Never paid council tax!

Resurrect

Thanks CIS. It’s in England.

Would you suggest she just calls the council & ask them to look into it then send her the bill for the arrears then? 

CIS

Resurrect said:

Thanks CIS. It’s in England.

Would you suggest she just calls the council & ask them to look into it then send her the bill for the arrears then? 

In England it can be backdated to 1 April 1993. It's the Valuation Office that need to do the banding, not the council. The council cannot issue a council tax bill until they have firstly banded the property and they will then use the VOA's date.

CIS

Robin9 said:

It's possible - I've got a commercial property that has missed the system for 50 years. I'm waiting for a valuation.
Don't be too precise with your search of the Council's records - the property or the street its in could have been misspelt.

The council tax side with the VOA is typically far more correct than than NNDR side - there's far less of the 'unit at the side of the garage' stuff in council tax.

Socajam

I would them and explain that you x have died and you are looking through their papers/bank statements and cannot seem to find anything relating to paid council tax bills.  You wondered whether she paid the council tax by cash at the council office and did not keep the receipts.
Your call is to ensure that all the tax etc is paid up before putting the property up for sale.  .
If the tax was paid, could you go down and have a copy of the payment details for your records.  If the tax is not paid, well that's a different matter altogether.
Don't go into too much details and create more problems for yourself.

CIS

Your call is to ensure that all the tax etc is paid up before putting the property up for sale

Which will alert the council anyway to a property that is not listed so it's no better off than speaking with the VOA and getting them to check if the property is registered on the valuation list. If the VOA have the property then a quick call to the council can then sort the rest, if the VOA don't have the property they'll have to register it any way before the council can do anything.

As to who gets any bill to pay, it depends on a number of factors.

Resurrect

So do you think this is what she should do?

1. Call the voa & confirm never valued.
2. Call the council & tell them.
3. Appoint a solicitor.
4. Receive bill (27 years x £2k may be = £54k??)
5. Arranging a bridging loan to pay the council. With the solicitor to get an agreement that debt is settled. 
6. Sell the house & repay bridging loan 

RAS

I suggest she does as CIS suggests and contacts the VOA to find out the situation.
Then report back here as CIS indicates that there are a number of factors affecting any bill, and who get's it.

Karonher

Resurrect said:

So do you think this is what she should do?

1. Call the voa & confirm never valued.
2. Call the council & tell them.
3. Appoint a solicitor.
4. Receive bill (27 years x £2k may be = £54k??)
5. Arranging a bridging loan to pay the council. With the solicitor to get an agreement that debt is settled. 
6. Sell the house & repay bridging loan 

I would think that is a very inflated figure. Council tax may be around £2000 but certainly not 27 years ago. Unless it is a very big property I imagine it would be less than half of that.

[Deleted User]

Also if there was only single occupancy there would be at least 25% discount

CIS

Across the 28 tax years of council tax (incl 2020/21) the gross total council tax for an average Band D property in England is £33,037. It can be adjusted accordingly for a higher or lower banding.

Average Band D charge in 1993 was £568.00.