Not council tax exempt for summer holidays??

[Aristoc]

Hi all,

Myself and my partner are both full time students. She is a university undergraduate and I am currently retaking my a-levels on a part time basis.

Naturally, since we are the only two occupiers in our flat, and since our courses constitute full time courses as per the local council guidelines, we are council tax exempt.

We had a bit of a run in, when we forgot to submit our exemption certificates, but that has since been resolved.

The trouble is, while my partner has been given an all encompassing 3 year exemption cert from her university, I was given one for each year of study, covering the college months and not the summer holiday in between.

As such, the council have only given us a 25% discount for the summer month and a half period, instead of the full exemption.

We are band A and this is a lot of money to us, so i'm wondering what I can do to rectify it. My partners summer holidays are almost double the duration of my own and yet she remains exempt. Can the people in the council/one stop shop not see that this period is clearly a summer holiday period for the college?

Cheers for any help all,

John

[ss002d6252]

If its an ongoing course then you are still disregarded from the start of the course until it ends - during the holidays you are still a F/T student.

[Aristoc]

That's what i thought... but they haven't done it that way.

What i'm worried about though is the nature of the course... they are both 1 year courses really... AS level and then A2... but i'm not sure how they consider them.

Will i need to get another exemption cert from my college for the holiday period, or will i need to speak to the council again first do you think?

John