Council Tax advice please

donfruitella

Hi everyone

I live with a friend, and we moved into a house in January, 2017. Upon moving in, we needed to pay off council tax owed on the previous house, which we did. Letters were sent to our current address with our names on, and we paid monthly.

Since then, we haven't received any council tax letters. That is until a few months ago, when some started to appear with the landlords' names on them. On getting the last one I noticed that on the back, you can fill in your name and return to sender, so I did that today.

I'm just anxious as to whether there have been any charges, or anything to do with bailiffs etc (none have come round), and how this might relate to us. As we had no council tax letters come for a long time (around a year), and the council know we live there (as they've sent us letters addressed to us at the current address) we had thought that the landlords were paying this.

Does anyone know if someone (in this case, the landlord) gets charged, can these charges be automatically be transferred to us? We're obviously assuming now that nobody was paying council tax and that we will pay it, I'm just wondering what to do about it. I've put the latest letter back in the post with my name on the back as current occupier.

Thanks in advance for your help

*I posted this in the tax / benefit section as well but then found that it would probably be more suitable here*

lincroft1710

Unless this is a House in Multiple Occupation (for Council Tax purposes) then the occupier is responsible for paying the C Tax not the landlord, so you owe the money. Even if the landlord has paid, and he may have mislsed the council that he is the occupier, not you, the council should refund him and seek payment from you backdated to the day you moved in or commencement of tenancy, whichever is earlier