Council Tax Advice

King Damager

King Damager

King Damager

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Can someone give me some advice about some council tax stuff?

Basically the situation is as follows:
My flat mates and myself are all in our final year of university, as such, for the last three years we have all been council tax exempt as full time students.

However, our lease expires on 31 July 2013, and officially our last day of term is the 31 May 2013.

We got a bill through from the council today, which normally we just send off our exemption forms, and that's it sorted, but with this bill, I've realised we are probably liable for June and July's council tax.

Can anyone provide any clarification upon this, and is there any kind of exemption that may apply to us?

kd
 
What proof of student status do you normally send with your exemption forms? If your proof of status has an expiry date (which may be the last day of term, but could be later), then yes you're liable for council tax after that date.
 
why wouldn't you be liable for the council tax??

You officially stop being students on 31st May, so unless you have some other reason "not" to pay, your due to pay it.
 
What ever you do don't fall fort he Pay it all and you can claim it back scam it takes far to long you jump through so many hoops and get some many confused letters that eventually you give up then they have the cheek to ask you why you dropped your claim.....

I forked out 500 cus my housemates didn't declare there student status meaning I had to pay full The threatened court action and convinced me it's better to pay first. More fool me. Didn't even get 25% back for being the only one paying let alone the fact I was unemployed for the majority of it and could prove it!
 
AJK said:
What proof of student status do you normally send with your exemption forms? If your proof of status has an expiry date (which may be the last day of term, but could be later), then yes you're liable for council tax after that date.
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Normally we just have a tax exempt form. The uni provides it, we take it down to the council, they photocopy it, problem solved. Can't find them right now though.

booyaka said:
why wouldn't you be liable for the council tax??

You officially stop being students on 31st May, so unless you have some other reason "not" to pay, your due to pay it.
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Because whilst my term officially ends 31st May, as others have pointed out, if we had to do resist or stuff, we would still be students, and graduation isn't actually until Mid-July, so am still a student up until then.

Havana_UK said:
Maybe a silly question...

...but why don't you ring the council and ask them instead?
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This is actually the logical solution, but we are all in the middle of exams, and spending five minutes creating a post on here asking members is much more likely to give me a solution with minimal effort than going through trying to talk to get the council to sort stuff out.

Buckeyed said:
Will there be anybody living in the place until July or are you moving out at the end of May?
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Hit and miss. We won't hand our keys back until mid July. Most weeks at least one of us will be here.

kd
 
TwsT said:
let alone the fact I was unemployed for the majority of it and could prove it!
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Being unemployed doesn't make you council tax exempt :confused:

To the OP, best to contact both the uni and council - you should have something similar to a "certificate of exemption", this may include validity periods.
 
King Damager said:
Because whilst my term officially ends 31st May, as others have pointed out, if we had to do resist or stuff, we would still be students, and graduation isn't actually until Mid-July, so am still a student up until then.
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Actually, I'm pretty sure once your term ends, that's it, you're no longer a student. How can you be classed as a full-time student (to get the council tax exemption) when you're not actually attending XX hours of class per week for a couple of months?
 
Dunks said:
Actually, I'm pretty sure once your term ends, that's it, you're no longer a student. How can you be classed as a full-time student (to get the council tax exemption) when you're not actually attending XX hours of class per week for a couple of months?
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I'd disagree, I'd say you're still a student until you graduate. Term may end on the 31st May but when do you get your marks? If you fail you may have to resit the year and therefore you'd still be a student! Also by your reasoning you wouldn't be a student during summer holidays for example.....

OP, I'd just show the council some sort of proof of graduation date - should sort out the issue.
 
When does your student card expire? I expect it'll be July.

I've never heard of anyone paying council tax on the last month of their student house.
 
I would ask the uni before the council, as council will say yes.

I'd get a new exemption letter from uni, if it doesn't mention the end of May as end date, which I very much doubt it will, then you're fine. I would expect it to be a general end of term date, rather than one that's specific to you. And that's if it has an end date at all.

if the letter does say May on it, then scan it, change date July in Photoshop, and reprint. Problem solved. ;) ;)
 
Disco Boy said:
When does your student card expire? I expect it'll be July.

I've never heard of anyone paying council tax on the last month of their student house.
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Yeah, that says May, although I want to see if they can extend that.

I've had a look and it turns out the council tax form only covers us for the end of May. Stupid form. Oh well, that's two months I'll have to pay....

kd
 
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