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Lease Option on my Property
Comments
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To me term states that until the end of the option period, the 5 years, that the lease holder will pay any taxes due during that period - the council tax is a tax and is during the 5 year period so they have agreed to pay it under the lease.
There's two ways of looking at the correct council tax liability:
1) Whatever happens, the leaseholder has agreed under the lease to cover any property taxes.
but
2) On an empty property the inferior interest holds the council tax liability. The relevant part of the LGFA92 is silent on whether a leasehold would be regarded as inferior to a freehold, but if it is (and it would likely rely on case law) then the leaseholder would be liable for the charge under council tax legislation anyway.
EDIT: Just looked at some Valuation Tribunal decisions and they do regard the leaseholder as being inferior to a freeholder.
The main problem you have is the aspect of the land registry showing joint ownership - it confuses the issue massively from the council's point of view and if that can be sorted then the rest will be easily resolved. Which local authority is the property in ? The records needs corrected to separate the freeholder and the leaseholder,
If you ask your solicitor about council tax they'll probably be lost as very few deal with it but it shouldn't be too difficult to sort once the ownership is resolved (I've had a few clients in the past who've been passed on by solicitors as they were happy to admit they were out their comfort zone.)I no longer work in Council Tax Recovery but instead work as a specialist Council Tax paralegal assisting landlords and Council Tax payers with council tax disputes and valuation tribunals. My views are my own reading of the law and you should always check with the local authority in question.0 -
The problem you have is the secondary aspect of the land registry showing joint ownership
Have you asked your solicitor about this?0 -
You need to establish whether there is one document (freehold or leasehold) at the land registry which shows both names or whether there's a freehold in your name and a leasehold in the company name (not that there should be a registered lease, it would appear).
If it's the latter I have seen cases where the council has taken he name of each and wrongly combined them in to a joint liability. If it's the former then it's certainly wrong anyway and needs corrected.
You can check the land registry yourself - https://www.gov.uk/search-property-information-land-registryI no longer work in Council Tax Recovery but instead work as a specialist Council Tax paralegal assisting landlords and Council Tax payers with council tax disputes and valuation tribunals. My views are my own reading of the law and you should always check with the local authority in question.0
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