What happens to your Single Person Council Tax Discount If you Take In A Temporary Lodger?
By
HuutiMoney
If you are someone who is planning to take in a temporary lodger and are concerned about its effect on your single-person council tax discount, you will find detailed guidance in the following blog post. In addition to explaining the consequences of taking in a temporary lodger, we will also evaluate some real-life situations that may or may not affect your single-person council tax discount.
What happens to your Single Person Council Tax Discount If you Take In A Temporary Lodger?
You will lose your single-person council tax discount if you take in a temporary lodger. The single-person discount for council tax applies to individuals who are liable for council tax payments but are allowed a 25% discount as they are the only adults living on the premises or are living by themselves.
Adding a lodger changes this status and the full rate of council tax which is intended for a 2-adult household becomes applicable.
However, there are certain situations in which the addition of a lodger to your household will not affect your single-person council tax discount. These include the following:
- the lodger is a full-time student
- they are younger than 18 years of age
- they are paying a full council tax at another residence
- the lodger is claiming welfare benefits
According to UK law, full-time students and individuals who are younger than 18 years of age are exempt from council tax payments. Yet, it is not necessary that someone who is 18 years of age must also be in full-time education to be exempt from council tax. If a lodger is younger than 18, it does not matter whether they are in full-time education, part-time education, working part-time or claiming benefits, they are not liable for council tax payment and their presence in your household will not affect your single-person council tax discount.
In the case of full-time students, they can either be pursuing a full-time course or have undertaken an apprenticeship under a recognised program to be considered full-time student who is exempt from council tax payments. This means that you can either by studying full-time or have undertaken an apprenticeship of at least 30 hours per week to be exempt from council tax. This exemption means that if your lodger is a full-time student or an apprentice, their addition to your home will not affect your single-person council tax discount.
If the lodger who shares your premises is registered for paying council tax for a certain property, your single-person council tax discount will not be affected by their addition to your household. This generally happens in cases where lodgers live with you for a certain number of days (usually to reduce the commute for work or education) and go back to their main home on weekends.
This can also be the case for seasonal workers who live away from home for certain times of the year but have their main residence elsewhere. Therefore if a lodger is already paying council tax for their place, your single-person council tax discount of 25% will not be affected by them.
And finally, if a lodger is claiming benefits such as Universal Credit or disability benefits for a mental or physical health condition, you will not lose your single-person council tax discount by adding them to your home.
What happens to your Single Person Council Tax Discount If you Take In A Student As A Temporary Lodger?
What happens to your single-person council tax discount if you take in a student as a temporary lodger depends on whether the lodger is a full-time student or a part-time student.
If a full-time student complies with the following conditions, they will be exempt from council tax. This means that if you take them in, you will not lose your single-person council tax discount:
- the student is involved in a minimum of 21 hours of study each week
- the course undertaken by the student should last a minimum of 12 months
If the student is in an A-level or a course below and is younger than 20 years of age, the following conditions will apply for them to be exempt from council tax and not affect your 25% discount:
- the student should be involved in a minimum of 12 hours of study each week
- the course undertaken by the student should last a minimum of 3 months
It should be noted here that an apprenticeship is also considered a full-time education. This means that if a student meets the below-listed criteria, they are exempt from council tax and you from losing your discount:
- work for at least 30 hours per week under the apprenticeship national minimum wage
- aged between 16 and 19 years and either in full-time non-advanced education or approved training
- aged either 16 or 17 years and registered for further education, work or training with a local authority support service, careers service, Connexions or similar organisation
However, when it comes to part-time students, there can be no exemption from council tax bills; however, a discounted rate will apply. The amount of council tax due will depend on the valuation band assigned to the property they occupy as well as its market value.
Can You Ask A Temporary Lodger To Contribute To Council Tax?
No, you cannot ask your lodger to contribute to council tax. Since lodgers are exempt from council tax payments, you will not be able to ask them outright to share the council tax bill on your property.
Even though lodgers pay a certain amount of rent and share certain areas of the residence with the owner or tenant, they are not liable for council tax payments according to UK law.
However, if you feel that you are losing your single-person council tax discount of 25% due to the addition of a lodger in your household, you can add the incremental amount of council tax that you will have to pay to the rental payment you were intending to demand from a lodger.
In this way, you will still be able to maintain your income without increasing your expenses.
Conclusion:
The above discussion has highlighted how a single-person council tax discount is affected when a lodger is added to your household. Except for certain conditions, you will lose this 25% discount on your council tax bill if you take in a temporary lodger. However, you must be careful; if you take in more than 2 lodgers, your property will be classed as a House in Multiple Occupation or HMO and there is a separate set of rules that apply in such a case.
References:
Taking in a lodger – what you need to think about first