Help with council tax letters

tortmad

Hi
I am hoping someone can give me advice as I don't know where to turn for help.
My story is I lived with my dad for years and we received a ct rebate. They took my earnings and my dad's income into account and we received a small rebate.
In September last year my dad's health was deteriorating and he wanted to change the title deeds of the house into my name to save any hassle if he passed away.
Sadly he passed away on 25 June this year. I contacted everyone to let them know.
I then received 3 letters from council tax for the past 3 years council tax saying I owe them over £1000. They seem to have decided we weren't entitled to the rebate and want it back.
I wonder if anyone can give me any ideas as to why this happened. The only thing I can think of is that I did not notify them of the change of owner, it didn't cross my mind to do that I assumed that the rebate would still have stood as we were both still at home. If that's the case then that's fair enough but surely it should only go back to September 2015 and surely there would still have been a rebate for my dad.
Any help in understanding this would be greatly appreciated as I am worried sick about it and can't afford to pay this back. I want to phone them but would like a bit of info first.
Thanks in advance.

Alice_Walker

Was your father in receipt of AA or DLA? If so there would have been no non dependent deductions from your council tax support. Once you took over responsibility for the council tax, unless you are also in receipt of disability benefits this exemption would no longer apply. Would that make sense if you look at previous award letters?

This change should only go back to Sept 2015. If you send them proof of change of ownership they should rectify this. There may be a small penalty also for failure to declare a change in circumstances, it varies between councils as to how frequently this is applied.

CIS

My story is I lived with my dad for years and we received a ct rebate. They took my earnings and my dad's income into account and we received a small rebate.
In September last year my dad's health was deteriorating and he wanted to change the title deeds of the house into my name to save any hassle if he passed away.

It may well be a combination of several facts -

As of Sep 15 the ownership changed so any entitlement he had to CTR would cease no later than that date.

You need to ask the council as to why they've gone back further - the usual reason is that the council were unaware you were resident for the CTR calculation and or an incorrect single person discount has been applied (there can be other reasons though).

Craig

pmlindyloo

It seems that the notification of your dad's death has led to these letters.

Could it be that your dad had savings or other assets that he didn't declare and they found out from probate?

Once you took over the ownership of the house then your income and savings would be used for calculating the CT reduction.

When you say rebate to you mean council tax reduction or second adult rebate?


Or it could be something else.

It is very difficult to comment without knowing all the background. Basically we would be guessing.

The only thing you can do is telephone and find out why they think you owe this money and then go from there.