Joint bills - other person wont pay

lee151

Hello, i recently moved out of a flat with another person, after we moved out it had turned out the other person had not been paying the council tax bill, meaning we owed £1100 between us, there was also an unpaid electric bill worth £200.

In short, the person who's name is also on the bill is avoiding me and won't pay their share of the bill, i'm wondering what the best course of action would be.

Could i phone up these places to pay just my half? Should i just pay the whole thing off and call it a loss? I'm terrified of this ruining my credit rating as i need to get another flat in the near future

Any advice would be appreciated

HappyMJ

Take them to court to recover your money. Not paying the council tax won't affect your credit rating. The electric bill will eventually be written off or if you ever get supply from that company again they may add it to your current bill. Unless they go to court to get a CCJ then it also won't affect your credit rating.

lee151

Thanks for the reply, that's a load off my mind! I didn't realise court was even an option, i remember the estate agents telling us it was a joint contract for everything including bills etc so i just assumed I'd have to fork out myself.

Can i expect the police turning up at my door for not paying the remainder of it? I think there's about 300 left of the council tax

edit: can these debts carry interest?

Poosmate

So who's paid the other £800 off the Council Tax bill?

I thought not paying your council tax could land you in jail? Or has that been found to be against peoples human rights too?

I presume you rented this flat? What happened with the deposit? Did you get it back and split it before you found out about the debts?

Poo

lee151

it was a rented flat, the other £800 was paid off by the person using money which they owed me (and still does), this was all agreed upon. The other persons half of the deposit was used to cover their final months rent.

Red_dog_Sam

You should look to pay off the council tax debt - joint liability means you are responsible for the whole of the bill. The Council are likely to issue a summons for non payment, racking up summons costs on top and then if it remains unpaid will contact your employer to deduct if from your earnings or else send bailiffs in. If you can, you should make arranegements to pay with the council before it gets that far and ends up costing you a lot more.

If your tenancy included a contract between each other that stipulated that the other person would pay half of all the bills - including the council tax - then technically they are in breach of contract and you could take them to court - fairly inexpensive through the small claims court but be sure you want to as it could get unpleasant - but you know the other person best so consider if that is really your best option or if you write it off as a bad job.

hallowitch

council tax is a Joint and several liability debt which means the council can pursue one or both of you for the full amount (you cant pay 1/2 )

if a liability order has been granted you will have fees added to your account by the council
if bailiffs have been instructed to collect the debt you will have bailiff fees (has this debt been passed over to bailiffs )

lee151

I managed to contact the other person in question today, after a long talk he has decided he will help towards the payments.

It turns out we owed £1100 in council tax for the year, however, we were only in the flat for 7 months, am i right in assuming we will not have to pay for the remaining 5?

He told me that he has paid the council about £400 in total so far possibly more, but he has done this online rather than over the phone and its unsure how much left that we actually owe. He has also done this in bits and pieces rather than in regular block payments.

It's also worth noting that although i gave a forwarding address to my previous landlord, he has not forwarded me any letters so far (we left 5th December)

I'm going to give them a call tomorrow to attempt to sort it all out, I'm quite nervous what the outcome will be from it all, does anyone have any idea how they will handle this or any extra fees they may impose?

BitterAndTwisted

You need to inform the local authority's council tax people that you have vacated the property and give them your new address. They might ask for proof, so you might need a copy of your tenancy agreement or whatever they will accept as evidence of your having left the property. They will then recalculate your account to the day, deduct any payments made to date and start getting quite assertive about the balance being paid asap. They can and will threaten you with a summons if it remains unpaid. Expect them to get really assertive when the end of the tax-year at the end of March looms.

Just pay that utility bill and get it out of the way as soon as you can.