Council Tax Arrears

sisko1982

we have received this morning a letter from a debt collection agency regarding council tax on my husbands rented out house. We have had no contact from the council to our address regarding an outstanding bill etc. 

It looks like his tenants haven’t paid council tax since they moved in last October. 

Is this our debt to pay? He’s on the council tax here and we have tenancy agreement etc showing the date they moved in and also bank statements showing their regular payments. 

We feel like we’ve lost our chance to fight as we’ve had no notice of this before they’ve gone to debt collection agent. And the first payment needs paying on Tuesday  when we got the letter this morning (sat) and there’s no one to contact anywhere till Monday as it’s a weekend 

Caz3121

sisko1982 said:

It looks like his tenants haven’t paid council tax since they moved in last October. 

Is it an HMO property?
who does the lease say is responsible for the council tax
did he advice the council of the dates the tenants moved in to get a finalised bill?

Leah04x

I assume there’s a clause in their tenancy agreement making them liable for the council tax?
I work for a letting agency and encounter this quite a lot when the council fail to update the account despite us providing the details. 

I would suggest calling them on Monday and asking them to put debt collection on hold until the account is updated and accurate. Provide them with their tenancy agreement and the dates you should be liable for prior to this tenancy (if any), and provide them with your current address for billing. 
They will then send you a final bill to your current address and bill the tenants from last October. 

As long as you can prove you’re not liable and give them all the info, you won’t be held liable for the bill.

Hasbeen

sisko1982 said:

we have received this morning a letter from a debt collection agency regarding council tax on my husbands rented out house. We have had no contact from the council to our address regarding an outstanding bill etc. 

It looks like his tenants haven’t paid council tax since they moved in last October. 

Is this our debt to pay? He’s on the council tax here and we have tenancy agreement etc showing the date they moved in and also bank statements showing their regular payments. 

We feel like we’ve lost our chance to fight as we’ve had no notice of this before they’ve gone to debt collection agent. And the first payment needs paying on Tuesday  when we got the letter this morning (sat) and there’s no one to contact anywhere till Monday as it’s a weekend 

Did he inform the council as to the date he was no longer responsible from, and did he give the names of the tenants to them as well? Some landlords do this.

He has to speak to the council tax department ASAP to get this sorted out.

You have a postie that starts very early LOL

elmer

Lots of councils have phone cover on a Saturday morning, you could see if yours does
However it is very common that all parties in a tenancy assume that the other party will notify the council, and so no one does, it should be easy to fix, if they are not there today, try them first thing Monday morning

elmer  (non working Saturday)

macman

It's not your debt unless it's an HMO. Your husband is however liable for any from before the tenant's tenancy ended.
Suggest you speak to the tenant over the weekend to get their story.

macman

Caz3121 said:

sisko1982 said:

It looks like his tenants haven’t paid council tax since they moved in last October. 

Is it an HMO property?
who does the lease say is responsible for the council tax
did he advice the council of the dates the tenants moved in to get a finalised bill?

What the lease says or does not say is irrelevant. Unless the property is an HMO, the occupier is liable, not the LL or owner.

theartfullodger

Be careful, council tax debt can end you in jail

theartfullodger

Or Landlord has excluded part of property (eg one bedroom) in which case LL responsible

macman

theartfullodger said:

Be careful, council tax debt can end you in jail

True, but there is nothing to indicate the OP's husband is liable in this case. The tenants have presumably failed to pay or ''forgotten' to register.

greatcrested

macman said:

theartfullodger said:

Be careful, council tax debt can end you in jail

True, but there is nothing to indicate the OP's husband is liable in this case. ....

but equally there's not enough information to be certain of this