council tax and landlord.... complicated situation!!! any advice?

auntie_pie

this IS related to council tax and housing benefit, but first i need to know whether my ex landlord or i, am responsible for paying council tax for his house, if i had left the property and moved to a different county, but still had the keys, and still had some of my stuff there?... naughty of me, i know.... but the man is a complete A*S*!!!!!!

shellsuit

I'd say you were responsible I'm afraid.

CIS

this IS related to council tax and housing benefit, but first i need to know whether my ex landlord or i, am responsible for paying council tax for his house, if i had left the property and moved to a different county, but still had the keys, and still had some of my stuff there?... naughty of me, i know.... but the man is a complete A*S*!!!!!!

It suprising how often this sort of query comes up at work.The landlord can hold you responsible up until either the end of the tenancy or someone slese takes the property , which ever is sooner.

pinkshoes

You are responsible up until the end of your tenancy agreement, so you'll need to show the council your paperwork.

If you kept the keys and left stuff in the house AFTER the end of the tenancy agreement, then technically you're still leasing the house, so YOU pay the CT.

If you don't want any of your stuff in the house, and your tenancy agreement finished on the day you moved out (and you paid the CT up til this point) then just deny knowledge that any of the stuff is yours, and just pay the CT up to the end of the tenancy agreement as agreed.

real1314

pinkshoes wrote: »

You are responsible up until the end of your tenancy agreement, so you'll need to show the council your paperwork.

If you kept the keys and left stuff in the house AFTER the end of the tenancy agreement, then technically you're still leasing the house, so YOU pay the CT.

If you don't want any of your stuff in the house, and your tenancy agreement finished on the day you moved out (and you paid the CT up til this point) then just deny knowledge that any of the stuff is yours, and just pay the CT up to the end of the tenancy agreement as agreed.

This is a money saving forum, not a "tell lies to cheat people" forum. The OP has said they kept the keys and left their stuff in the house. Had they emptied their stuff out and told the landlord this, then the landlord may have been able to get the CT reduced (possibly to zero), but as the OP didn't, and also didn;t return the keys, they remain responsible for rent and council tax.

The landlord may be an ****, but some would say what the OP has done is hardly reasonable, and 2 wrongs do not make a right.

pinkshoes

if the house was rented furnished, then the landlord would only get a 10% reduction in CT.

If the contract had ended and the OP was supposed to have moved out, then the landlord could have quite rightfully claimed all the stuff in the house!

I wouldn't call it lying... more leaving stuff behind that you no longer want. But as I said, if the OP DID want the stuff, then she's responsible for the CT.

I've frequently lived in houses where stuff has been left behind by previous tenants!

auntie_pie

real1314 wrote: »

This is a money saving forum, not a "tell lies to cheat people" forum. i think that was a bit harsh to pinkshoes....


The OP has said they kept the keys and left their stuff in the house.and i perhaps didn't make this clear, but i didn't KEEP the keys, i had them for a short time while i moved my things out into my new gaff. This included moving several sheds/workshop, chickens, ducks and lots of plants. i had to enlist friends and relatives to help in their spare time. So it wasn't just 'some STUFF'... it was a whole two years of mine and my children's lives, where we were fabulously happy and had discussed with the landlord many times how it would be a long term stay which he seemed more than happy with. The house was in a bit of a state,especially the garden when we moved in, and we turned it into a working garden with compost bins, about to start veg etc. the landlord was pleased that we wanted chooks and ducks as that it what his grandfather had done.it was a lovely family home!
the only down side was the fact that the landlord wanted to come over EVERY 3 WEEKS during the growing season to mow the lawn!! he lived in surrey, we were in beds. i am a gardener and used to mow it myself, but he would insist, remow it himself, and stay ALL DAY....mooching about as if he still lived there! he even let himself in once, while i was out, to, apparentely to 'wash his hands'.............
when i declared that i had had enough of this, as it was envasive, inconvienient and just damned rude, he gave us our notice and said that his son wanted to move in.
i knew this wasn't true, and when we left, the house stood empty forover 6 months. he also had to reduce the rent by £125 to get someone in
We were evicted through absolutely no fault of our own

Had they emptied their stuff out and told the landlord this, then the landlord may have been able to get the CT reduced (possibly to zero), but as the OP didn't, and also didn;t return the keys, they remain responsible for rent and council tax.

The landlord may be an ****, but some would say what the OP has done is hardly reasonable, and 2 wrongs do not make a right.

my first post may have been a little flippant, and sorry if i sound tetchy, but please don't judge so easily!

real1314

auntie pie, I wasn't judging you, I was commenting on pinkshoes suggestion that you could claim the stuff left wasn't yours to avoid having to pay. And the way you worded your post made it sound like you'd just done a bunk?

as you've made it clear that you'd left sufficient stuff to maintain occupation, and still had the keys, you'd be liable until at least the date you cleared it out and handed the keys back for CT purposes. You'd probably be liable for rent for longer.
As for any period where you were not occupying, but were still liable for rent, hmm, not sure about that. However I doubt any Council would backtrack over billing easily.
For future reference, I'd suggest you notify the council of when you occupy / leave a property to cover yourself.

anyway, sounds like your landlord was a nutter!

auntie_pie

sorry, didnt mean to go off on one back there!!!.... cheers for the CT advice though!.... and yes, he was!!!!

pinkshoes

Sounds like a bizarre landlord!! and you sound like a decent tenant to me, so no doubt your ex landlord will learn from his mistake of evicting a perfectly good tenant!!