Council tax court summons for someone who doesn't live at property

cupid_s

Hi,
I apologise if I'm posting this in the incorrect area but couldn't figure out where to put it.

At the weekend my housemate opened a letter that wasn’t addressed to him (I assume by accident). It was actually addressed to someone who has definitely not lived at the property for at least 4 years, and it was a court summons for non-payment of council tax during the period of 04/13 until 03/14.

We pay our council tax directly to the landlord, who then pays it to the council. Looking through the huge pile of mail building up for the landlord, it seems there is an identical looking letter, sent the same date, that is addressed to the landlord.

Should I just ignore it? It’s not my problem as it’s not my court summons, but at the same time we have a good relationship with the landlord and I’d feel guilty if I didn’t let them know and there was a lot of trouble because of it.

McKneff

Do you live in a house, or flat or a house of Multiple occupants. It makes a difference.


House or flat, you are responsible for current council tax


HMO, I believe the landlord it responsible for it.


I think I would pass it on to the landlord to be honest and let him decide what to do withit.

cupid_s

McKneff wrote: »

Do you live in a house, or flat or a house of Multiple occupants. It makes a difference.


House or flat, you are responsible for current council tax


HMO, I believe the landlord it responsible for it.


I think I would pass it on to the landlord to be honest and let him decide what to do withit.

Thanks. I assume it's a HMO so it's a relief to know we won't get in trouble if it hasn't been paid. There's 4 of us sharing a normal 4-bed flat and each paying our rent (and council tax contribution) directly to the landlord each month.

I would do but he doesn't live in the country and I don't think he'll be coming back any time soon to collect mail.

00ec25

cupid_s wrote: »

. There's 4 of us sharing a normal 4-bed flat and each paying our rent (and council tax contribution) directly to the landlord each month.

I would do but he doesn't live in the country and I don't think he'll be coming back any time soon to collect mail.

hmmmm...
do you have an address within the UK at which you can "serve" notices on the LL?
You say you pay the rent directly, I assume therefore he does not have any UK based agent acting for him?

an overseas LL who does not have any UK contact details means you as the tenants become liable for paying the LL's income tax unless he has a UK contact address. Obviously you may decide to not rock the boat and to take a chance, but you ought to be aware of the risks you are taking. The rules are covered under the Non Resident LL tax scheme (ie as in not living in the UK)

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/international/nr-landlords.htm

The Non-Resident Landlords (NRL) Scheme is a scheme for taxing the UK rental income of non-resident landlords.
The scheme requires UK letting agents to deduct basic rate tax from any rent they collect for non-resident landlords. If non-resident landlords don't have UK letting agents acting for them, and the rent is more than £100 a week, their tenants must deduct the tax. When working out the amount to tax the letting agent/tenant can take off deductible expenses.
Letting agents and/or tenants don't have to deduct tax if HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) tells them not to HMRC will tell an agent/tenant not to deduct tax if non-resident landlords have successfully applied for approval to receive rents with no tax deducted. But even though the rent may be paid with no tax deducted, it remains liable to UK tax. So non-resident landlords must include it in any tax return HMRC sends them.

McKneff

Couldn't help but notice the similarity of what I was thinking


Oo heck and your user name 00ec lol


OP, I think I would be just returning it to sender in that case, saying 'not at this address';

cupid_s

God this is so complicated! I had no idea that I might be partially responsible for the CT if the landlord is overseas. We do usually deal with a relative of the landlord who does live in the UK and all problems go through the, but I have no idea if they are technically acting as the agent or not.

I think the best option is just to send it back and let the council deal with it.

Thanks for the info

Savvy_Sue

I agree to send back the letter for the person whose name you don't know marked as not known, but I'd definitely try to get the landlord's mail passed on to him: if he has a mortgage and there are letters from the mortgage lender you don't really want them building up, do you?