Council Tax Guidance

You should write to the Council Tax department explaining that you are the landlord, not Green Pastures.

If the property is a HMO please make sure your organisation and address is given to Council Tax, not our address. If they have our address by mistake then please let them know they need to update it.  

Council Tax Liability – 1 bed flat

The resident is liable for council tax.

Council Tax Liability – 2 bed flat (Where 2 or more are related)

The residents are liable for council tax.

Council Tax Liability - HMO

Landlord is liable for council tax.

A HMO is 2 or more people sharing a dwelling that are unrelated.  

In most circumstances liability for the council tax falls to the residents of a dwelling not the owner. However, an exception does apply to houses which are classed as houses in multiple occupation (HMOs).  A house in multiple occupation is defined as a dwelling which was  either:

• Originally constructed or subsequently adapted for occupation by people who do not constitute a single household; or
• Where the residents have a licence to occupy or pay rent in respect of part only of the dwelling - for example if you pay rent only for  the room you occupy and other residents are not responsible for your rent if you  move out. 

Case Study: Confusion over Council Tax

Case: Our partner Informal learning was called by their local council and told that a council tax inspector had to visit their properties to ensure they were HMOs. Unaccustomed to this request we contacted the Department of Communities and Local Government for some advice. Here is the response from DCLG.  

Under the Housing Act 2004, an HMO is defined as an entire house, flat or converted building which is let to three or more residents who form two or more households, who share facilities such as a kitchen, bathroom and toilet. Local authorities are under a statutory duty to licence larger higher risk HMOs and also have the discretion to extend licensing to other types of HMO. The licensing requirements are intended to ensure that standards are decent for persons living independently in HMOs, especially in those HMOs where several individual occupiers share basic facilities. In order to ensure decent standards, licensable HMOs will be subject to an inspection by an environmental health officer.

They said that the suggestion from the council that a “council tax property inspector” needs to come and inspect a property is most likely a confusion on their part as this is not standard practice. The housing side of the local authority decides what an HMO is and Environmental Services inspect standards. This informs housing benefit of arrangements, but housing benefit does not conduct inspections.

This area of the law is quite confusing and sometimes even the local authority gets it wrong! So it’s never wrong to ask a question if things don’t quite stack up.