Landlord overcharging Council Tax.

Millionaire

Hi,

Can a Landlord overcharge council tax to a tenant?

The Council Tax is in the landlords name and the tenant has been paying it directly to the landlord.

Obviously I told my friend that there is a freeze on the council tax this year and told him to query his rates at the council which he did.

any advise please.

satyc

Would'nt think so Should'nt he be paying directly to the council?

RAS

Hi

is this a house in multiple occupancy?

If not, the tenant is legally liable for the CT, not the LL.

It couold be that the LL takes the money, does not pass it on and your friend would remain liable to pay the CT a second time, to the Council. Not a good idea.

mlz1413

is your friend a lodger or a tenant?

if a tenant and the friend signed an agreement that stated the rent included C/T then that is the monthly fee your friend agreed to - so over charging for council tax is not possible as it is included.

If your friend is unhappy then they should ask the LL to renegotiate a new rental agreement where they only pay the LL rent and then pay the council tax direct to the council - ie removing the LL's name.

princeofpounds

If tenant, your friend needs to be really careful. This kind of arrangement is sometimes a scam. The tax payment never goes to the council and then when they come chasing the him he points out he had a tenant living there.

Council tax liability is not a simply matter of 'the name on the bill' but runs according to a schedule of liability and the first in the list is almost always the occupant. So your friend needs to find out if the account is actually being paid as well as if it is the right amount.

The exception is HMOs of course.

Millionaire

Thanks for the replies.

The House is Multi-Occupancy, basically my friend wife and kids living there. He is a tenant and all adults signed on the agreement.

The council tax is mentioned separate to the rent, with council tax of X amount payable per month mentioned on the agreement. Which has been increased every year, bar one, on all new agreements.

He has got confirmation that the council tax has been paid on the property so that's not a problem, but obviously he's been paying the landlord more that what it was.

What's annoyed him is that the landlord made out that my friend had been underpaying him the council tax last year (making out he was doing him a a favour) as he hadn't increased the amount but would be looking to this year.

G_M

Talk to the other people in the HMO.
Find out how much each paid last year to the LL.
Work out the total for last year the LL received.
Contact council and find out the amount payable.
Compare LL's receipts with his payment.

Then do the same for this year.

casper_g

Millionaire wrote: »

Thanks for the replies.

The House is Multi-Occupancy, basically my friend wife and kids living there. He is a tenant and all adults signed on the agreement.

The council tax is mentioned separate to the rent, with council tax of X amount payable per month mentioned on the agreement. Which has been increased every year, bar one, on all new agreements.

He has got confirmation that the council tax has been paid on the property so that's not a problem, but obviously he's been paying the landlord more that what it was.

What's annoyed him is that the landlord made out that my friend had been underpaying him the council tax last year (making out he was doing him a a favour) as he hadn't increased the amount but would be looking to this year.

Is the house an HMO or not? If there's only one family living there, and they've all signed the same tenancy agreement, it's not an HMO -- just a house with more than one person living in it!

Jebrelli

casper_g wrote: »

Is the house an HMO or not? If there's only one family living there, and they've all signed the same tenancy agreement, it's not an HMO -- just a house with more than one person living in it!

Very true! It's all about locks on the bedroom doors...

angrypirate

Sounds like a tax dodge to me. As a tenant i have always had the council tax in my name. Anything else and its the LL doing a sly one.

theartfullodger

angrypirate wrote: »

Sounds like a tax dodge to me. As a tenant i have always had the council tax in my name. Anything else and its the LL doing a sly one.

Agree: He's probably not declaring the profit he makes from overcharging Council Tax. However in (most) HMOs with individual ASTs it's the LL who pays the CT bill

In your shoes I'd check with the other tenants that there is overcharging (it's very easy to find out the correct council tax amount from the council..) than - if being overcharged - ask Landlord calmly & politely does he know where to local plod live as you've a fraud to report and does he declare his excess profit to tax man. Expect an S21 shortly afterwards.

Regardless of what LL does I'd report anyway the fraud to Plod, local council housing dept, HMRC for tax fraud etc etc (? and trading standards??).

We don't want crooks in our country do we/////.....

What p****es me off about these fiddles is that it ain't as if it's not possible to make an honest profit from renting HMOs anyway. So why do the greedy b****ards need to go fiddling as well.. ?? (Rhetorical questions chaps..)

Rant over: Merry Xmas to everyone..

Artful