Council Tax Debt?

ch70

Bit annoyed at this and not sure what my options are. In 2011 I rented a flat for 6 months. At the end of the lease I called the local council to make good my bill until the end of the lease and notify them I would be no longer living at the flat. I was given the balance to pay which I did over the phone at that time and was told my account was cleared and nothing else was required. I then did the same with the utilities companies.

This week, 2 years later, I get forwarded a letter from the council saying I owe them not only money from the council tax but over £200 in fees for them to trace me!

Firstly, as far as I am aware I owe nothing! Secondly due to the fact I owe nothing it's not my issue that they have incurred fees tracking me down!

They have a record of the payment I made, £385.99. Now it's not likely I would have called and made an arbitrary payment of that amount is it. That was the amount I was told to pay to clear the account until the point I left. I'm sure somewhere I must have a statement from them showing £0 outstanding but it would be hard to find after 2 years and quite possibly binned by now. So where do I stand, can they chase me for money that as far as I'm concerned I don't owe. If they made a mistake at the time and gave me the wrong balance to clear, again that's not my fault.

Any thoughts?

Angry_Bear

Maybe send them a SAR? That would get you a copy of all correspondence they have had with you. This should include any statements or bills they sent you (including any they sent addressed to you after you moved).

National_Debtline

Hello there,

You can find out about sending a subject access request here:
http://www.ico.org.uk/for_the_public/personal_information

Do also consider requesting a copy of the local authoritys complaints procedure. Further complaints could go via the Local Government Ombudsman:
http://www.lgo.gov.uk

Best wishes,

David @ NDL.

CIS

So where do I stand, can they chase me for money that as far as I'm concerned I don't owe. If they made a mistake at the time and gave me the wrong balance to clear, again that's not my fault.

Most of the time the answer in these cases is down to the date you gave as the end of tenancy compared to what the landlord gave.

If you moved out before the end of the tenancy and the account was closed when you moved then the dates would be adjusted once the landlord notified the council that the tenancy was not ended when you left.

Any council tax that is due is still payable, even if they had given you the wrong amount. All you could do in that situation was to argue over the costs but the law allows them to take action to recover the balance due.

The only way you can find out is to ask the council - sending a SAR to the council is a bit overkill at the present time.