Household Charge - New home owners

I hope mods dont mind me putting this in this section but it fits better here...

I will be finalizing a purchase of a house next week and called the household charge contact number enquiring if I had to pay it or not... they said "the household charge should only be paid if you are the occupant of the house on the 1st of January that year" therefore no payment required until next year.

Not that I planned to pay it anyway! Good luck with it!

They were right in saying that you don't have to pay it this year, but they should have said

"the household charge should only be paid if you are the owner of the house on the 1st of January that year"