Council Tax Help

Batman12

I'll try and make this as short as I can.

I have a council tax bill between me and a friend of around £1700. This includes some court charges. I didn't find out I had this till recently because the letters they sent me were sent to a old address and no one bothered to forward them to me.

I lived at the house June 2013 - June 2014. I was a student during this time but they discontinued me over tuition fees. (Another story for another time) The Council don't see me as a student at the time so I have to pay. The house had 6 other friends living there and all but one were students.

I need to know is there anyway I can get some money knocked off the total bill. As I said, I wasn't aware of this bill till recently. If I knew soon I would of sorted it out by then. I've also been out of the job for the last 6 months. I've always been able to work just didn't find anything suitable until now so I've been on really low income and then I start a new okay £20k job come June.

Does it help to know the house we stayed at was in poor condition? We made a lot of complaints towards our letting agency about maintenance issues and damp and nothing was ever done. Could this help or am I clutching at straws?

In the meantime I've agreed a payment plan so they're happy and i'm happy. Just looking at ways to reduce the bill as it came out of no where and it is a lot of money for a house that was in poor condition.

Thanks in advance!

agrinnall

Have the council agreed to split the amount due between you and your friend? If so that's a good result already, as they would be within their rights to pursue you for the whole amount.

I'd say your only chance to get money off is by convincing them that you were a student and should have been exempt, and therefore you should not owe anything at all. Quite why you didn't do this when you were living there I don't know, and I don't know whether having accepted it already would cause you issues trying to argue the opposite now.

One thing that won't help you in any way is the condition of the property, which has nothing to do with the council or the assessment of council tax due on the property.

Batman12

I did have a letter handed into the letting agency to say I was a student. I've been in contact with them but I get no reply now. They've either lost it or can't be bothered. Told the council this and they're just concerned I just pay it back.

They said they won't split it. They said me and my friend have to sort it out between us. He seems to think he's paid his half but he hasn't. He's a nice guy but he's as good as a chocolate tea pot. My biggest worry is if I pay my half and he doesn't.

Ideally, I'd love to turn around to the letting agency and landlord and tell them they've not kept their end of the contract of maintaining the property and not helping with my letter I gave them so why should I pay? If anything they should pay. But again I think I would just be clutching at straws.

HappyMJ

Batman12 wrote: »

Does it help to know the house we stayed at was in poor condition? We made a lot of complaints towards our letting agency about maintenance issues and damp and nothing was ever done. Could this help or am I clutching at straws?

In the meantime I've agreed a payment plan so they're happy and i'm happy. Just looking at ways to reduce the bill as it came out of no where and it is a lot of money for a house that was in poor condition.

Thanks in advance!

If the house was in such a poor condition and you moved out due to it then not paying rent to the landlord could be justified but continuing to live in means you found it barely acceptable and put up with it. You have to pay the council tax in full. The council will chase whoever is easiest. You're responding so they'll chase you.

You could take your housemate to court to recover the other half of the council tax bill but if your housemate has nothing you might find that is futile.

anselld

Batman12 wrote: »

Ideally, I'd love to turn around to the letting agency and landlord and tell them they've not kept their end of the contract of maintaining the property and not helping with my letter I gave them so why should I pay? If anything they should pay. But again I think I would just be clutching at straws.

You can blame whoever you like but the fact is Council Tax has nothing to do with the LL or the LA except if it is a Council Tax HMO. (I presume you were on a joint contract with the other six, so not HMO for CT.)

You should have informed the Council yourself of Student status, not relied on the LA.

However, it is presumably a fact that can still be proven that you *were* a Student up to the point in time you were "discontinued". Get proof of that in writing and submit it to the Council - escalate complaints etc until you get them to accept this as fact.

If that is successful you would have no liability up to that time, and still joint liability after that. It might make it harder to get money from your "friend" but I suspect you will struggle anyway.

lincroft1710

As the occupier you are responsible for paying the Council Tax, not your LL nor their agent. In law the council are correct in sending the whole bill to just one person.

Batman12

I spoke to my friend and he said he will ring them up and see what they say as he thought he's paid his bit. But if we both rang up and say we only want to pay half the bill each would they take that in account and then split it as asked them too and both of us are taking responsibility?

We were always told to hand our exempt letters over to our LA and they'll handle it. That's what we did.

CIS

But if we both rang up and say we only want to pay half the bill each would they take that in account and then split it as asked them too and both of us are taking responsibility?

They'll take whatever you're offering but it doesn't remove the joint liability for the full charge.

We were always told to hand our exempt letters over to our LA and they'll handle it. That's what we did.

And they did - by ending your student status for council tax purposes when it ceased to apply.

Batman12

CIS wrote: »

They'll take whatever you're offering but it doesn't remove the joint liability for the full charge.


And they did - by ending your student status for council tax purposes when it ceased to apply.

But they never did. The council said they had nothing from me or from the LA for me but the others were fine. Maybe something to do with the different times we handed them in. I don't know.

I doubt this had anything to do when I was asked to leave the uni. As far as I knew, they had their letter and I was okay. It was only around the start of this year I found out about this and it was already been to court to get whatever order they needed.

CIS

Batman12 wrote: »

But they never did. The council said they had nothing from me or from the LA for me but the others were fine. Maybe something to do with the different times we handed them in. I don't know.

I doubt this had anything to do when I was asked to leave the uni. As far as I knew, they had their letter and I was okay. It was only around the start of this year I found out about this and it was already been to court to get whatever order they needed.

In which case you need to provide proof of when you were a student and ensure that part is correct as it can be applied retrospectively. It's your responsibility as a liable party to check that any council tax reductions are correctly recorded at the time.

The council only need to issue one council tax notice- it could have been sent to any of the liable parties but will name all parties who are liable. If it gets to summons stage only then do they issue individual documentation to each party.

booksurr

you need to get back in touch with your (ex) uni and ask if they will re-provide you with a student exemption status letter for the actual period you were a student. Of course if you were discontinued for a debt you may or may not want to contact your uni but without that proof you are liable in law for the whole of the debt not just "your" half.

bear in mind though if the other person is still a friend then if you succeed in having you removed from all/part of the bill then your friend will be liable for all of it himself since he would then be a non student living in a property and so the only person liable for the whole bill. He could then retrospectively claim single person discount (ie 25% off) but he's still be left with having to pay all 75% of the bill himself.