Council tax. Help needed.

Stewart_1234

Hi thanks for looking.
My son is in trouble with the council for non payment.
He signed a 12 month tenancy with a letting agent back in November 2014. He had spoken to the housing department who advised him about housing benefit, the council paid the bond for the flat. Well he never got the housing benefit so never moved in neither did he make any payments. he was on job seekers at the time. He did however have the keys. Foolishly he did not return them. The flat was apparently broken into the door was kicked in and the place trashed. The landlord changed the locks, and no contact was made to my son for several weeks. He had told them the situation with the benefits and assumed that was the end of it. The flat went back on the market, but as I understand is still empty.
The council are now demanding council tax up to November 2015. Is this right.

pmlindyloo

A difficult one.

A tenant is liable for council tax for the duration of the tenancy. Despite the fact your son did not live in the property he signed the tenancy agreement and therefore was liable for rent and council tax until the end of the tenancy.

During a fixed term the tenancy can only be ended with the agreement of both the tenant and the landlord. Your son needs to find out how the landlord views this. Has the landlord written to your son regarding this? Has you son written to the landlord at any time and received a reply?

It could be argued that when the landlord changed the locks of the property the landlord was accepting surrender of the property as he no longer had 'possession' of it.

My opinion is that your son needs to know where he stands with the landlord and get this in writing.

Once he achieves this then he can contact the council to show that the property was surrendered on such and such a date and he was not liable for council tax after that date.

Since he was on JSA at the time he should have to only pay back a percentage of the CT as he would have been entitled to council tax reduction during his tenancy.

The key thing is that your son needs written evidence of when/if the tenancy was surrendered.

HappyMJ

He wouldn't get council tax reduction if he didn't live in the property. He'll be liable for and paying the empty property charge which in some cases is 200% of the council tax due. Usually it's just 100% with no single person discount applied. Some councils give a 100% discount on the charge for a period of time some allow 28 days. They usually do this when you are moving between properties so you're only paying one lot of council tax at a time.

If the property is still empty he could find himself liable for the entire period of the 12 month tenancy if the landlord has taken no action to repossess the property. Has the tenancy been surrendered? Is he able to return to the property and live in it? The landlord doesn't have to chase rent if they don't want to. It would be pointless chasing rent from someone who clearly can't afford the rent and has no assets.

Stewart_1234

Thanks for your quick reply, much appreciated .
As I understand it no correspondence either way. Just a phone call from them back in January accusing him about the damage. So I don't think relations between son and landlord are good.
I appreciate he has been foolish with the landlord.
So I don't think landlord will help him.

Stewart_1234

Can they just change the locks without telling him. Have they not taken possession back ?

pmlindyloo

Stewart_1234 wrote: »

Can they just change the locks without telling him. Have they not taken possession back ?

I suspect that by changing the locks this does suggest that the landlord has accepted that there has been a surrender of the property, particularly if your son was not then given the new keys.

However, I am not an expert!

I suggest that your son makes a time line of the events and then rings Shelter for some advice. They are the professionals.

HappyMJ

Stewart_1234 wrote: »

Can they just change the locks without telling him. Have they not taken possession back ?

Not necessarily. The landlord may have just been securing the property and the replacement keys are available to him to pick up whenever he wants. He's still a tenant despite not paying rent and is liable for the full amount of the council tax.

silvercar

If he wasn't paying rent then who was? Unlikely the landlord would leave the tenancy continue with no HB, no rent and no occupation. If the landlord didn't chase for rent, is that because he got another tenant? If so, then the new tenancy would mean your son's tenancy ended.

terryw

silvercar wrote: »

If he wasn't paying rent then who was? Unlikely the landlord would leave the tenancy continue with no HB, no rent and no occupation. If the landlord didn't chase for rent, is that because he got another tenant? If so, then the new tenancy would mean your son's tenancy ended.

OP understands the property is still empty

HappyMJ

silvercar wrote: »

If he wasn't paying rent then who was? Unlikely the landlord would leave the tenancy continue with no HB, no rent and no occupation. If the landlord didn't chase for rent, is that because he got another tenant? If so, then the new tenancy would mean your son's tenancy ended.

Maybe the property is derelict and getting the council tax paid by someone else is actually saving the LL money. Maybe the LL is getting the HB direct from the council without the knowledge of the tenant as they did get the deposit paid by council and they'll be keeping that. That bond would have been conditional on the tenant applying for HB. Maybe the tenant didn't move in because they realize the property is rubbish but the council is paying the rent to the LL. Maybe the tenant wanted to keep the HB money for themselves rather than have it go direct to the LL and was just using this as a way of getting some extra cash with no intention of ever moving in (yes I've known people to do this).

I agree though it's very very unlikely.

terryw

HappyMJ wrote: »

Maybe the property is derelict and getting the council tax paid by someone else is actually saving the LL money. Maybe the LL is getting the HB direct from the council without the knowledge of the tenant as they did get the deposit paid by council and they'll be keeping that. That bond would have been conditional on the tenant applying for HB. Maybe the tenant didn't move in because they realize the property is rubbish but the council is paying the rent to the LL. Maybe the tenant wanted to keep the HB money for themselves rather than have it go direct to the LL and was just using this as a way of getting some extra cash with no intention of ever moving in (yes I've known people to do this).

I agree though it's very very unlikely.

Agreed all sorts of maybes here. Including that there may still be a tenancy and the young man is heavily in arrears and also owes for utility bills.