Council Tax while renting a appartment in London?

Hi everyone!

Question n1.
I am moving to London this Fall, and I dont understand a bit about council tax.
I am going to rent an appartment, do I need to pay a council tax, or I need to pay just a rent price and council tax will pay the person from who I am renting a appartment?

For example:
If I rent this ( http://www.foxtons.co.uk/search?location_ids=290&price_to=1000&prop_type=flats&property_id=690068&search_form=map&search_type=LL&submit_type=search ) appartment.
Do I need to pay just 866 euro / per month, or do I need to pay 866 euro / per month + 1163 pound / per year?

In another words: Is the council tax my problem - or it is the problem of a person who rents me this appartment?


Question n2.
If I need to pay a council tax, how this works?
Do I need to pay it at the same moment when I am renting appartment, or do I need to pay it in the end of the year (31/12), or the council tax will be added to monthly rent price (in this case 866 euro + 1163/12) ?

And if possible, can someone shortly explain the whole appartment renting process like from "A to Z".

At the moment I live in Finland, Helsinki, and renting process here as easy as it can be: Person who takes appartment - pays monthly price + only electricity, and the person who offers an appartment - pays all the bills (including all taxes, water bills, sometimes even internet, e.t.c)


Thenks for answers, Petr.

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- you will have to pay council tax. however you don't pay this with your rent to the homeowner/landlord.

- you need to contact your local council (best place is online) and they will help you. it is to them you pay the money. They will work out the monthly payment and you can set up a direct debit. Or you can pay it all at the end of the tax year (April) but that is not advisable.

- council tax is a bastard.

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Yep. Another unaviodable evil!

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Oh and unless they state that any bills are included, you will have to organise to pay them also. For example, my rent covers water. I have to pay my rent plus electricity, phone line/broadband and council tax.

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Thank you for answering!

What are the "about ~" prices in London for water, electricity e.t.c? And what are the best places to search for appartment (I have found www.propertyfinder.com and www.foxtons.co.uk)?

I have heard about "dangerous" areas in London, and I want to find appartment near Aldgate-East station, so I can walk there in 20mins (here in Finland you can walk the whole city of Helsinki from beginning to its end in 40mins) - what area is recommendable and what are ~normal prices? I understood that E1 area isn't the center of city, but prices there are still <900 euro, quite impressive)

For example in Helsinki for ~1000 euro you can get appartment where ever you want, and for 3000 euro - you can get luxury appartment where ever you want :D

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Well we don't work in Euros so i don't know the conversion rate.

me, for example, I live in Greater London by a train station. It's usually around 20 minutes by train to get to Waterloo Train station.

I have bargain rent of £750 per month for a small one bedroom flat. I don't live alone so I can't tell you how much electricity is, but on average I'd say £25 a month or something. I don't have gas here, and have forgotten how much I used to pay. My council tax is about £150 a month for two of us. For one person, it's cheaper.

I don't know the area you're looking into, but I would advise moving to greater London i.e. not in zones 1 or 2 on a tube map. You are still close enough to travel around easily.

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Hello
So I was looking through all the posts in moving to London and came across this one. Very useful info thanks.
But I have a further question on this council tax stuff.
My husband and I are thinking of moving to London in a year or two and we don't really want to live in the main city maybe just outside it. To what area or people does this council tax apply?
Do you have to be in the city limits of London to be required to pay?

thanks

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Council tax is a countrywide thing, payable to the local council. You can find out who that is easily enough.

The property is valued by somebody and this value affects the amount of council tax you pay... these are called bands. My home is a Band B for example.

This might explain about banding a bit better than I can do http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/HomeAndCommunity/YourlocalcouncilandCouncilTax/CouncilTax/DG_10037383

Hope that helps in some way.

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hey
Thanks a bunch I will check that out.

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very helpful I will be looking over a lot of this It will be a big help for us to understand how things are different from the US

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Hi,

If you guys are moving from the US, you might also find this page useful http://www.moove2london.co.uk/moving_from_abroad.html

it contains a section about the differences between US and UK.

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