Help In Scotland

suarve

suarve

suarve

Soldato
Joined
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Midlands, UK
Hi,

My sister is at Uni in Stirling, Scotland and has gotton herself in a total mess money wise. Have a few questions, as not sure if stuff is the same in Scotland as the England and she's just called me.

- Do students still qualify for job seekers allownace (she's been out of work for a while now).
- Are any types of ermergency loan available?
- If she's renting a terrace house, can someone confiorm she shouldn't be paying poll taxi (£120 pcm).
- At the min she shares a terrace house with 3 friends and they each pay £285 pcm (expensive imo!). Now another friend has offered to move in and they all thought thaat this would bring the share of the rent down. Now the landlord (who sounds like a tool) has sudenly decided that theior rent will remain the same and the extra person will pay the same as the others. Can he do this? Where does my sister stand?


Thanks for any advice.
 
she cannot claim job seekers allowance
She can apply for a hardship loan from the uni
Poll tax? didnt know this was still around, its been abolished for years in england/wales. Council tax for students is iirc free
Its his house he can charge what he likes. £280 does sound steep mind, when i was in uni i was paying £170 a month however we did lkive in a dive.
 
I'm in Stirling and will happily go and look after her ;)

She cannot apply for JSA
If all the occupants of the house are students then there will be no council tax. If only one in a non-student then a 25% discount will apply. If more than one is a non-student then the full rate will apply. Although she is a student, there is nothing to say she won't be asked to pay a share of the council tax for the household. Importantly though, she should be paying this direct to Stirling Council, not via the landlord. Tell her to phone 08452777000 to ask where she stands. Stirling Council are usually quite quick with refunds in my experience.
As for the rent situation, if it's a shorthold tennancy she can ask for an independent assessment of what the rent should be I think.

EDIT - I've had a look at the council website, and even a band H property should only be paying £265pcm on council tax. I'm assuming the £120 figure you mentioned is between the whole household?
 
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big_white_dog84 said:
I'm in Stirling and will happily go and look after her ;)

She cannot apply for JSA
If all the occupants of the house are students then there will be no council tax. If only one in a non-student then a 25% discount will apply. If more than one is a non-student then the full rate will apply. Although she is a student, there is nothing to say she won't be asked to pay a share of the council tax for the household. Importantly though, she should be paying this direct to Stirling Council, not via the landlord. Tell her to phone 08452777000 to ask where she stands. Stirling Council are usually quite quick with refunds in my experience.
As for the rent situation, if it's a shorthold tennancy she can ask for an independent assessment of what the rent should be I think.

EDIT - I've had a look at the council website, and even a band H property should only be paying £265pcm on council tax. I'm assuming the £120 figure you mentioned is between the whole household?
Click to expand...

Sorry, meant council tax :)

The weird thing is that she's the only one in the house who had a letter demanding she pay £120 council tax.
 
Smitho3 said:
she cannot claim job seekers allowance
She can apply for a hardship loan from the uni
Poll tax? didnt know this was still around, its been abolished for years in england/wales. Council tax for students is iirc free
Its his house he can charge what he likes. £280 does sound steep mind, when i was in uni i was paying £170 a month however we did lkive in a dive.
Click to expand...

Only reason I mentioned this was because she says there's nothing about charging a higer rate with more people in. I've haven't read she contract personally but it sounds like a flat amount pcm is specified - and when my sis and her housemates split the rent 3 ways this amount is covered. Just wondered if the landlord can suddenly decide to do this (when asked why it was so much my sis said the landlord said due to the credit crunch).
 
She'll just need to send a 'student status certificate' to the council to sort it out. I seem to remember Stirling council having a relationship with the uni that meant they spoke to each other directly to confirm status. Get your sister to speak to her student services on Tuesday. The other students in the house should probably do the same.
 
The council tax issue is easy to sort out as big_white_dog84 says, the emergency loan(s) on offer will depend on the university but she'll normally have to prove that she is in dire financial straits.

As for the landlord charging the same rent with an extra person in the house, unless it states in the contract that there should only be X number of people in the house then unfortunately she probably doesn't have much of an argument.
 
Poll tax is stoneage, that's what finished Thatcher off.

I don't think full students have ever qualified for JSA she would get into serious trouble if she was claimg JSA while a full time student, part time students under 21 hours per can claim JSA though.

London still controls all tax for the united kingdom, so no it's exact the same as it is in England, she shouldn't be paying full council tax, unless, as mentioned above, there are non student in the flat.

Landords can pretty much do what they like, i am not joking, and £285 is not too bad actually.
 
As there are more than 3 people whom are not family members living in the flat, the landlord must have a house of multiple occupancy (HMO) license. If your sister is unsure of this, have her look for fire doors and smoke alarms in every room. It costs quite a bit of money fitting out a flat for HMO inspection, fire doors for every room for example

If he clearly does not have a license, and plenty of landlords don't, your sister has a lot of weight to (carefully) throw around as he is breaking the law.

If he does have a license it will stipulate the number of people who may live in the property. It seems likely that he would have advertised and rented to that number of people and as such he cannot legally accept more residents.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2004/07/19733/40897

£285 in Stirling sounds about right but it of course depends on the quality of accommodation.
 
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Sorry I havn't read the replies but only your post.

There should be emergency money from the universities. You fill in a form of your debts, what you spend and give them a bank statement and they will give you some money (not a huge sum but maybe a couple hundred or more) depending on your circumstances.

The universities may also give out emergency loans as well if you speak to them.
 
likwid said:
As there are more than 3 people whom are not family members living in the flat, the landlord must have a house of multiple occupancy (HMO) license. If your sister is unsure of this, have her look for fire doors and smoke alarms in every room. It costs quite a bit of money fitting out a flat for HMO inspection, fire doors for every room for example

If he clearly does not have a license, and plenty of landlords don't, your sister has a lot of weight to (carefully) throw around as he is breaking the law.

If he does have a license it will stipulate the number of people who may live in the property. It seems likely that he would have advertised and rented to that number of people and as such he cannot legally accept more residents.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2004/07/19733/40897

£285 in Stirling sounds about right but it of course depends on the quality of accommodation.
Click to expand...
@ OP, this is a very useful post! Thumbs-up to likwid.
 
suarve said:
Sorry, meant council tax :)

The weird thing is that she's the only one in the house who had a letter demanding she pay £120 council tax.
Click to expand...

its because she hasnt told the council and filled in a form to proove shes a student. it can easily be sorted out. just go visit the council or most councils you can even do it online

has she already got a student account with overdraft ? sadly thats the only way most students can afford to live thesedays without theyre parents helping out loads
 
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