Immigrationboards.com

Hello,

I have some concerns about council tax and I cannot find any clear answers on Google, so I am asking it here.

Many people in the UK are living in shared houses-HMO. This means that the landlord is responsible for council tax. However, I have some questions:

1. If the house is HMO, must the landlord inform the council everytime a new tenant moves in? My landlord told me there was no such obligation, he would only need to do it if I was a full-time student. And he told me that his house was HMO. Might he be lying about something? If he might, what's the benefit of it for him? How can I check that everything is legal?
2. If you register on the electoral roll for your new address, doesn't it mean that the council automatically know you are there?
3. Can the council tax somehow affect your UK citizenship application if you were living in a HMO, but illegally and something was left unpaid by the landlord? However, I've read on the internet that some people had no problems even though the council tax was not on their name.

So in what I am asking in general is whether any registry of tenants exists.

I've asked many people but nobody knows anything particular, they just rent the acommodation from anyone and do not care....

Firstly, what kind of application are you making?

Squirrel8904 wrote:whether any registry of tenants exists.

To the best of my knowledge, no.

Do you have a written contract with your landlord? If so, that should be all that is needed in an HMO.

I have lived in an HMO since arrival in the UK and navigated the immigration and naturalisation system without any issues.

At the moment I am not making any application, I will acquire permanent residence after 1 year and I would like to apply for UK citizenship in 2-3 years.

Yes, I've got a contract, it is written that I am a licensee and council tax is included.

I am just afraid that there might be some problems which will be revealed by authorities in the future, and I will be penalised retrospectively.

And those who live anywhere without any written agreements-they can get into trouble, right?

Squirrel8904 wrote:Yes, I've got a contract, it is written that I am a licensee and council tax is included.

Sorted.

Admittedly this was in 2014 but I lived in private rented accommodation for nearly 10 years without an official contract or paying direct bills (started out as house sitting for an employer, for £500/month rent all inclusive) and managed to get PR regardless (I had a rental contract from before this time, plus employment documents going back to 2001 plus he same manager also provided a letter of reference that I sent along too).

I was originally worried due to the lack of bills especially since as a Swiss citizen I wasn't even able to go on the electoral roll.