What Should You Do If Your Landlord Wants To Pay Council Tax?
By
HuutiMoney
If you are wondering what you should do if your landlord wants to pay council tax for the property that you have rented from them, you should read through the following article for guidance. We will start with evaluating the reasons why landlords may choose to pay council tax and the actions tenants can take if the reasons don’t favour them. We will also discuss how this action of the landlord can affect the benefits claims of tenants and what they can do about it. In the end, we will review the hierarchy of responsibility for council tax payments.
What Should You Do If Your Landlord Wants To Pay Council Tax?
What you should do if your landlord wants to pay council tax depends on your circumstances. For instance, if you live in a multi-occupant property in which each room is rented out to a different tenant and you only share certain areas such as a kitchen or a bathroom with other tenants, it is common practice for the landlord to take over the responsibility of council tax.
However, if that is not the case, council tax is supposed to be the responsibility of the tenant in the case of a rented property. If your landlord wants to pay council tax they would have added the amount to your rent and may have also mentioned it in your tenancy agreement but the reason may not be as simple as that they want to keep the council tax in their name.
There is a possibility that the property that you have rented out is listed as a second home by your landlord or they avail the single person discount on council tax for it. While they may be receiving a discount on the council tax bill, they may be charging you the full amount of council tax and keeping the remaining amount for themselves.
Therefore, it is advisable to talk to them and learn about the actual reason why your landlord wants to pay the council tax for a property that they have rented out.
Additionally, if you have been making council tax payments indirectly through an increased amount of rent, it should be recorded with the local council authorities that the payments made to them were included in your rental payments made to the landlord.
Unless there is an exception such as a multi-occupant tenancy, a tenant should maintain council tax payments in their name.
Another side to this may be that the tenant is severely ill or disabled and the landlord offers to keep the council tax registered to their name and continues to make payment by including the actual amount of council tax paid added to the rent, the tenant and their carers may find this to be a more convenient option.
In some cases where the tenancy period is relatively short such as for a few months, the landlord may want or could have already paid the council tax in advance for the entire year. They may charge this separately from the tenant, on top of the monthly rent.
However, in either case, if a landlord wants to pay council tax directly they should mention it in the tenancy agreement along with the amount that is to be paid (or has been paid).
What Should You Do If You Claim Benefits But Your Landlord Wants To Pay Council Tax?
If you claim benefits such as Housing Benefit or the housing element of Universal Credit, you will need to provide the DWP with evidence of your housing expenses. If your landlord insists on paying the council tax for the property that you have rented from him, you will not have such proof of payments to support your claim.
If you need to claim financial support through benefits for your housing expenses, you should make sure that there is written proof that your council tax is included in the rental payments that you make to your landlord with a clear and separate mention of the rent and council tax.
This can ideally be included in the tenancy agreement and used as supportive evidence for your claim to benefits such as Universal Credit or Housing Benefit.
If you wish to discuss the details of whether or not your benefit claim will be affected by your landlord paying council tax directly, or if you don’t have evidence of your council tax payments to your landlord, you can contact your local Jobcentre Plus office for advice.
Who Is Responsible For Council Tax In A Rented Property?
The responsibility for council tax payments in a rented property is based on a system of hierarchy which goes as follows:
- The prime responsibility for council tax in a tented property lies with the tenant in whose name the tenancy agreement is drawn up and their name is mentioned on the council tax bill.
- If the tenant shares their residence with a partner or a spouse, they will be jointly liable for council tax payments whether or not it is a joint tenancy with their name added to the tenancy agreement.
- In case of the absence of a tenant and their partner or spouse, the responsibility for council tax payments will fall on any other family member who lives in the property as their main residence.
- If a household member (who is a permanent resident of the property), the next in line for council tax payments will be a licensee. This is someone who may not live in the property as their main residence but has permission to live there on an as-and-when basis.
- If the council house is occupied by squatters, they will be required to pay council tax on it.
- At the bottom of the hierarchy and in the absence of any of the above-mentioned types of occupants, the responsibility for council tax payments will fall on the property owner; whether or not is occupied at the time.
Conclusion:
As we’ve discussed the potential reasons why landlords may choose to pay council tax on behalf of their tenants, one can relate the examples to their situation to realise whether or not this is an action that proves favourable for them. If they find it convenient to pay their council tax to the landlord along with their rent, they may wish to choose the option. However, council tax payments are the tenant’s responsibility in a rented property; therefore, one must make sure that they have evidence of their payments to the landlord if the landlord wants to pay council tax directly to the authorities.
References:
Landlord wants to take over council tax payments — MoneySavingExpert Forum