Council tax debt

Rscott93

The girl I'm seeing had an outstanding council tax debt of around £1800 from when she lived with her ex over a year ago.

She was paying all the bills and he was responsible for paying the council tax. Anyway, 6 months ago he outright agreed over text that he would take care of the debt as it was his to pay.

Fast forward 6 months our lass has had a letter through her door from Jacobs debt recovery saying they are persuing her for the full amount and for her to give them a phone call immediately. She's obviously panicked and phoned them and she's been told that he's taken his name off the bill and that she needs to agree to a payment plan to pay the amount back which is £50 per month for however long. Now I have 2 questions...

Even though he has agreed to pay the debt via text I know this won't be a legitimate cause for her not to be liable. What I'm asking is has she accepted responsability by agreeing to a payment plan? The other question is more of a legality but they were both on the tenancy and registered as paying bills so how has he managed to take his name off the debt and leave it solely to her? Any advice will be appreciated before we approach CAB / Stepchange?

WhenIam64

Council Tax is a joint bill. If they can't get it from one, they will get it from the other.

Two questions

1. Whose name was on the rental agreement and when did the agreement run out
2. Who was living there

Any advice will be appreciated before we approach CAB / Stepchange?

See CAB first as there may not be the need to talk to Stepchange (unless there are other debts apart from CT)

fatbelly

Rscott93 wrote: »

Even though he has agreed to pay the debt via text I know this won't be a legitimate cause for her not to be liable. What I'm asking is has she accepted responsability by agreeing to a payment plan? The other question is more of a legality but they were both on the tenancy and registered as paying bills so how has he managed to take his name off the debt and leave it solely to her?

He hasn't.

The debt has 'joint and several' liability so they can choose who to pursue. If a £50 per month plan is affordable, I would take up that offer. Most bailiff organisations would not be happy with a 3-year plan.

At this stage the account should just have a £75 compliance fee. If you do not agree something at this stage then a further £235 is added. And you get a visit.

If the ex can be persuaded to cough up, brilliant.

If you were to give Jacobs the ex's contact details they would probably go after him too.

On the positive side this does not carry interest, and does not get registered on your credit file as it is just a magistrates court liability order.

CIS

The other question is more of a legality but they were both on the tenancy and registered as paying bills so how has he managed to take his name off the debt and leave it solely to her?

If he was on the account originally the council are unlikely to have removed his name from the joint liability. It can happen but it's typically an error that leads to it.

Even where both parties are subject to a liability order for the same debt then the enforcement action can only be taken against a single party at any one point in time so, whilst the enforcement agent is chasing her, he cannot also be chasing the partner. The agent would have to be instructed to cease enforcement against her before he could then be instructed to pursue the partner.


Where there are multiple parties who are liable then decision on who to pursue is entirely at the decision of the council.

RecentPost

Very messy when it comes to joint council tax debts, they will pursue the person who they get the money from.

Jacobs are a horrible lot to deal with but if they agree £50 a month theyre being unusually reasonable, their standard line is "we need the debt collected with 12 months"

CIS

RecentPost wrote: »

Very messy when it comes to joint council tax debts, they will pursue the person who they get the money from.

Jacobs are a horrible lot to deal with but if they agree £50 a month theyre being unusually reasonable, their standard line is "we need the debt collected with 12 months"

12 months - that's very relaxed by Jacobs as the typical was 6 months when I used to deal with them.

RecentPost

Oddly dealing with Jacobs for the fist time in years today.

They accepted the first offer and took less money than offered for the down payment apparently because "its christmas"