Student Lets as Holiday Lets

As long as a student fulfils the criteria to be disregarded as an exempt student under Council Tax (Discounts)(Scotland) Order 1992 (as amended) i.e. “a student is a person who is enrolled for the purpose of attending a specified course of education which persons undertaking it are normally required by the institution to attend for at least 24 weeks in each academic year and which, in the opinion of the institution, requires on average at least 21 hours of study/tuition in each of these weeks”, he/she would be awarded an exemption.

Most local Universities/Colleges provide us with yearly Student list for each Academic year. These lists are used by us to verify the student status(es) when the student(s) contact us to claim an exemption for their Council Tax liability. In the first instance we would ask the student(s) to provide us with their course details and matriculation number and cross check against the student list for the respective institution. If their name does not appear on the list and/or if they are at a University/College that does not provide us with student lists, we would ask the student to complete a Confirmation of Student Status form and submit to our office.

The student(s) do not necessarily need to be named on the Council Tax bill as liable for the property to be awarded an exemption. As long as a property is only occupied by exempt students, an exemption could be granted regardless of who is the named liable party. This is usually the case with HMO properties, as it would always be the landlord who is held liable for the Council Tax. However, upon provision of the proof of the student status for the occupants the landlord could be awarded exemption for the appropriate period(s).