Council Tax Summons Tomorrow Help!!!

nad1611

Hoping for some quick responses. My neice is currently preparing to go to Australia. Up until June this year she was a student sharing a house with 3 others as such they were exempt from Council Tax. They left in early July to pursue their different paths. My neice is now living with a friend and happened to be passing her old house and went in to see if there was any post in their names.
She was shocked to find a Summons for tomorrow morning at 9.15!!! They say in the letter that they owe £1000, there is no breakdown in the letter as to what this amount is. I am presuming they have charged them for the whole year, Obviously they had no idea they should have paid once the term ended, but anyway they left the premises in early July so would only owe about 5 weeks. They have had no other correspondence from the Council prior to this Summons. Would really appreciate some ideas?
What should she do. Unfortunately she was too late to contact the Council where she lives.

falldown7timesgetup8

Just to check - was EVERYONE in the house a student? AND have you checked the dates? x

nad1611

Yes all four were students. Their end of term date was June 7th, they mistakingly thought that they would be classed as students until they graduated. They moved out about the 7th of July To be honest they probably didn't give it much thought at all. I know my neice and if they'd had letters before she would have asked her mum or me to give her advice, so this has come as a real shock.

falldown7timesgetup8

Im not entirely sure what to suggest, given how last minute this is, and im sure someone better qualified will come along shortly, but a few suggestions?...
1) send an email to council and to court explaining the situation asking them to delay?
2) Can someone turn up to court?
3) Make a payment online?

Out of interest, are the other students aware of the situation? All are joint and Severally liable i believe when it comes to Council tax?

nad1611

Thanks. My Neice and her friend and previous tenant are going. Two others are unable due to the lateness of the summons to attend. The difficulty with making a payment online, is that they don't owe £1000 as they were only there for 4/5 weeks.Given the time of the hearing it seems unlikely that anyone would read an email, well thanks anyway.

falldown7timesgetup8

I wondered whether a small token payment might be looked upon favourably? I think there is usually something on the back of the summons that says if payment is received, then no court appearance is required?
Best of luck for your neice in the morning - let us know how you get on - im sorry i couldnt really be of any help x

nad1611

No worries thanks for offering. O found a really good Citizens Advice Bureau Document which had some really good advice so I've emailed that to her. I'll let you know what happens.

Torry_Quine

Did she inform the council when she was no longer a student and now liable for council tax and when she moved out. She also should have set up redirection from Royal Mail so would have known about this earlier.

nad1611

As I've said above,given that at the point of leaving the residence, it was early July and she thought that she was still a student. Obviously this was wrong. On entering her new residence, the Council Tax was the responsibility of her Landlord.
As she didn't think she was liable as a student to pay then I'm presuming, that she wouldn't have thought she needed to inform them of anything. As adults these are the sorts of things that would occur to us immediately, but this obviously didn't occur to them.
Whilst I agree having her mail redirected would have alerted them earlier, it doesn't really change the fact that the Summons was the first point of contact. All her mail goes to her Mum's address, so this would probably have been the only correspondence there.
"Should have", doesn't really help, we know what she should have done, it was more where she/they stand we needed help and advice with.

dancingfairy

She needs to get in touch with the council, explain they were all students and give there moving out dates and get a new uptodate bill. I'm not sure at what point they cease to become students (whether it's before of after graduation to be honest).
While a summons is a pain it is in the magistrates court and will have no bearing on her credit rating (although obviously she doesn' want bailiffs chasing her so it still needs sorting out).
Best of Luck
df

poppasmurf_bewdley

Did they inform the council they were leaving the property?

Or did they use the old student ploy of ignoring everything?