Former housemate has retrospectively created a council tax account in my name!

CIS

Will the council accept me paying 1/3rd of the bill?

Very unlikely - your 'share' is 100% of the remaining charge.

Obviously I'm going to have to write to the council and inform them of the other two tenants who were jointly liable as they were also named tenants

Even so the council can choose who to pursue for the outstanding arrears.

one_bullet_left

CIS wrote: »

Very unlikely - your 'share' is 100% of the remaining charge.



Even so the council can choose who to pursue for the outstanding arrears.

So can I find out whether they're pursuing anyone else? Am I right to assume that since both my name AND John's name are on the bill, they are pursuing John aswell?

Assuming that I end up paying 100%, would I then be able to recover costs through small claims courts from the other 3 individuals?

CIS

So can I find out whether they're pursuing anyone else? Am I right to assume that since both my name AND John's name are on the bill, they are pursuing John aswell?

Yes and possibly.

would I then be able to recover costs through small claims courts from the other 3 individuals?

You can try.

olly300

OP the fact that you haven't got any paperwork yourself and made cash payments inconsistently means you have helped screw yourself.

In future:
1. Make sure you get paperwork for a tenancy even if you have to take it and photocopy it yourself.
2. Keep this paperwork at least until you are sure all bills are paid but ideally for a year afterwards.
3. If you are paying someone use bank transfers, or if you have to pay regularly in cash ensure you do it consistently and purposely take out nearest that amount from an ATM.

Now your only chance is to see if the EA will give you a copy of any paperwork otherwise you could find yourself stuck with the whole council tax bill not just for the period you lived in the property but the whole time John rented the property.

The only glimmer of hope is the fact that John lied about your deposit and if you have paperwork/emails to back up your struggle to get your deposit back you still have a chance of getting some of the council tax money back from him through the small claims court.

As I said small claims courts rule on the balance of probabilities and a carefully constructed claim mentioning the deposit issue could help to swing it in your favour.

one_bullet_left

Okay so I managed to get in contact with John, and we've been able to patch up our differences and he's agreed to get in contact with the council. I mentioned paying 50% each, so I guess I'll find out tomorrow what has happened with that, whether he's paid the whole thing or 50% of it.