UK Landlord Forum / Life

Ive had a three bed flat for about 10 years and  never had students in.  Two people recently left and i struggled to attract the usual  flood of new tenants (covid?). Anyway I signed up two students who were keen and looked good.  The remaining tenant is employed.

I just got a worried text from the employed tenant saying the students reckon they don't have to pay Council tax so now she's lumbered with a huge monthly bill minus some small discount.  I put my hands up to being ignorant about this - if I'd known I would have either not let to them or turned the whole house  over to students when it would become exempt from the tax.  They are on the usual 6 month contract.  I feel sorry for the original tenant and don't think she should bear the extra costs through no fault of her own but also feel that The Council Tax is not really anything to do with me - the agreement states the tenant is responsible for this.   My instinct is to cough up the students share of the  tax until the end of the 6 months then move the students on. Any thoughts please.

Are they on seperate or single contract?

They are all on separate contracts.  its just evolved like that over the years - not ideal I know.  My cousin was in it to start with and she found flat mates then over the years theyve all moved on from time to time and Ive been finding new ones or sometimes they move their friends in but they all sign separate agreements.

Since the existing tenant had no choice on the new tenants, I can understand why she's upset over her council tax more than doubling. And since they're on seperate contracts, what you actually have is a council tax HMO, which mean from the council tax point of view, you're the liable person, not your tenants. If your tenant stop paying, the one the council will go after is you not them.

Going forward, increase the rent to cover the council tax amount (I mean the 1/3 each room, not the 75% here), and then pay the council tax yourself.

My understanding of council tax is if there are more than 2 tenants and 1 is a student then the council tax discount is minimal.  When I was a student I lived with a mate and we got more than half off the council tax so my friend paid it in full but he was better off than if he was living with another working tenant.

This is one that in hindsight should have been sorted before they moved in.  Students don't pay council tax if the whole house is tenanted by students.  So in this case I can understand the working tenants being aggrieved at paying a higher council tax rate as the student's council tax isn't actually free.

Hopefully someone here is better on the legal side than me.

https://www.gov.uk/council-tax/who-has-to-pay

One non-full time student adult, 25% off.