is significantly lower than my partners, so at the moment we are doing what's best for us. We share all normal bills, like gas, electric, water, rent and food bill 50/50 and that includes my son's use. We put money every month into joint accounts for bills, savings and extra expenses e.g. if we decide to eat out or go on holiday. Then out of our spare money in our own accounts we pay for our own things and bills and for me that includes my sons things, however my son's bio father buys around half of extras my son needs e.g. half of after school clubs and if he needs new school shoes halfway through the year and obviously pays for everything when he is there, every other weekend and half of all school holidays. This works for us all.

[MummytoCSJH]

I just wanted to add even though I think OPs DD should pay the council tax, she should also report the dog. It is unfair when your DD didn't agree to this and although you are a guarantor you should only be a guarantor for your DD not what the other girl does or damages. As others have said, it depends on the tenancies.

[TheNoodlesIncident]

I have a lot of sympathy for your dd OP, in my first house I got the 75% council tax bill to pay by myself. My FT salary was £8100 pa before tax, so I didn't have a lot of cash floating round after paying all the bills I had to pay - the single person discount for council tax is the only bill that a reduction applies, so I had to find the costs of the mortgage, utilities, travel, etc myself. It's perfectly fair and I didn't expect it any other way, but it is very hard and a real shock to the system.

Who looks after the dog while the two occupants are out of the house? If there isn't anyone, I would want the student tenant to rethink the dog, as bored and lonely dogs are more likely to be destructive dogs. I would be so pissed off that she just moved the dog in without running the notion past your dd first, that's not on at all. It's a steep learning curve, isn't it...