Housemates not paying council tax

PatrickStar

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Round here if you miss one payment they start sending out demands for balance of the whole year's CTax bill. Fortunately for the OP that's just the one payment. Having to find the money for the rest of a year's CTax when you haven't budgeted for it isn't a laughing matter.

OP: under the circs I'd be calling a house meeting and discussing making arrangements for each of you to take on responsibility for one bill each and then get that joint bank account closed asap

That would be a great idea if I lived with nice normal rational people that you can have a conversation with without them storming off to their rooms and slamming the doors...

If we don't have a joint account, how can we pay bills? They literally just do not pay for things. Hopefully I will be out before the next lot of bills come.

Guest101

PatrickStar wrote: »

That would be a great idea if I lived with nice normal rational people that you can have a conversation with without them storming off to their rooms and slamming the doors...

If we don't have a joint account, how can we pay bills? They literally just do not pay for things. Hopefully I will be out before the next lot of bills come.

U pay cash? Or nominate one person to pay from their account?

Do u realise the implications of a joint account?

CIS

I am a student living with 3 non-students in a house share. We agreed to split the council tax by 4, and each pay the amount into our joint account so that it could be paid by direct debit today.

Assuming you are all joint tenants then you are safe (do the council know you're a student ?) however the other 3 are all equally responsible for payment and will be summonsed to court together if it gets to that stage.

Guest101

CIS wrote: »

Assuming you are all joint tenants then you are safe (do the council know you're a student ?) however the other 3 are all equally responsible for payment and will be summonsed to court together if it gets to that stage.

With this in mind it's probably best to pay it and peruse the non payers through court yourselves

dancingfairy

I can't believe that you were advised to get a joint account. That is shockingly bad advice.
Unfortunately you are now financially linked to these other people. If they have defaults, CCJS etc then I believe it could affect your credit rating as well. Obviously you now have the issue of bounced payments etc as well.
Other suggestion is to have each housemate responsible for a bill (ie council tax or whatever) and for each of the others to set up a standing order to the others for that amount each month, or for the others to stump up cash when the bill becomes due, or to all chip in in cash, or for each person to pay a bill and work out the difference somehow.
I suggest you get hold of your credit files asap. Get this joint account closed (you probably won't be able to take your name off). I believe there is also a process to go through to get your credit file unhooked from the others, I believe you have to get a notice of seperation put on your credit file or something.
df

G_M

Having a joint account is a convenient way to arrange things.... provided everyone doeswhat they are meant to.

The trouble is it links you all financially. So if one of you has bad credit rating, or a County Court Judgement, you ALL get tarred with that legal record since the credit reference agencies will see the financial link between you.

As a student (as has been pointed out) you are exempt from Council Tax. So you could withdraw the contribution you made to the joint account and leave the other 3 to sort out the mess. Worst case scenario is the council takes the other 3 to court (though the joint account means your credit record will be blemished even though the court will not make you pay.

But as you also said, that is a bit hard on your mate who did contribute.

Unfortunately with house shares, communication and agreement is really the only way to resolve issues like this.

CIS

(though the joint account means your credit record will be blemished even though the court will not make you pay.

Not from non-payment of council tax, that won't affect the credit rating.

BitterAndTwisted

If you only have one non-payer between the four of you, then you'll need to put pressure on him or her together. Any bills being unpaid is going to have a very bad effect on the credit-records of all of you. I'd be having precisely this conversation with your house-mates and see if they can be made to see sense.

The only other alternative is for those willing and able to pay to do so in order to avoid getting black marks on your credit-files. Black marks that will have long-term consequences for all of you if you continue to have that joint bank account while bills and CTax go unpaid. GET IT CLOSED!

tbs624

dancingfairy wrote: »

I can't believe that you were advised to get a joint account. That is shockingly bad advice.

Unfortunately, its par for the course where LAs are concerned, especially those dealing with inexperienced/young Ts. .They act for the LL, not in the best interests of the T and .as we know, anyone can set themselves up in business as an LA with no qualifications, training, regulation etc required.
If there is already a shortfall on the joint a/c, who will be paying the fee for the bounced SO/DD?

Rid yourself of that joint a/c OP, as others have already suggested.

The non-contributing T(s)need to be firmly reminded of their full tenancy obligations and that the other Ts have the option of pursuing them via the small claims courts if they end up paying out on their behalf under J&SL. (As a student OP cannot be made to pay CT obligations of the non-student occupants.)

By way of "encouragement" you could always make a list of any of their personal techie gadgets and then point these nonpaying Ts in the direction of the smallads/second hand shops

AndyGuil

Get out of the joint account. Send in a certificate exempting you from council tax. Name those in the house and then let the council do the rest.