Forum spotlight: Council Tax query over single student in HMO

A landlord posted on our forum this month with a query about their HMO property.

Their property is a house share. Three tenants living at the property are working professionals, and one is currently a student. The tenants all split the bills four ways.

Our landlord was aware that students are exempt from paying council tax, and the tenant who is a student had got in touch to request they shouldn’t pay their portion of the council tax for this reason.

Our landlord wanted to know about the exemptions that apply to students and whether such an exemption would be possible.

The responses on our forum

The first person to reply to the thread said the student could, if in full time education, apply for a council tax exemption, however this might not have an affect on the overall Council Tax bill for the property.

Another landlord agreed with this, and suggested that because the tenancy is a joint and several tenancy with a mix of a full time student and professionals, it would not achieve the standard 'whole house exemption' from council tax.

They said a single full time student - providng the council with their exemption certificate - would be exempt from paying council tax, yet this could result in their 'share' of the bill needing to be paid by the other tenants or the landlord.

Then, an adviser from our Landlord Support Team joined in on the thread.

They said that because it is a joint tenancy agreement, all the tenants living at the property are liable for council tax.

If the student wanted a council tax exemption they would need to ask the council directly, but if the split between student and professional is 50-50 then it’s unlikely to happen.

The NRLA advised the member in this situation to contact their local council to enquire about this matter directly.