Student Occupied Properties
When we decide on who is liable for Council Tax or if there is a discount or exemption, the decision can become quite complex, particularly when a mixture of students and non-students occupy a property.
In most cases the rules we use are:
Who is liable?
The owner is liable for Council Tax where:
The property is a House in Multiple Occupation or the owner lives in the property (and lets out room/s).
The tenants are liable for Council Tax where:
A single tenancy agreement exists for the occupation of the whole property by all those named on the agreement and the owner lives elsewhere.
If, from above, the persons liable for Council Tax are the tenants, then more rules are applied(presuming that all those residing in the property are named on the tenancy agreement):
- Are all the tenants qualifying students? If yes then all those (students) named on the tenancy agreement are liable for any Council Tax on the property.
- Is there a mixture of tenants some of which are qualifying students and two or more others on Income Support (IS)/Job Seekers Allowance (JSA)? If yes, then those on IS/JSA will be liable for any Council Tax on the property. The tenants on IS/JSA, between them will be able to claim Council Tax benefit to cover the whole of Council Tax on the property. The student tenants will not be named on the bill.
- Is there a mixture of tenants some of which are qualifying students and a single tenant on IS/JSA? If yes, then that person on IS/JSA will be solely liable for any Council Tax on the property. The tenant on IS/JSA will be able to claim a 25% discount as being the only ‘visible’ adult resident and then full Council Tax benefit to cover the whole of Council Tax on the property. The student tenants will not be named on the bill.
- Is there a mixture of tenants some of which are qualifying students and a single working tenant? If yes, then the working tenant will be solely liable for any Council Tax on the property. The working tenant will be able to claim a 25% discount as being the only ‘visible’ adult resident. The student tenants will not be named on the bill.
- Is there a mixture of tenants some of which are qualifying students and two or more working tenants? If yes, then the working tenants will be liable for any Council Tax on the property. The student tenants will not be named on the bill.
- Is there a mixture of tenants some of which are qualifying students, working tenant(s) and tenant(s) on IS/JSA? If yes, then the working tenant(s) and tenant(s) on IS/JSA will be jointly liable for any Council Tax on the property. The student tenants will not be named on the bill.
As you can see above, those on IS/JSA are not disregarded for Council Tax, but they may be entitled to claim Council Tax benefit for a portion of the bill, but they will still be liable for the remaining part of the bill not covered by Council Tax benefit.
Once we have decided who is liable, we can then decide if there can be a discount or exemption allowable. This depends on the circumstances of those living in the property. The Council Tax charge is decided on a daily basis, so if circumstances change on any day, then the liability for the charge may change and the amount charged may change.
The following applies irrespective of who is liable.
Can a reduction be allowed?
- Are all residents qualifying students? If yes then an exemption may be allowed.
- Are all but one of the residents qualifying students? If yes then a 25% discount may be allowed.
- Are there two or more residents that are not qualifying students? If yes then no reduction will be allowed
The rules become more complicated if there people residing in the property that are not named on the tenancy agreement. If you have any questions that we have not answered here, please contact us at Council Tax.
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