Council Tax - help please

pixiepoo

Hi,

I have come here for advice really, not sure I have put this on the right thread.

I wanted to know how strict Councils are about knowing who is living in the propterty at any point in time.

My daughter, her partner and myself all rented a property together since 2011, I moved out in July this year and my daughter has tried to sort out the council tax liability.

Unfortunately she has completely got confused and messed up the records on their system - her partner works away from home in the week and stays with his parents/hotel and only returns on some weekends. When she called the Council office to let them know that I had moved out they questioned about her partner and she said he was not there (not realising that it still had to be down as his main residence)

To make things more complicated she has also incorrectly stated that her friend (who was living in the proptery previously before we all moved in and who also owns it) was still registered there when she was not - simply from getting mixed up when seeing her name on electoral forms that had come through the post, the friend had not taken her name off the electoral once we had taken tenancy and my daughter assumed incorrectly that the council still needed to have her down as registered.

I must also mention that there are no arrears on the account, the tax is paid by direct debit every month and there is no benefit on the household as we pay 100%

I just wanted to know whether this is going to cause any problems, I am writing a letter to say please diregard any information that has previously been mentioned and state clearly who is and isn't living there. A letter from the homeowner is also going to them confirming this - will they be ok with this? I am very worried.

Thank you for any help, sorry for such a long post.

agrinnall

I think what you propose is the sensible start to getting this sorted out, but I would expect the council to come back to you seeking proof of who lives/lived there and when they moved in/out.

SuzieSue

agrinnall wrote: »

I think what you propose is the sensible start to getting this sorted out, but I would expect the council to come back to you seeking proof of who lives/lived there and when they moved in/out.

Yes, don't worry about it. As long as you haven't done anything wrong then a letter setting out the correct information will be fine.

Dumbe

I am sure it will be fine.. Particularly as this is clearly not affecting the payment in anyway as you are paying the full rate.

Just send a letter stating who is living there. As I understand it your daughter and her partner.

pixiepoo

Thanks for your replies, I have penned a letter and i will phone them tomorrow also to explain.

My daughter has been stupid on this and she knows it, she is panicking now that they are not going to take my letter as gospel and just wants it all sorted out and not get anyone in to trouble.

I am assuming that as far as the council are concerned they have been paid correctly and consistently so there is no 'fraud' happening and it is just a case of changing the information on the records.

Will they accept my daughter's errors as stupidity or will they want to delve deeper?

pixiepoo

Dumbe - yes you are correct, it is my daughter and her partner living there and the liability has changed to her name now that i have moved.

Fire_Fox

The problem you may have is that a new account needs to be opened each time a person is added or removed. Sometimes the council will not automatically transfer funds from one account to another, only refund a portion to the person leaving. So you can end up with an overpayment stuck in one account and arrears on another account - you may need to overpay to avoid trouble.

pixiepoo

Hi Firefox,

Yes we have had this problem too, although this is being sorted and the funds are being transferred to credit the new account which will mean that there is no over/under payments showing

Thank you for replying

anselld

Should be OK so long as she has paid in full for the full period of residence and has not claimed any single person discount.

CIS

I must also mention that there are no arrears on the account, the tax is paid by direct debit every month and there is no benefit on the household as we pay 100%

We wouldn't take any action against the person if didn't affect the charge due - we would however tend to ask more questions the next time any change was reported.

As Firefox has pointed out though the accounts (strictly speaking) would need amended to match the liability however providing that the charge is correct (and paid for) and is not likely to be amended again their are ways around it so to minimise the work required (but not all council's will work this way).