Help with Council Tax

Hello! So I just received my UK Spouse Visa last week and booked a flight for September 16th, due to arrive in England on the 17th. I've spent the weekend researching what steps to take as soon as I land and what's confusing me the most is Council Tax.

I'll be moving into a rented flat that my husband and a friend of his reside in (we already got his landlord's permission, and an inspection, when we did the application). Neither my husband nor his friend are students, they both work full time, and therefore don't receive any "benefits" or discounts on their Council Tax.

Basically, how does my husband go about informing them that I will be moving in - particularly mid-month, and how do I make sure I'm not using any public funds?

You just give the local council at all and ask for your name to be added to the bill/account.

Council tax has nothing to do with public funds or anything - it's a tax on the property, which pays for things like trash collection, keeping the roads maintained and other public services (schools, street lighting etc.). You will be responsible for deciding, between the three of you, how you pay the bill. As long as it gets paid every month, the council don't care who pays it.

Everyone has to pay it if they are living in the property, unless they are exempt - which it sounds like none of you will be. The amount you have to pay in council tax depends on the value of the property and how much your local council charges for each valuation band.

Thank you! Do you know if he will have to follow the same procedure with is utility bills as well? I think his roommate and him split those bills - should my name be added onto the ones in my husband's name?

Thank you! Do you know if he will have to follow the same procedure with is utility bills as well? I think his roommate and him split those bills - should my name be added onto the ones in my husband's name?

It's completely up to you how you do it.

However, for your next visa, you will need to show 2 years of evidence that you have been living together in the same house as each other, so you'll want to get your name on as many bills and official documents as you can, so that you will have enough evidence when you apply for FLR(M). For that then, it would make the most sense to have you added to the bills in his name, but really, anything you can get your name on is a bonus.

What you need to show for the next visa is:
- 6 documents in each name, spread evenly over the 2 years, so one document each for each 4-month period
- the documents must be from at least 3 sources (i.e. bank statements, utility bills, council tax bills, phone bills, letters from the NHS/HMRC/DVLA etc.)
- they can be either all jointly addressed (so 6 in total), all separately addressed (so 12 in total, 6 each), or a mixture of both

Okay! Thank you, that is incredibly helpful. So my Spouse Visa starts in October 2016 and ends in July 2019. I will be arriving in November. That's about 2 years and 8 months (give or take a few days) in which I will be residing in the UK. So from what I can figure, since the ILR requires only 2 years of evidence, there is some allowance for an adjustment period to start getting both our names on bills. Is that correct?

My biggest worry is that I need to start gathering evidence from day 1 of moving in with my husband but due to the nature of council tax, utility companies, banks, etc. this isn't entirely realistic.

That's about 2 years and 8 months (give or take a few days) in which I will be residing in the UK. So from what I can figure, since the ILR requires only 2 years of evidence, there is some allowance for an adjustment period to start getting both our names on bills. Is that correct?

Yes, pretty much.

Although, it's actually FLR(M), not ILR you will be applying for next... since you won't qualify for ILR until 2021. At the moment, we don't know if the ILR will require only 2 years of evidence as well, or if they will ask for a full 5 years of evidence (Nov 2016 to Nov 2021), so the quicker you can get your name on the mail the better.

You will actually be able to apply for FLR(M) 28 days before you reach 30 months in the UK, which will be a few months before your visa actually expires.

If you're arriving on 17th November 2016, you will reach 30 months on 17th May 2019, which means you will be able to apply for FLR(M) from around April 20th 2019.

My biggest worry is that I need to start gathering evidence from day 1 of moving in with my husband but due to the nature of council tax, utility companies, banks, etc. this isn't entirely realistic.

Not specifically day 1, but it's best just to get it sorted as soon as you can, so that you have more options to choose from when it comes to gathering evidence.

Congratulations, you've got something to complain about now!  Council tax is ridiculous, why should a tenet pay property tax for instead of the landlord?  Why should you pay a tax that is based on the value of somebody else's building? 

BTW, you could also get on the TV license as well.  That one is actually great, you pay roughly £130 per year to watch TV without commercials.  You've picked a good time to come , there's a new series of Planet Earth due out that's supposed to be great.

Awesome, thank you so much ksand24! Yes I definitely want to go in prepared and ready to tackle as much paperwork as possible and start gathering everything as soon as I can. Your comments have been super helpful when trying to grasp the bigger picture.

My main concern today was getting my name on my husband's bills for November (since it's the last day of October, and he's having trouble getting through to the council over the phone).

Ultimately we will keep trying but if December is the earliest my name will start appearing than I think that will still be fine, especially since I will be arriving late in the month.

My main concern today was getting my name on my husband's bills for November (since it's the last day of October, and he's having trouble getting through to the council over the phone).

Ultimately we will keep trying but if December is the earliest my name will start appearing than I think that will still be fine, especially since I will be arriving late in the month.

That should be fine.

Assuming you apply for your FLR(M) in April 2019, you will only need to show evidence for the following periods:
April-July 2017
Aug-Nov 2017
Dec 2017-Mar 2018
April-July 2018
Aug-Nov 2018
Dec 2018-Mar 2019

And even if you need to show 5 years for ILR, you would likely only have to provide 1 document each from the period Nov 2016 - Feb 2017, so the Dec, Jan or Feb documents would work if you don't have any for November.