Who should pay the council tax?

[Cavapoo123]

A couple are moving in together. Person A is moving into Person B’s house.

Person A works full-time, currently pays £1500 in house bills in their own place (rented), will only be paying around £700 once moving into Person B’s house (also rented). Person B has no children. Earns around £2000 per month after tax.

Person B doesn’t work due to ill health, is on disability benefits, also has a disabled child who receives disability benefits. Also receives £120 per month child maintenance. Person B’s benefits will go down by around £800 once Person A moves in, but will be making up some of the money by saving on some of the joint house bills that Person A will be contributing towards.

Person B currently doesn’t have to pay council tax due to disability exemptions, however once Person A moves in, the house will have to pay council tax again which even with the single person discount will be around £190 per month.

Who is responsible for this council tax bill?

Ah ok. Sorry I think it's obviously more complicated than I thought.
But essentially neither should either profit or be out of pocket. It feels like losing a lot of benefits is a big risk for B while it's no risk and a benefit potentially to A.

Seeing aside the council tax issue, this whole situation sounds like a win for person A and lose for person B. Person A is saving £800 a month on their usual £1500 bills. Person B is losing £100 a month (probably losing even more because person A may increase bills).

Person A should not be put on tenancy, should pay all council tax and should pay a little more of the bills, say £100. That would put person A in the position of saving £500 a month on their current position, person B saves £100 a month on current position (but has more security which is necessary for their position with disabilities and DC). It's about fairness rather than strict 50/50.

You are person B. You shouldn’t be better off to the detriment of your partner.

You need an excel of their incomings and outgoings and your incomings and outgoings and work out how you can both benefit from the arrangement.

It’s not as simple as ‘they move in, they pay the council tax’.

In 7-8 years time will person B pay half the council tax if their dc still lives at home and are not earning?

You are person B and you are being unreasonable.

Your benefits exist to support you in thebsituation you find yourself in. You aren't losing £800, you just dont need it anymore because now the person moving in with you is paying a chunk of your existing outgoings.

You both have an income in the future situation and need to share that and the outgoings in a manner that is reasonable to you both. If they other person has travel costs associated with earn I b g their income that becomes a joint outgoing.

Benefits for the child should be reserved for and spent solely on the child. Whether you expect thr other person to contribute towards someone else's child is a specific conversation you should have.

You seem to be stuck between the idea of having a lodger and bring a family.

Pool all your money. Decide what are individual expenses. Split all other expenses.

CT is just a small part of the decisions you need to make.

Do you/B have any plans to work? It’s quite entitled to expect your partner/the taxpayer to pay £000s to you indefinitely (I appreciate there is a disabled child but if they are 10 and depending on the nature of the disability there must surely be some potential to start supporting yourself?)

Why are Person A living costs so high as a single person ? £1500 is a lot.

I don’t think you should look at it as Person A saving £700, I would be looking at it as how both of you can can evenly benefit from this arrangement.

The council tax isn’t payable per person, it’s payable per household.

Agree with this. I really wouldn’t be moving in together. It starts with arguing about who is responsible for the council tax but it won’t end at that.

How does Person B's child feel about a strange man moving into their safe space?

Person A saves £800 by moving in and person B loses £100 (£800 loss - £700 contribution) when person A moves in. If person B pays for council tax they would be even more worse off.

It’s not really about who should pay the council tax is it, it’s about making sure the new arrangement works for everybody. If I were person B, I wouldn’t be happy with the current arrangement.

I wonder this too…

I agree with this poster. There is no obligation to live together you can live apart and still be a couple.

Council tax is payable by the household not just Person A.

Why should person A pay it all?

They need to come to a fair arrangement that benefits all, not just Person B. Or A.

Or just not live together?

@Cavapoo123 If Person B is going to be £800 per month less well off and Person A will be paying 700 towards expenses to Person B, that leaves Person B £100 less well off. So - on the one hand and at a minimum, Person A should be paying a contribution of £800 to Person B PLUS the council Tax, since that expense ONLY arises because Person A is living in the house. Person B than can still continue to pay all the bills etc, as they do at present. Person B will be no worse off while person A would still be paying several hundred pounds less per month then when living on their own, so they are still making savings.

That is NOT the fairest way to do this, as others have said, and ideally it would be organised so that both people pay a pro-rata amount towards the bills and both people have some money left over, but if that is too difficult to work out given that Person B has a disabled child, then at the very least Person B should not be accepting anything less than what I outlined above -and if Person A objects to this, Person B should refuse to let Person A move in

Another good option.

100% obviously person A should pay. But more than that, I suggest not moving in together if already arguing about finances.

Your benefits exist to support you in thebsituation you find yourself in. You aren't losing £800, you just dont need it anymore because now the person moving in with you is paying a chunk of your existing outgoings.

This is a good point, person B is only actually down £100. I'd say split the council tax.

Person A should not be paying the whole council tax.

They need to work out incomes and outgoings and xome to a fair arrangement.

They do need to, as I said in my post, but as we know from posts on here, lots of people don't do that. But as I also said in my post Person B (likely to be the female since he/she gets maintenance for the disabled child who lives with them) shouldn't be WORSE off

Is this a partner? because if so, I think the core problem here is that him moving in doesn't seem to be equally benefiting you. I don't think it's relevant how exactly bills are split. But I do think that both partners should see similar financial benefits - in absolute terms or as a percentage (to be decided by each couple). So if Person A is saving loads and Person B is worse off financially, why on earth would person B agre to person A moving in?

If A & B cannot have a grown up conversation about who pays what, you are not ready to move into together.

All the bills should be proportionate to income.

The post states “person B earns 2K a month after tax” and as person B doesn’t work this must mean benefits.

Say it louder for the people at the back!!

please don’t move in together.