Council Tax-Moving in with partner

[TravellingT]

Can't seem to find a straight answer from anyone else, so here goes.

Niece is 24, lives at home with parents (privately owned, parents pay council tax). Niece wants to move in with partner next year (26, privately owned, pays single person council tax).

Niece is currently staying with partner on weekdays, goes home at weekends (4 days with partner, 3 days at home). At what point should she be paying council tax? Is it when she moves in fully, or should she be paying it now?

Can she get 'in trouble' for staying there majority of time without paying partner's council tax i.e. full rate, not single person discount?

Not sure if this is relevant but the 2 homes are in different boroughs but same band of council tax.

TIA!

She’ll not get in trouble but her partner might if he’s claiming a single person discount when he has her there the majority of the time

Really, @hannahcolobus? That's awful. I also thought that students were not liable for Council Tax, did your friend's local council realise the son was a student?

Students are exempt from council tax so not sure how that would’ve made her lose the discount .
but anyway if she is registered as living at parents then their council tax will cover her . As soon as she puts her bills etc and moves in with boyfriend he will lose his single occupancy discount .
in the meantime if someone rings the council and snitches to try and get him in trouble they will investigate and make a decision

They have to be declared and have their student status confirmed. Lots of people get caught out because they don’t do that and assume the council somehow just know their child is a student.

At the CAB I volunteered in for a while it was one of the most common things people asked for help with.

Her boyfriend is the one who may have to pay the full rate but proably only when she moves fully in with him (and they should then reach an agreement between them about how they split things, sort out the legal side etc).
I lost my single person discount the day after my twins stopped being students last year. In order to get the discount it took my council 7 mnoths of correspondence and yet they remove it immediately - very efficient in removing it and very slow at giving it to me in the first place.

Students don't pay council tax or count as an adult for council tax

Your friend has completed some paperwork incorrectly and needs to give them a call. As pp have said, her child returning from uni in holidays does not impact single person discount.

If your niece spends more time at bf house than her parents house he shouldn't be claiming a single person discount. It's more than 50 percent of the time they look at and 4 nights there just breeches that. My DS has his gf to stay over 2 or 3 nights each week and he stays at her house 2 nights. Neither breach the 50 percent of rule.

Thank you all, I think they're going to discuss a timeline of moving in and will either speed things up and remove the discount sooner or start paying now.

Thank you, it's saved us a lot of worrying!

She’s still a visitor / guest at her partners, and hasn’t presumably made their address their official address, e.g for bank statements, voting, etc.

He should start paying full CT if she moves in properly and it is her actual home address.

Not changing her address on paperwork doesn’t make her just a visitor in the eyes of the council

That’s a mistake a number of couples make and end up in bother

@TravellingT It has been a long time since I worked in council tax but she spends more time at the boyfriend's than her home address nights wise so from that standpoint I would say she is "living there" from a council tax point of view. Sorry. It doesn't matter that all her post etc is going to her parents. I could do that and I don't live there.

As she lives with her parents she has no liability to pay council tax there meaning that they can charge the boyfriend a full charge. If it were me I would want to inform them myself rather than being dobbed in by a neighbour.

@hannahcolobus yes your friend's son would be considered a second adult living at the property and his name added to the bill but as a student he is exempt from paying council tax and a student exemption would be applied. He needs to get his student exemption certificate from his university and she can get the bill amended meaning she will get refunded for the over payment of that bill. Even if he has left he can get confirmation that he was registered as a student from x to y dates and the bill will be amended. Usually they can go back 6 years.

https://www.yourdebtexpert.com/latest-tips/how-long-can-someone-stay-without-paying-council-tax/#:~:text=Typically%2C%20if%20someone%20is%20staying,to%20pay%20extra%20council%20tax.

Mention here of living as a couple with joint bank account and joint payment of rent and bills.