Unpaid Council tax... Court summons :S

treblet

Firstly, Hello!

So the story:

My girlfriend lived in an shared rented house (between three people) last year for the minimum six month tenancy period. At the end of this period they had all fallen out and all moved out of the house and on to different places.

She and one of the other tenants were paying a set amount (£400) each per month to the third tenant. The third tenant was paying a slightly increased amount (£420) as she had a larger living space, she arranged the payment of all the bills within the shared household, including the council tax, all bills came to approx £1000 thus leaving some spare money in the pot every month to cover all eventualities. They moved out of this property at the end of July 2009.

Now that I've set the scene I'll move onto where we are just now.

This evening the tenant who paid the bills has contacted my girlfriend and the third tenant and informed them that she has a court summons in their names over unpaid council tax.

While I am aware that if the full amount is paid before the court date then the case will be dropped, however will this effect credit scoring? If one party decided not to pay what would be the implications?

We have established that the tenant who was paying the bills had been careless over making payments and that the money left in the pot may have been used for other things than paying the bills!!

As all of these domestic bills were paid out by and in the name of this one tenant do the other two tenants bare any responsibility for any other outstanding debt which may come to light?

Please help as myself and my girlfriend are worried that some other debts may appear or that one of the other tenants may not be able to pay the money requested in the court summons and are unsure of the implications :think:

G_M

Whose names were the bills in?

So far as council tax is concerned, all the tenants have equal liability - are they all named on the summons? It sounds like it.
So far as utilities (gas, electricity etc) are concerned, it depends whose name the account is in.

Your girlfriend needs to speak to the lead tenant (and the other) urgently. From a legal perspective, your girlfriend is liable, and if the tax remains unpaid (and the court costs now) she will get a CCJ against her.
From a moral perspective it appears the lead tenant has been paid for the council tax by the other 2 and gone shopping. GF needs to get lead tenant to account fully for the £400 pm. Where did it go?

I'm amazed she wasn't doing this, especially as there was an extra element "thus leaving some spare money in the pot every month to cover all eventualities." Surely at the end of the tenancy they sat down and looked at how big the pot was, and what bills had/had not been paid. And decided how to re-distribute the pot?

treblet

Apparently at the end of the tenancy the pot was empty... must have been that vanishing type of money

As far as I'm aware all other bills were in the lead tenant's name with the exception of the council tax as the estate agent submitted the tenants names to the council when they moved in, however I will try to confirm this.

If all of the other bills are only in the lead tenants name is any outstanding debt solely her responsibility?

G_M

"So far as utilities (gas, electricity etc) are concerned, it depends whose name the account is in."

treblet

Thanks for your reply, hopefully it is just the council tax bill that is outstanding.

We just need to attempt to find the money now to pay the bill off!!

G_M

treblet wrote: »

Thanks for your reply, hopefully it is just the council tax bill that is outstanding.

We just need to attempt to find the money now to pay the bill off!!

That's certainly the fall-back position. But surely the 1st tack to take is find out where the money you paid went and get the lead tenant to pay off the council tax!

treblet

I think we're goint to have to chalk this one up to experience as the lead tenant is refusing to take the blame and we no longer have copies of any of the bills etc as it was nearly a year ago and we assumed all outstanding bill would have been paid off by now!

After a chat with the council today my girlfriend has discovered that the lead tenant only made 1 full council tax payment in the entire 6 month tenancy and then defaulted on the second payment and took up a "payment scheme" of DirectDebit for £20 a month... on a £170 per month council tax bill. The payments then stopped in August 2009 shortly after this agreement had been set up and there was no more council tax paid, hence the court summons!

Is there any way that we can get her to admit she hasn't paid any of this money to debtors without receipts/paperwork to show that my girlfriend paid out her £400 per month?

CIS

Your girlfriend needs to speak to the lead tenant (and the other) urgently. From a legal perspective, your girlfriend is liable, and if the tax remains unpaid (and the court costs now) she will get a CCJ against her.
From a moral perspective it appears the lead tenant has been paid for the council tax by the other 2 and gone shopping. GF needs to get lead tenant to account fully for the £400 pm. Where did it go?

its unlikely to be a CCJ thats granted, the standard route for council tax recovery is via a Liability Order from the magistrates court ( A CCJ is possible but is a very rare route of recovery).

A Liability Order would be granted in response to the summons but unlike a CCJ it doesnt affect a persons credit record but the Liability Order does give the council powers of recovery up to and including committal to prison as an ultimate sanction.

I work in council tax recovery and you'd be surprised how many cases like this I see , usually the tenants have trusted one person to make the payments but they haven't checked regularly to ensure that the payments are being made.

Was the tenancy on a room only basis or was it a joint tenancy on the whole of the property ?

Fire_Fox

treblet wrote: »

I think we're goint to have to chalk this one up to experience as the lead tenant is refusing to take the blame and we no longer have copies of any of the bills etc as it was nearly a year ago and we assumed all outstanding bill would have been paid off by now!

Is there any way that we can get her to admit she hasn't paid any of this money to debtors without receipts/paperwork to show that my girlfriend paid out her £400 per month?

Find the money and pay it off, if you then find evidence that your girlfriend paid the ex-housemate for bills you can try the small claims court. She is jointly and severally liable for this debt, the council will not care what the private arrangement was. Did your girlfriend never remove her name from the council tax bill? If she had she should have been told about the arrears.

G_M

If the lead tenant is refusing all responsibility the only way to get her is via a small claims court.
Sounds like you can show what payments she made/missed, but can you show
a) what payments the other tenants made to her (cheques? receipts? anything in writing?) and
b) the agreement that she would use the payments to pay the bills including council tax

Since it is 2 against 1, the statements of the 2 tenants might be enough to counter her denials.