Students and council tax

Who counts as a full-time student

For council tax, "student" has a precise meaning (GOV.UK, discounts for full-time students):

• at university or college, on a course of at least one year that needs at least 21 hours of study a week for at least 24 weeks of the year;
• under 20, on a course up to A level or equivalent that lasts more than three months and needs at least 12 hours a week during term;
• a student nurse on a course leading to registration;
• a foreign language assistant registered with the British Council.

Postgraduates writing up a doctorate, students on placement years and those on courses with distance learning can all qualify if the course meets those tests. Your university decides what to put on the certificate, so ask its student services if you are unsure.

Three kinds of student house

Everyone is a full-time student. The home is exempt: no bill at all (Council Tax (Exempt Dwellings) Order 1992). The same applies when everyone is a student or a school or college leaver, or when every resident is a student and the others are their non-British spouses or dependants barred from work.

One resident is not a student. The students are disregarded, so the non-student is the only adult who counts and receives the single person discount. The bill is in the non-student's name, not the students'.

Two or more residents are not students. The full bill is due, and the non-students are jointly liable for it. The students cannot be made to pay as long as they are disregarded, although some leases try to share the cost among all tenants; that is a contract question, not council tax.

In houses in multiple occupation let room by room, the landlord is usually liable for the bill and recovers it through the rent. If all tenants are full-time students the house is still exempt, and the landlord should apply.

What a mixed house pays

A Band C home shared by students in five university towns, 2026/27:

The calculator above gives the result for any council and band. Choose how many residents are not students and it shows who pays and how much.

The certificate and the claim

Each student asks their university or college for a council tax exemption certificate, usually downloadable from the student portal once enrolled. It gives the course dates and confirms full-time status. The household sends the certificates to the council with the address and the date the tenancy started. Some councils exchange data with local universities and apply the exemption without a claim, but do not count on it: if a bill arrives, send the certificates at once.

Students who start a course partway through a tenancy, or leave one early, should send a new certificate or the date they left. The exemption runs exactly from the course start date to the course end date. When a house has residents on courses with different dates, the council works out the bill day by day: the house is exempt only on the days when everyone living there is a student.

The gaps people fall into

• Finishing the course. A student's status ends on the last day of the course, often in June. From then on a graduate who stays in the house counts as an adult, and if all residents have graduated the house pays the full bill until the tenancy ends.
• Dropping out or suspending studies. A student who leaves the course, or suspends it, counts from the date they stopped. Tell the council within 21 days.
• A gap before a new course. A student who finishes a degree in June and starts a master's in September is not a student over the summer, because it is a different course.
• Part-time years. A move to part-time study, for example to repeat modules, ends full-time status.

Not students, but treated alike

Some young people are not on a course that qualifies but are still disregarded, which works in the same way for the household's discount, although it does not create the all-student exemption:

• apprentices on a programme leading to a recognised qualification, on a low wage;
• young people under 25 on government funded training;
• 18 and 19 year olds for whom child benefit is still paid.

A house shared by two full-time students and an apprentice is therefore not exempt, but nobody in it counts: the bill gets a 50 % discount. Add one worker and the discount falls to 25 %.

International students

The rules do not depend on nationality. A student from abroad on a full-time course is a student for council tax like anyone else. Their spouse or dependant is disregarded too if immigration rules prevent them from working or claiming benefits; a spouse who has the right to work and lives in the home counts as an adult, so the home is no longer exempt.

If a bill arrives anyway

Councils send bills to every address they believe is occupied. If your all-student house receives one, do not ignore it: reply with the certificates and the tenancy dates. If the reminders continue, ask the council to confirm the exemption in writing. Unpaid bills, even wrong ones, can go to a summons and a liability order with costs added, which is far harder to undo than a letter.

Students living at home

A student living with their parents is disregarded, so they do not add to the parents' bill. If one parent lives alone with a student son or daughter, that parent gets the 25 % discount. Students aged 18 or 19 still at school or college are disregarded in the same way, as are young people for whom child benefit is still paid. The page on disregarded people covers these cases.

Wales and Scotland

The rules are the same in substance. In Scotland an all-student household is generally exempt from the water and waste water charges as well, and a mixed household gets the 25 % reduction on water too; check the council's own page. Welsh councils apply an equivalent exemption for homes occupied only by students, set out in the Welsh exempt dwellings rules.