renting - who pays council tax?

maythegirl

So basically, you are saying legally I have the rights to claim for it?? and that she does need to pay for it?

:T...hopefully..

CIS

Were you a full time student during the entire period in question ?

maythegirl

No I am not.
So I do understand the council tax need to be imposed but if it is clearly stated on the tenancy agreement that the landlord will take care of it then she should, right? It shouldn't matter if I am student or not becasuse the agreement was that rent payment includes council tax.

maythegirl

The problem is, when I tried handing over my last rent payment few days ago, I mentioned to her that I have deducted council tax payment from it and that letter stating that is included in the envelope, she got very angry and did not take it

I know I am deducting a lot of money but I have been paying the rent to her promptly until now and is not fair for her to impose me to pay extra money to the council when it is her responisbility to inform the council that she converted the house into several self contained studioes....

I guess what I am worried about, knowing her capable of coming up with any possible ideas and lies, is that she may yet again try to come up with something to save her !!! and not to loose any money....

In a case like this, what can a landlord do?
One thing I can think of is for her to deduct the amount from deposit, but there is yet another problems with it - she did register my deposit under tenancy deposit scheme, but not until 8 months after receiving it! I know that by law, she need to register it within 14 days of receiving the deposit and need to hand over the copy of certificate to the tenant as well. She did not do this, and even when she registered after 8 months later, she did not give me the copy of certificate and I had to search through online and had to get the copy from the scheme agency on my own!! What she doesn;t know is that I have the copy (I got it for my own security purpose) and that it clearly states that it wasn't registered until 8 months later. So in this case, if she does try to deduct my deposit, I can claim for dispute I believe...??

But what else can she do??

CIS

No I am not.
So I do understand the council tax need to be imposed but if it is clearly stated on the tenancy agreement that the landlord will take care of it then she should, right? It shouldn't matter if I am student or not because the agreement was that rent payment includes council tax.

The reason being that if you were a student you may have been able to claim a Council Tax exemption

Unfortunately, as stated earlier, the agreement cannot overrule legislation. These agreements work fine if the L/L pays but soon fall apart when they don't.

I know I am deducting a lot of money but I have been paying the rent to her promptly until now and is not fair for her to impose me to pay extra money to the council when it is her responsibility to inform the council that she converted the house into several self contained studioes....

Again its unfortunate but the legislation does not take in to account whether something is fair or nor. Its an occupiers responsibility to ensure that they check as to whether they should be paying council tax.

maythegirl

I am not after for exemption for this matter, and I do know that the tenant will be liable for the council tax, and that they do not take an account of whatever the agreement I had with her.

But if the agreement I signed with my landlord and myself clearly states council tax payment is included in the rent payment, shouldn't the landlord be paying back to me towards the tax payment or deducting the rent ??

I do know, that the council won't remove my name, nor put landlord's name on the tax invoice and hence I need to pay, but if I have to pay tax on top of what I already pay towards the rent, then it means rent does not inlude tax payment unless she reduces it to cover for the payment of rent...is what I believe? This is the reason why I told her that I would be deducting the tax payment from the rent...

maythegirl

[But if the agreement I signed with my landlord and myself clearly states council tax payment is included in the rent payment, shouldn't the landlord be paying back to me towards the tax payment or deducting the rent ?? ]

By this i meant to say "reducing the rent" at the end of the question..
sorry my wording mistake

Fire_Fox

maythegirl wrote: »

The problem is, when I tried handing over my last rent payment few days ago, I mentioned to her that I have deducted council tax payment from it and that letter stating that is included in the envelope, she got very angry and did not take it

I know I am deducting a lot of money but I have been paying the rent to her promptly until now and is not fair for her to impose me to pay extra money to the council when it is her responisbility to inform the council that she converted the house into several self contained studioes....

I guess what I am worried about, knowing her capable of coming up with any possible ideas and lies, is that she may yet again try to come up with something to save her !!! and not to loose any money....

So you are now late with paying your rent? You should be sending any correspondence by recorded delivery so you have a paper trail.

Millburn_farm

talk to the other tenants; if you act together it will save time, muliply the brain power to solve the problem, and if you all have similar contracts increases the pwoer you have to sort it all

maythegirl

Unfortunately I can't do that as the rest of tenants are on benefit, and she receives rent from council (very smart indeed so that she does not need to pay tax!!).

The only other tenant who is not on benefit, he has already agreed to pay tax from his pocket money and have chosen to not fight for it....

We all have different tenancy agreement, and so this issue only applies to mine as only my tenancy agreement states rent includes council tax as well as other bills.