You are living in a House of Multiple Occupancy (HMO)

Occupancy in a House of Multiple Occupancy are not liable for council tax. The landlord or the freeholder is liable for it.

A House of Multiple Occupancy is any dwelling property that is shared communally and occupied by persons from different households with their own rooms and shared communal rooms, such as the kitchen and living room. These are typically student accommodations and house or flat-shares.

The definitive guide to who is liable for council tax in sequential order is provided in section 6 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992.

A Landlord must have a property license to operate a house of Multiple Occupancy and the regulations are prescribed in the Management of Houses in Multiple Occupation (England) Regulations 2006.

If you are a house-sharer and a bailiff is pestering you for council tax, you should direct them to the landlord or the managing letting agency.

If the bailiff persists or threatens an occupant with enforcement action, then you can give notice of an injunction, because the bailiff is not acting in the lawful execution of duty. The action threatened is in breach of Paragraphs 7.1, and 10 of Schedule 12 of the Tribunals Courts and Enforcement Act 2007.

If a council has obtained a liability against an occupant of a House of Multiple Occupancy, the occupant can apply to quash the liability order under section 12A of the Local Government Finance Act 1992.

Write to the council by email and tell them to apply to quash the liability order because the law says occupants in an HMO are not liable for council tax.

Take a screenshot of the sent email recording the time it was given. You mist need to exhibit it as evidence.

The Law:

Section 6 of Local Government Finance Act 1992 states:

Persons liable to pay council tax.

(1)The person who is liable to pay council tax in respect of any chargeable dwelling and any day is the person who falls within the first paragraph of subsection (2) below to apply, taking paragraph (a) of that subsection first, paragraph (b) next, and so on.

(2)A person falls within this subsection in relation to any chargeable dwelling and any day if, on that day—

(a)he is a resident of the dwelling and has a freehold interest in the whole or any part of it;

(b)he is such a resident and has a leasehold interest in the whole or any part of the dwelling which is not inferior to another such interest held by another such resident;

(c)he is both such a resident and a statutory secure or introductory tenant of the whole or any part of the dwelling;

(d)he is such a resident and has a contractual licence to occupy the whole or any part of the dwelling;

(e)he is such a resident; or

(f)he is the owner of the dwelling.

(3)Where, in relation to any chargeable dwelling and any day, two or more persons fall within the first paragraph of subsection (2) above to apply, they shall each be jointly and severally liable to pay the council tax in respect of the dwelling and that day.

(4)Subsection (3) above shall not apply as respects any day on which one or more of the persons there mentioned fall to be disregarded for the purposes of discount by virtue of paragraph 2 (severely mentally impaired) or 4 (students etc.) of Schedule 1 to this Act and one or more of them do not; and liability to pay the council tax in respect of the dwelling and that day shall be determined as follows—

(a)if only one of those persons does not fall to be so disregarded, he shall be solely liable;

(b)if two or more of those persons do not fall to be so disregarded, they shall each be jointly and severally liable.

(5)In this Part, unless the context otherwise requires—

"owner", in relation to any dwelling, means the person as regards whom the following conditions are fulfilled—

(a)he has a material interest in the whole or any part of the dwelling; and

(b)at least part of the dwelling or, as the case may be, of the part concerned is not subject to a material interest inferior to his interest;

"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.

(6)In this section—

"introductory tenant" means a tenant under an introductory tenancy within the meaning of Chapter I of Part V of the Housing Act 1996;

"material interest" means a freehold interest or a leasehold interest which was granted for a term of six months or more;

"secure tenant" means a tenant under a secure tenancy within the meaning of Part IV of the M1Housing Act 1985;

"statutory tenant" means a statutory tenant within the meaning of the Rent Act 1977 or the Rent (Agriculture) Act 1976.

Section 12A of Schedule 4 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 states:

Quashing of liability orders

12ARegulations under paragraph 1(1) above may provide—

(a)that, where on an application by the authority concerned a magistrates' court is satisfied that a liability order should not have been made, it shall quash the order;

(b)that, where on an application to a magistrates' court for the quashing of a liability order, the court is satisfied that, had the original application been for a liability order in respect of a lesser sum payable, such an order could properly have been made, it shall substitute a liability order in respect of the aggregate of—

(i)that lesser sum, and

(ii)any sum included in the quashed order in respect of the costs incurred in obtaining it.