Portsmouth City Council and Council Tax – Heaven or Hell
Do you struggle getting the correct student exemptions from council tax for your Portsmouth properties? This has been a perennial issue for many members but now PCC have a new system which may help. We did invite them to come and explain it, but they declined so PDPLA member, Karen Silman has drafted this simple guide and PCC also sent some guidance on entitlement to discount and exemption.
How To Claim Student Exemptions
An annual unnecessary event, or it used to be when a student let received a council tax student exemption for a 12 month period. Alas no more – probably due to PCC trying to maximise income by charging for every possible day the property is unoccupied or when a student is not on a formal education course, and also possibly due to some landlords running holiday lets in the summer under the radar. This doesn't apply to the University though, shame - they continue to let rooms in competition with local serviced accommodation and hoteliers without paying council tax or business rates for the period they do so.
Anyway, PCC now (as I discovered when calling the Council Tax Department) have the whole process on-line, hurrah I hear you all say – not quite, unfortunately. It is not as straightforward as it should be, so below is my aide memoir to assist you in this process.
Start at https://www.portsmouth.gov.uk/services/council-tax/
This page will then be displayed:
From there select 'Discounts and Exemptions' which brings you to the screen below.
Now select 'Apply for Student Exemption' as marked and follow the step by step instructions to complete the form. (Choose 'I am a landlord/letting agent wishing to tell you about students in a property I own/manage'
Households where everyone is a full-time student don't have to pay Council Tax (see PCC guide below). If you do get a bill, you can apply for an exemption – use their online form to tell us about your house occupied by full time students.
You then click on the link above which will take you to the form to apply for student exemption or disregard by selecting from the dropdown box. It is at this point you can start saving the information that you are entering – do not wander away from your screen without saving your entries – if you do you will need to begin again (as I learnt to my cost, when I was quite a few steps further on). Still being on the screen does not mean your entry so far is still signed into the Granicus site - it will time out if you leave it too long.
And yes they really do want the details for the students from the previous academic year as well as the current year. Some of the questions, like when did the students move in and leave from 12 months or more ago, will be problematic if you have not kept all your records to hand. I admit I did my best guesstimate for a few.Hopefully when next year comes around all the information from this year's student tenants will still be recorded and only current tenants' information will be necessary., which would be great but we will see....
In my haste to complete my council tax obligations promptly I entered details for all our houses at the same time, one after the other, then submitted them. This resulted in a call from PCC council tax department – apparently each house must be completed and submitted separately as they only see the 1st one on each submission. So, then you can start again and do the next one.
As I had no prior knowledge of PCC Council Tax being on line for student exemptions, I blundered about a bit and made errors – hopefully my notes above will be of use to you going forward and make your life easier.
PCC's Advice: Entitlement to Discount Exemption
You will all be aware of the student criteria in that to be considered full time for council tax purposes a student must be undertaking a course which:
- lasts for at least one academic year (or where the educational establishment does not have academic years one calendar year)
- requires the student to undertake study for a minimum of 24 weeks within the calendar or academic year and requires at least 21 hours per week of study
- those under 20 years old who are taking a course that lasts for at least 3 months and is a qualifying course of education, such as A-levels or at the same level or below, and includes more than 12 hours a week study time, during the day. Correspondence courses are not included.
- foreign language assistants who are registered with The British Council and are working at a school or other educational establishment.
It is unlikely that students studying English at the many language schools in Portsmouth will be regarded as 'full time students' for Council Tax purposes because usually the courses are not long enough to be counted.
- PHD extension students will be considered as full time students for council tax purposes. We still need to receive confirmation via student certificate
- IBTC (International Boatbuilding Training College) students Entitlement to discount exemption
- 18 or 19 years of age and is studying at IBTC. If the course is for at least 12 hours per week and subsists for at least 3 months, we will class as a full time student for council tax purposes.
- 20 years of age and over and is studying at IBTC. If the course is for at least 21 hours per week and subsists for at least one calendar year (52 weeks), we will class as a full time student for council tax purposes.
The process of informing Portsmouth City Council has not changed and written notification with evidence of the student course is required within 21 days from the date of the change either from the landlord or the tenant themselves. This needs to be either via the online forms on our website at Council Tax - Portsmouth City Council or email to
A yearly student review canvas is carried out by Portsmouth City Council at which time we ask for details to be confirmed so if there are any changes that need to be carried out we are able to ensure our records are up to date. If a landlord or a tenant receives a canvas form they are required to complete and return the form with requested evidence within the specified time and in the format requested.
There is also information on our website specifically relating to students and also houses in multiple occupation that I would like to refer you to. This can be found at the above website link.