How does council tax work when students (who are exempt) live with working professionals (who arent)?

Question

I am a full time student, which means I am exempt from paying council tax, but I am about to rent a house with two of my friends who are both working full time.
When working out rent they worked council tax into the price, but I dont pay this.
How does it work? Is there a set price that we are meant to pay on the house and we have to split it between the 3 of us or do we each pay for our own room or what?

Answer 1

I am a full time student who lives with two full time workers.



Because you have more than one full time worker in the house there is absolutely no discount on the overall Council Tax. However as a household you (as an individual) are technically exempt for paying anything towards it.



This is all well and good but you will then need to tell your flatmates they need to cough up and pay 50% each rather than you sharing it as 33.3% each.



If you contact your local Council they will be able to confirm all this and provide you with the necessary form if you do decide to be offciailly exempt.



The question is... will your mates be happy with this!!

Answer 2

It doesn't matter how many people are living in a property for the council tax unless there is only one person. As a student you don't have to pay so if it were you and one friend who is working in the place there would be a 25% discount available.



Unfortunately there are two workers in your accomodation so afraid you are out of luck as the property still requires full council tax to be paid.



Council tax consists of two parts, the property and the inhabitants. So you could ask your flatmates to divided the council tax into the two parts and you pay a third of the property but none of the inhabitants and they then pay a third each of the property and half each of the inhabitants.



Best to sit down and discuss the matter calmly rather than crying foul. They maybe willing to adjust rents if you approach the matter in a calm reasoned manner.

Answer 3

By law, you are exempt from council tax only if ALL of you who live together are full time students. In other words, if, for instance, 5 people live in a property, and 5 of them are full time students, then one does not have to pay the council tax. If, however, 4 out of those 5 are students, and only 1 is a professional, you become liable to pay the concil tax, because in that case your household cannot be classified as 'student' household for council tax exemption purposes.

Answer 4

Council tax is a set amount per year per house.



People can be exempt under certain circumstances, for example if you're a full time student, as you are.



If there is only one person in the house that is supposed to pay council tax then they do now have to pay it all. It is reduced to either 50% or 75%, I forget which.



But once there are two or more people eligible to pay council tax it is 100%.





As you are a full time student living with two people are are eligible for paying council tax you will need to pay 100% for the house. But you are exempt, so the other two will need to pay it between them. Whether you pay anything is up to you, if you want to help them out with the cost then do so, but you're not under any legal obligation to help them out.

Answer 5

The tenancy agreement is irrelevant as far as your status is concerned. It tells you that the tenant is liable for council tax - that means that the owner is not paying it. You deal directly with the council on this one.



As a full time student you are entitled to total exemption - therefore you do not pay any council tax. Your flatmates will share the council tax bill for the property between them.



However you will have to apply to your council for exemption - they will provide a form which your college or university will sign and stamp indicating that you are an enrolled full time student. Once this is handed in and processed, you will not be liable for council tax.



The flatmates, if they fill in a council tax benefit form, will be assessed separately depending on their income and may or may not be entitled to council tax benefit to assist with the cost.

Answer 6

Hi



I'm not sure if this is still the same procedure, but, when I was at uni if you had a full time student in your house you didnt have to pay council tax, even if some of you were working. We had 5 students and 1 worker - call your local council and ask them



Either way - YOU are exempt, so your other 2 housemates should pay more - they earn more!

Answer 7

Yes, you are still exempt from paying anything (ie the person bit AND the building bit), if you all comunailly rent the house, then as far as your landlord is concerned you are all responsible for the rent / bills / counil tax. if this is the case - what you can do is submit your Council Tax Exemption form to your council to get a discount on the amount payable, then its up to you to decide with your friends what every one is paying.

However I study computing NOT LAW!! i only know that because im in this situation this year ! - contact your local council tax unit - they are generally very helpfull about this kind of thing !



incidently you have to submit your CTE form anyway - just noticed that !



good luck!

Answer 8

If you live with people who work, the household is classed as tax payers and you'll need to pay your share. Only property occupied wholly by students is exempt, or by persons under 18 years of age. A 25% discount is available where two or more persons reside in the property and all but one of them is a sare disregarded for discount purposes, ie 3 students and 1 council tax payer.

Answer 9

I'm not sure if Joker meant there have to be more then five of you or not. There's no limit to how many people live there, if you have separate tenancy agreements to rent a room or part of the house, and not a joint tenancy for all eight of you to rent the whole house together, the property would be classed as HMO - a House in Multiple Occupation, and the landlord would be liable. He would pay a 75% charge . If you have a joint tenancy agreement between the eight of you, you have all rented the house together, then you will be the liable party and you will receive the 25% discount as the only chargeable party. Find out if the property is HMO and make sure the landlord is happy for you to move in. Lots of student landlords with HMO properties will not take non-students because it means they have to pay council tax.

Answer 10

Council Tax is a household tax, so charged per h/h, so not divided three ways, etc.

As a full-time student, you are 'disregarded'.

Council Tax is based on two adults or more, and is 50% person, 50% property.

If, say for example you lived with one other person, a non-student, you would get 25% discount (equivalent of single person discount). If you're all students, you pay nothing.

As your situation is one student, and two non-students, you won't get any discount, because there are two non-disregarded people.

Hope this makes sense!

Answer 11

Hi, I had same problem in my final year at uni. You are entitled to appy for a discount but you are not exempt. The house is only exempt when ALL occupiers are full-time students. It is up to you to get the info from your university which will allow your landlord to apply for a % reduction (I think it is 25%). The remaining bill is still payable by all occupants so in my case, we just split the 75% bill between all of us. It was my choice to live with working prof & therefore my resp. to pay towards costs. Some nice peeps will not expect the student to pay, given lower income I can imagine but if your mates do that they are being generous, they certainly don't have to, nor should you expect them too. Good luck!

Answer 12

They need to apply to the council for a reduction to the annual council tax. Whatever they get charged then they can split between the two of them.

All they need to do is fill in a form & show proof that you are a student. Have a look on your local authority's web site

Answer 13

well it all depends on ur council! but with most councils if there are 2 or more people in the house that work u must all pay all of the council tax, however i do not as its just me and my fella!



in fairness u should all pay for it, it does not matter what rooms u have

Answer 14

Every adult in the house is liable to pay council tax. If you are a student you are exempt. Couples and the unemployed both receive a rebate.

Answer 15

i share a house with a student, for this i get a 25% discount on my council tax.



the bill is however still all mine and not the students so you could ask that the council tax is not included with what your charged, but out of fairness my room mate splits it with me anyway as we split all the other bills.



I think in your case it would only be fair if you either paid your bit or at least offered to pay most of it.

Answer 16

if u r asking bout the process its simple ur only get the percentage expempted if all of u are not students, but if u still wanna go ahead with ne fin u cud save then go to ur uni or collage and ask for a council tax expemtion letter its a matter of minutes taht will state that u r a full time student, and if u cud get the tenancy in ur name n tell em u r all students then u can get an expemtion, but if u cant show other ppl living in r students then simple get the letter n go to the town hall or council office they will tell u whatto do but take the letter wid u ofcourse to show that u r a student ......hope i answered ur question....

Answer 17

The property is liable to the tax with a working person in it. This in turn means that depending on your tennant agreement you either share the bill equally or the worker(s) pay the bill! THere are no 'rules' set by the Council, you have to work it out yourself if nothing is in your tennant agreement!

Answer 18

Depends on the council but i'm a student and my husband works so i get 25% discount!!! Big Wooppee!!

Answer 19

there is one tax per propety which each thieving goverment set.

this tax is or should be shared by each member of that household however the only exclusion is that if you are in full time education you are exempt but only if you live with a full time carer ie parents guardian etc in your circumstances i would advise a visit to your cab ( citizens advice ) but if you living away from home you will have to chip in.

Answer 20

Wow, I'm more confused by the answers than before I read them all! Best to contact your council, I think!

Or you can look for your local CAB (Citizens Advice Bureau here: http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/index/getadvice#txt_getadvice_header-Anchor-search)



Good luck!