Paying a previous tenants council tax.

tommk3cab

Hello,

Be gentle with me, I'm new!

I'm not sure if this is the correct place to post this but it seemed the most appropriate.

I moved into my house nearly a year ago now but after I had been here about 3 months I faced a bill for about £500 for a previous tenants council tax.

I had already informed them that I lived here now and had been paying the council tax for the (then) past three months.
I told them again that the previous person had dissapeared without a trace and the council said sorry, it was a mistake which was now corrected.


(Read this ^^ if you need more info?? or V V if not??)

fast forward to now, a year on, they have decided its my debt and I am going to have to go to court if I don't pay the council tax for a period when I didn't live here.

Obviously this is wrong but I am looking for some legsislation or something to quote about why it is not my debt. They are obviously just trying it on, they should not be allowed to though, at all.
I am seriously contemplating reporting them to the police for harrasment.


I have been looking through the LGFA 1992 but I am having trouble finding applicable sections and statements.

Any help you could offer would be greatly appreciated.

CIS

You cant be held liable for a debt which isn't yours - the LGFA 1992 is the one you want - namely section 6 (2) , 'the hierarchy of liability' and 6(5), the definition of a resident

“resident”, in relation to any dwelling, means an individual who has attained the age of 18 years and has his sole or main residence in the dwelling.

The hierarchy of liability sets down the responsibility on the property - basically you work from (a) - (f) and whoever comes first in the list is the liable person e.g a resident L/L comes before a tenant and thus the resident L/L would be liable.

You need to contact the local authority with a copy of your tenancy agreement and proof of where you lived before you moved in - this is usually enough proof for the records to be amended (I probably see a half a dozen or so of these types of cases each week )

tommk3cab

Thank you for your reply,

The main problem I think I am facing is that I have no tenancy agreement, the setup with my landlord is very informal.

The only thing I do have is past rent invoices and I could possibly get invoices from just before I moved in, showing that someone else lived there at that time.

I think I have some bank statements from my previous address around the date I moved.

Hopefully this ^^ will be enough, the thing is the council know we didn't live here at the time in question and they know exactly who did but they are having trouble finding him so they are pressuring us, the previous bloke left my landlord with a very ( much more than a few hundred quid) large debt too.

Thanks again.

CIS

Irrespective of a tenancy agreement you cant be held liable for any day you weren't either resident in the property or at least hold an agreement to occupy the property.

If you can provide enough evidence re your liability and they still won't acceptiot then ask for a senior revenues officer or a principal revenues officer.

John_Pierpoint

As a "landlord" a "tenant" tried to pass off their personal liability on me, when the man with the clipboard came round.

Threaten the boss of the tax collection department with the local government ombudsman, after having an ineffectual moan to your local councillor?. You might even get a modest payment for the suffering, expense and time wasting he is causing you.

guppy

Surely if you are able stand up in a tribunal or court and say you didn't live there, and your landlord can confirm this, this is evidence enough?

Surely the landlord can tell the council who lived there previously?

B.E.N

If the arrangement is 'informal', your lack of evidence of tenancy commencing dates, etc, means, to be honest, you haven't really got a leg to stand on.

What were you doing before moving into this property? Were you renting somewhere else, and could you perhaps prove that you were paying rent/council tax elsewhere for the period?