For council tax purpose, a person is a student if they are:

• Attending a university, polytechnic or college course which lasts for at least 24 weeks a year and involves at least 21 hours of attended study a week during term time.
• Under 20 years of age, studying for more than three months and at least 12 hours per week for any qualification up to an A Level, ONC or OND standard. Correspondence courses, or courses taken in connection with a job, such as day release, are not included.

Students not in dedicated student accommodation

It is your responsibility to tell us if you are eligible for a student discount or exemption and also to provide your student proof and copy of your tenancy agreement. If you fail to provide your proof, you will be sent a bill with a full charge on it. If you wish to claim student exemption/disregard or need further advice on a specific case or set of circumstances then please complete the council tax discounts and exemptions form. Please provide evidence of student status by providing a copy of your student certificate supplied by the establishment to which you are enrolled. This evidence can be uploaded with the online form.

In a property (which is not a House of Multiple Occupation) where one resident is a non student, regardless of the number of students who also live there, the non student will be solely liable for payment of 75% of the whole charge. If there are 2 or more non students, then they will be jointly and severally liable for the full charge. The students will be disregarded for council tax purposes. 

Acceptable student proof

The student proof can be a student card (Warwick University only) or student certificate that must show the following information: 

• dated from the current academic year
• that the student it in fulltime education (a minimum of 21 hours study per week over 24 weeks)
• the start and end dates of the course
• the establishment studying at

Landlords or owners of student accommodation

If you are a landlord or owner of a student property please see our dedicated landlord and letting agent page. 

Students who own their own properties

If you are a student and own your own property, you may be entitled to an exemption when the property is empty. You can only receive the exemption for an empty property if you previously occupied the property as your sole or main residence before it became empty and nobody else other than students were living there. If you think you qualify for this exemption please complete the council tax discounts and exemptions form.  When we receive the form we will check to see if you are eligible.