Updating post from Reddit.
My tenant was contracted to the end of January in an unfurnished property. They began to move their stuff out at the end of December. Who is responsible for paying the council tax for January? The council says I am (the landlord), because they go off when the property is in an unfurnished state. I say the tenant is, because if I literally cannot rent it out for January due to it still being under contract, how can it be expected for me to pay the council tax? It just seems wrong. My contract says the tenant is responsible.
Council are wrong. If you provide the tenancy agreement/termination notice they should bill the tenant. As soon as the tenancy ends, you are liable.
Are you able to say why you think this is the case?
Because the liability lies with the tenant. I work for a Housing Association and deal with this all the time.
Correct.
Source: I also deal with this a lot, responsible for council tax is the tenant . If it is still their tenancy as an AST then they are responsible for council tax until end to their tenancy regardless of whether they have removed their furniture or not until landlord has accepted end of their tenancy as per notice required in their AST contract or has new tenants if an earlier date was agreed if possible to re rent earlier with everyone’s agreement.
If it is a shared place as a rented room within a place as a HMO that has always been the landlord responsible for council tax
Thanks
You have a contract (tenancy agreement) which stipulates they're liable. It's simple.
Depends on the type of tenancy they hold.
https://england.shelter.org.uk/professional_resources/legal/debt/council_tax/liability
Are they a tenant in a fixed term, a contractual period tenant, or a statutory periodic tenant?
Last month of a fixed period AST. Going off that link it looks like it depends on what a "resident" is. They are contractually the resident, although they moved out earlier.
My understanding is that they remain liable until the end of their fixed term contract.
Yeah, that seems to be the case from that link you kindly posted: "A tenant is liable for council tax if they have a fixed term of six months or more and the tenancy has not ended". Although admittedly that's Shelter saying that, and not whatever the legislation says.
Shelter have references in their guides which make them somewhat authoritative.
You need to read s6 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 which is fairly clear.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1992/14/section/6
For clarity you need to read s6(2), (5), and (6) together
Thanks for this link. I interpret s6(5) to mean the tenant doesn't count as a resident for January:
"resident”, in relation to any dwelling, means an individual who has attained the age of 18 years and has his sole or main residence in the dwelling.
As they've left early, it can't really be said that they have their sole or main residence in the dwelling. That's going to stop the "resident" options in s6(2) applying, and meaning, me, as the owner, is liable.
That's different to Shelter's rather simpler interpretation, and sadly looks like I am going to be liable :(
If the tenant is keeping stuff there forcing the place to be deemed as furnished and therefore you are being charged council tax I would imagine they are liable for it.
There are different layers of responsibility. Councils have a hierarchy of responsibility. You may well owe it to the council especially if the tenant has a home elsewhere and even more so if the tenancy was a periodic one, but even sometimes if not. The tenant in turn owes you reimbursement under contract (assuming your contract with them is even vaguely ok). Which is why you should not refund the deposit until you are clear that you will not be liable to pay council tax (the same does not apply to utilities). Unfortunately many Councils maintain that you ARE liable even during a fixed period if the tenant is paying CT elsewhere.
Is the tenant preventing you from letting it and agreeing to pay rent (usually a tenant would try to negotiate some some or compromise).
Yes some things in the field of landlord and tenant law are very "wrong" but you compensate for that via higher rent (basically good and decent tenants pay dearly for the misdeeds of a small minority).
Thanks for the reply. On balance from all of the replies so far, and the Shelter link that someone posted, it looks like the tenant will be liable. However, I have no doubt the council will make the whole process hard work. They have yet to reply to my first email on this matter, from the 8th of March. I have to ring them to get anywhere. Sigh!!
Council is totally wrong and I bet you don't have that claim of theirs in writing. They may not charge council tax (or 100%) of the council tax when an empty property is unfurnished but that's irrelevant - the property is rented out till the end of Jan. The tenant has paid council tax throughout their tenure and just because they've moved out doesn't mean they're not liable assuming you didn't let them off the last month's rent and called time on the rental early? You are liable for council tax from the 1st Feb unless you got another tenant in.
Read that legislation.gov.uk link someone posted earlier. I think it means I'm liable. Do you come to the same conclusion?