Landlord unpayment of council tax - unique situation

Brothergomez

Hi all,

Our landlord for our rented house last year was responsible for paying our council tax (it was clearly stated in our contract that this was the case - nothing changed to chage this fact). However he failed to pay about £100 of council tax for April to October and this became overdue (unbeknownst to us as all bills were sent to his address).

Finally in a letter dated in January of this year we were given a court summons for non payment of council tax addressed to us as we were the tenants, but sent to the landlords address as he was paying the council tax. He held on to this summons until yesterday (Thursay) 1 working day before the court date (Tuesday) making us unable to do anything about it. The amount had risen to £200 due to legal fees. He cited the fact that the agent had tried to call us/emailed about us changing the address making him unable to pay. We have no such record of this happening and do not recall this happening. He provided no evidence to support his claim.

We suspect this was in an effort to intimidate us to withdraw a TDS dispute we have submitted as he has attempted to claim our entire deposit without reason or evidence. He had blacked out his address on the council tax bill in an effort to conceal the fact the bill was for him however it is still readable.

I have tried google to no avail as it is such a unique situation. How should we proceed, any help would be much appreciated.

Many thanks!

Matt

martinsurrey

was it a house of multiple occupation?

If not the liability for council tax falls on the occupants of the house. The fact that the contract says he will pay does not change the fact that it’s your responsibility to make sure it IS paid.

You are going to have to go to court to clear this and then take action against the landlord for his breach of contract (small claims court).

Take your tenancy agreement to court as a mitigating factor, maybe awarded costs will not be as high.

Brothergomez

No it was single occupation. What would be a likely outcome in the small claims court? Would it be worth it as costs would be much more than £200?

Kayalana99

Brothergomez wrote: »

No it was single occupation. What would be a likely outcome in the small claims court? Would it be worth it as costs would be much more than £200?

You would win in small claims court as he went against your contract and if you are having any trouble getting your deposit back you could claim for this as well (as long as his reason for holding it is not vaild)

On winning he would pay all court costs but you may have an orignal fee to pay (I hear from Ebay forums its about £35 to start a claim but I am not sure? but court would add that to his bill )

I also just thought this will probally go on your credit report
Could anyone please confirm that they should pay the £200 now then seek compensation from LL for breech of contract? Or should they not pay and take to court as it is?

Maybe ring up the council and explain whats going on? As you can explain why you missed the court date so they many even waver the extra fees if your lucky.

dtsazza

What would you actually be claiming if there was a legal case? It wasn't clear to me from your post whether the outstanding tax has now been paid by yourselves, or whether it's still outstanding.

If you have paid it, then it's probably reasonable to pursue the landlord to refund your expenses. If it's in the contract that the landlord handles the council tax then it seems that you would have a strong case, though his claim about "changing the address" (whatever that means) might complicate matters if it has any sort of validity.

If the amount is still outstanding then I suspect you would have to pay it anyway, since it's legally the occupant's requirement to do so, regardless of any arrangement you may have with your landlord. Then you would pursue reimbursement as above.

Also, the legal costs would be nowhere near that amount. To file a claim for £200 with MCOL would cost £25 in fees, or £35 if you didn't want to use the online service for some reason. Besides, these would be added to the claim and almost certainly be paid by the landlord (assuming he lost the case), so if you're confident you're in the right it wouldn't cost you anything to get the courts to agree with you.

Brothergomez

We will probably end up paying then pursuing reimbursment. We are not sure what is meant by "changing the address" no evidence has been given for this, we may try to assertain what he meant by that.

Would we be able to do anything regarding what we see as threataning behaviour? He purposely left this until the last minute and he has repeately threatened legal action to claim our deposit and get us to retract our TDS claim.

Presumably if violence is threatened we contact the police straight away (he hasn't yet, but you never know!)?

Kayalana99

Brothergomez wrote: »

We will probably end up paying then pursuing reimbursment. We are not sure what is meant by "changing the address" no evidence has been given for this, we may try to assertain what he meant by that.

Would we be able to do anything regarding what we see as threataning behaviour? He purposely left this until the last minute and he has repeately threatened legal action to claim our deposit and get us to retract our TDS claim.

Presumably if violence is threatened we contact the police straight away (he hasn't yet, but you never know!)?

I don't think so other then call the police for harrasement in this case but I don't *think* it will matter in court as they probally would only interested in the claim.

Whether or not the LL has a case with regards to this 'TDS case' (I have done a quick google but I am still not 100% what this is) will depend on who is right and threating legal action isn't exactly hassesment as he is giving you a chance to sort it before taking you to court (thats not to say he isnt harrasing you as thier is a right and wrong way to go about these things!!)

No idea about this change of address thing - it won't hold up in court unless he proves he sent you emails & phone calls...and you have no email & no phone calls so thiers nothing to prove & even if he *did* try and contact you it still doesn't change the bottom line that he didnt pay the bill (regardless of address) as he seems to have done it before this with no problem.

Brothergomez

Sorry, the TDS case is the tenants dispute service. We are disputing the amount he claimed for cleaning after we left as he claimed vast amounts with no evidence or reason. A couple were reasonable but the agent reviewed the property and found it to be satisfactory. This is with the TDS service now though so we should be OK with that, they pursue legal action if he does not repay the deposit.

CIS

Its actually a very common situation but short of the county court / small claims there's nothing you can do.

Council Tax legislation is quite clear in respect of determining who is liable but many people still come to arrangements where the landlord will pay - this works fine until the landlord doesn't pay.

princeofpounds

There is a schedule of liability which determines who is liable for council tax. It works as a hierarchy so the first-named person on the list will be responsible. For example, an occupying tenant will be responsible before a landlord, unless it is an HMO situation.

http://www.merton.gov.uk/advice-benefits/counciltax/ctaxwho.htm

Theoretically anyone can contract with someone else to be responsible for council tax payments. But that has no relevance whatsoever to the council or the law surrounding council tax, so it can never override your liability.

So pay if you haven't. Quickly. Non-payment is much more serious than non-payment of a normal debt.

You might also want to contact the court and apply to have any verdict set aside. It should be relatively simple to prove that you were not at the address where the court sent its summons. This might be important if the court issued a CCJ against you which likely will be on your credit file assuming it took you more than 10 days from the verdict to settle this.

I don't know if it is possible, but you might also want to speak to the council about who put your names on the account AND instructed the billing address to be the LL's address (no prizes for guessing). I'm not sure if it's an offence of any kind, but it might be worthwhile evidence to gather.

Then pursue the landlord through small claims (claiming any extra costs his behaviour caused for you as well as the council tax amount) as well as the TDS.

CIS

You might also want to contact the court and apply to have any verdict set aside. It should be relatively simple to prove that you were not at the address where the court sent its summons. this.

Providing the council have issued the documents to an address which the OP agreed that they could then they have no argument as the council have issued the documents correctly. If they didn't provide the details to the council then they may have an argument.

This might be important if the court issued a CCJ against you which likely will be on your credit file assuming it took you more than 10 days from the verdict to settle

There won't be a CCJ for council tax , it will be a liability order which doesn't go on your credit rating.