The deal with reposession, council tax, utilities etc

Legacy_user

I'll be getting my AD in about a month and by coincidence my property will be reposessed at about the same time. The court hearing is this week and I've already told them by letter that we'll be in a position to vacate within a month of that.

My question is about the situation with council tax and utilities. The general line of advice seems to be that you get six month dispensation from council tax and that gas, electric and water should be physically cut off rather than just the bill period ended.

But surely, if the property is reposessed, I no longer own it and cannot be held responsible for any bills incurred? I could understand it if I just left the propert emtpy for months while the respossesion process went through, but sure once it's reposessed it's no longer my concern? Is this right or wrong?

PippaGirl_2

You are legally responsible for the property and any bills created there until the property is actually sold following repossession which might be a while after repossession. Hence best to get things cut off.

I know others have given proof of repossession to their LA to request council tax to be waived, I'm not sure of the success of that request though.

CIS

I could understand it if I just left the propert emtpy for months while the respossesion process went through, but sure once it's reposessed it's no longer my concern

You remain the legal owner until the property is disposed of.

I know others have given proof of repossession to their LA to request council tax to be waived, I'm not sure of the success of that request though.

Its not so much that councils waive the council tax due its that they have to award a Class L exemption for any unoccupied property that has been re-possessed. This exemption remains in place until the property is handed back, disposed of or occupied.

System

Right, OK, thanks folks. Still seems very weird though.

System

Does it cost money to get the electic and water people out to cut off the supply?

davetheman

Am in the same position, what if pipes freeze due to utilities turned off, the property we left, water is still on at the stop !!!!

Lou67

CIS wrote: »

You remain the legal owner until the property is disposed of.

Its not so much that councils waive the council tax due its that they have to award a Class L exemption for any unoccupied property that has been re-possessed. This exemption remains in place until the property is handed back, disposed of or occupied.

Not exactly 100% true. The council tax is only exempt for six months. We went bankrupt in November 2010, and applied for exemption on the property that we lost in the bankruptcy. We then stopped paying the council tax.

Unbeknownst to us, neither the building society OR the Official Receiver repossessed it, and it sat there for months, still in our name. (God knows why they all dragged their feet. We never got an answer.)

After 6 months, the council wrote to us at our new address, demanding payment for the old house! We contacted the CAB and found out that we were indeed still responsible for that property, even though we could not enter it and could not sell it, because nobody had took charge of it yet!

We went for voluntary repossession at the time, and within a couple of weeks, the building society repossessed it, but yes indeed, we ended up paying 2 month's worth of council tax for that old property. Luckily it got repossessed quickly once we put the voluntary repossession form in, but certainly when that 6 month exemption was over, we were asked to pay the council tax on that property. It was a shock and a struggle too, as we had to pay our current property's council tax, and at the time, we were poor as church mice!

But yes, it's important to remember that you're only exempt from paying it for a period of 6 months.

System

So if it takes longer than 6 months for the place to be 'disposed' of I have to start paying council tax again. On a property that has nobody living there and incurrs no costs to the local council.

What a crock.

Lou67

messedupmoney wrote: »

So if it takes longer than 6 months for the place to be 'disposed' of I have to start paying council tax again. On a property that has nobody living there and incurrs no costs to the local council.

What a crock.

Afraid so my friend I thought it was a load of bolleaux too. I thought it was a disgrace, as neither the OR or the building society had bothered to take charge of the property. It was still in our name, and even though we could not live there, we were still responsible for it! And we only found this out when the council sent us the bill for the council tax!

If it had been trashed and set on fire, and had taken the neighbour's house with it, we could have been held to account for it! We weren't insured as we stopped the insurance the week we left the house (which was about 2 weeks before the bankruptcy.) So when people go bankrupt, it is important to make sure that the OR or the mortgage lender definately repossesses it!

I asked the council time and again WHY we had to pay when we were not living there, and they just bleated that as long as the house remains in our name at land registry; they will be billing US.

debtinfo

You could have entered it and lived there lou, right up until the day that possession was given to the mortgage company

Lou67

debtinfo wrote: »

You could have entered it and lived there lou, right up until the day that possession was given to the mortgage company

Thing is though D.I. we got somewhere else to live (and signed a 12 month contract) a few weeks before bankruptcy... because we were under the impression that the house was going to be repossessed very quickly. And we didn't even know the old house was still in our name until we were asked to pay the council tax 6 months later.

Never mind. If we had stayed, and then been repossessed, we may have struggled to get private let, as the credit record would have been rubbish. When we went bankrupt, our credit record was flawless. But as I said, we never knew the house had not been repossessed for 6 months, as we were told it would be taken by the OR immediately.