Council Tax

davetheman

Hi, was declared BR in 2009, then in March 2012 we decided go give the property up. We had the 6 months expemption and then had to start paying council tax.

Dec 2012 went to court and sent details to council office whom granted expemption and even gave a refund.

Feb, property fully repossed.

Today received a letter from council saying they had made a mistake as we are liable until the reposession date, so now want another £200 from us.

Can they do this and if so could we offer a payment plan for this?

HappyMJ

Yes and Yes... It's not a priority debt so you can offer as little as you can afford to pay every month. A priority council tax expense is the current one you have for your home that you live in now. That comes before arrears.

sniggings

if not working you can ask for them to take a payment out of your benefits,think the max they can take a week is £3.50, if working make an offer you can afford, my guess is they will take a low offer.

davetheman

thanks, not working, thinking of offer 10 payments

debt_doctor

Council tax always remains a priority debt, as the sanction of imprisonment (the only reason it is a priority debt)exists regardless of whether it is for your current property or not, or whether it is your current local authority or not.

Obviously prison is the ultimate sanction and in your case, if it is the councils mistake you might want to ask them to remit it (write off) due to official error. All councils have the right to do this, few admit it and it is rarely done.

If that fails then you should offer an amount hased upon your ability to pay which would be from £3.55pw if on benefits or what the council could get under an AOE if you are working.

DD

CIS

Hi, was declared BR in 2009, then in March 2012 we decided go give the property up. We had the 6 months expemption and then had to start paying council tax.

Dec 2012 went to court and sent details to council office whom granted expemption and even gave a refund.

Feb, property fully repossed.

Today received a letter from council saying they had made a mistake as we are liable until the reposession date, so now want another £200 from us.

Have they explained what actually happened in respect of the exemptions ?

I'd suspect they either gave the Class L exemption for the repossession from the wrong date or they managed to extend the 6 month Class C exemption past the maximum 6 months limit.

CIS

All councils have the right to do this, few admit it and it is rarely done.

It would a section 13A write off which was added to the LGFA 1992 by way of section 76 of the LGFA 2003.

davetheman

Was given a class L exemption from the court date.

CIS

Was given a class L exemption from the court date.

So it was the period from the end of the Class C until the repossession was actually completed in the February that they are charging you for.

The court date versus the actual date of repossession is an issue which I've seen crop up relatively regularly.

davetheman

That correct, they charged upto the court date, which we have paid