Tenant absconded who is liable for council tax?

Scotslass2010

Hi, I wonder if someone could give me advice.

I had rented out my flat but the tenant has absconded - although this has not been legally established as yet - and now the council are demanding council tax from me.

The tenant signed a 6-month short assured tenancy in which they agreed liability for paying council tax.

Council are saying they have insufficient evidence that the flat was/is tenant's main address therefore I have to pay council tax.

I have never had an issue like this before. Normally agents send letter to council giving info of new tenant and the council then deals direct with tenant for council tax.

Help!!

Thank you in advance for advice.

poolboy

I had this same situation but several emails, phone calls & letters seem to have done the trick. I sent the AST & live abroad so it wasn't me living there.

Sadly councils are short of money so chase anyone, you as owner are liable so must pay & reclaim off now vanished T.

Hope you have 6 weeks protected deposit.

Wings

As a LL in the last 6 months I have had more Council Tax Bills, due to tenants moving both out and in to properties, they must be so strapped for cash.

In the Op's case if your tenant vacated the property during a fixed term tenancy, then i would argue with the Council that the tenant is still responsible for the Council Tax. My local Council allow 6 months period free of Council Tax, for a property void of furnisher and tenant's, if furnish then a 50% demand for Council Tax is payable.

A way of avoiding ALL Council Tax is by letting to a full time student,or to register at the address

RAS

Just to check is this case in Scotland or England?

mynameisdave

I would assume until the tenancy has been formally ended, and you or the council cannot decide this, then the absent resident is still liable. I'm not 100% certain but think this would be so.

Geenie

Scotslass2010 wrote: »

Hi, I wonder if someone could give me advice.

I had rented out my flat but the tenant has absconded - although this has not been legally established as yet - and now the council are demanding council tax from me.

The tenant signed a 6-month short assured tenancy in which they agreed liability for paying council tax.

Council are saying they have insufficient evidence that the flat was/is tenant's main address therefore I have to pay council tax.

I have never had an issue like this before. Normally agents send letter to council giving info of new tenant and the council then deals direct with tenant for council tax.

Help!!

Thank you in advance for advice.

I would get on to your agents, as if they have done their job properly then they should have informed the council who was letting the property.

I can honestly say that here in Devon we have never had problems with council tax as a LL. As soon as a tenant has signed up we informed the council of their details. They then deal directly with the tenant who has responsibility to pay it. If they haven't, and that has been only once, it hasn't come back to us, but follows the tenant.

As soon as a tenant leaves, and when ever there has been a void, due to us repairing a building and upgrading, we have informed the council, who have not charged us up to 6 months if it has been a particulary big job.

It really does pay to be hands on as a LL, find out about things like this and not rely on others to tell you what is going on. I wouldn't trust a LA to swat a fly, let alone not be aware of what they should be doing and see evidence from the start that they are doing it.


Good luck OP.

CIS

Council are saying they have insufficient evidence that the flat was/is tenant's main address therefore I have to pay council tax.

Are they accepting that the tenant held a tenancy but not that it was his 'main' address or are they claiming he never held the tenancy ?.

Providing he holds the tenancy then even if he was not resident it would be a second home and still chargeable to the tenancy holder.