Want to continue to be on council tax whilst landlord but council say no

[HarrietVaneAgain]

Hi we are renting out our house whilst away for six months. We know the tenants and have agreed that as we know we will be back in the property we will just continue paying council tax in the meantime - the rent we charge will reflect this. We are keen to do it this way as we will have an application for a school place and don't want to risk it being turned down. (Have explained the situation to the admissions dept but worry messages will get lost and they will think we have left the area) Anyway having checked with the council tax dept they say they don't care who pays it but the tenants details must be the ones on the council tax register. Can they insist on this?

Yes, liability is worked out using the ladder of hierarchy, a resident tenant is higher up the ladder than a non resident owner therefore they must be named as the liable persons. Your details will still be held as owner though so it shouldn't affect your school place.

Notfast is correct, the bill will be in the tenants names but you can still pay it on their behalf. I used to work in Council Tax.

We once had a single woman's name on the account (had seen tenancy agreement from letting agent) and then a married man who had liability elsewhere with his wife, paid the single woman's Council Tax out of his own bank account, whilst the one with the wife came out of the joint account

Yep, he paid for his mistress' Council Tax. What a gentleman!

Sorry, but I think this would be considered a fraudulent application because you won't be living there at the time of your application. It might be worth posting in Education as there are two posters with a lot of knowledge on this area - called something like prh47 and schooladmissions - who will be able to give you more information. Good luck.

I think this is precisely the reason council won't let you do this otherwise everyone would be paying people's council tax in catchment and putting thier names on the council tax list in order to get a place

yep, the council are stopping you committing fraud. If you don't live there you risk losing your place.

feel free to pay it for the tenants, but they live there and their names must be on the register. You need to be off the electoral roll for the place too.