Council Tax liability questions

Yami_Prem

Hi there,

I've had the local council chase us for some details of past tenants. I've provided leases and names and dates to them. They have just replied with the following:

"In order to allow me to update our records and create liabilities for the tenants between January 2018 to April 2021, I require forwarding addresses or email addresses and also evidence of rental payments for the lease term.

Unfortunately, without the above information, I am unable to create retrospective liabilities and the landlord would be made liable."

My question is, what if I don't have email or forwarding address? Am I required to ask for these as a landlord?

Not all tenants have email addresses (especially the European tenants who don't seem to stay long) so I won't have such details for all.

Thanks.

dimbo61

Then you will have to pay the council tax unless you can provide proof of the tenancy agreements and rents paid by your tenants during that time period.
Under Right to Rent checks you are required to check that a tenant has the right to live and rent a property in the UK.
Copies of passports, birth certificates, valid ID.
Bank statements to prove that they paid rent every month. 
Did you do credit checks ? 
Were you Renting to foreign students and have proof they were at University ? and therefore exempt from Council tax.

Yami_Prem

dimbo61 said:

Then you will have to pay the council tax unless you can provide proof of the tenancy agreements and rents paid by your tenants during that time period.
Under Right to Rent checks you are required to check that a tenant has the right to live and rent a property in the UK.
Copies of passports, birth certificates, valid ID.
Bank statements to prove that they paid rent every month. 
Did you do credit checks ? 
Were you Renting to foreign students and have proof they were at University ? and therefore exempt from Council tax.

Hi.

We do check ID and do keep a copy of their ID. And yes, we check if they have right to live in this country.

What we don't always have is forwarding address and email addresses for all.

saajan_12

dimbo61 said:

Then you will have to pay the council tax unless you can provide proof of the tenancy agreements and rents paid by your tenants during that time period.
Under Right to Rent checks you are required to check that a tenant has the right to live and rent a property in the UK.
Copies of passports, birth certificates, valid ID.
Bank statements to prove that they paid rent every month. 
Did you do credit checks ? 
Were you Renting to foreign students and have proof they were at University ? and therefore exempt from Council tax.

Proving there was a tenancy across x dates - yes.
However at that point the liable person is the tenant, and it should be up to the council to chase the person(s) liable for that period. 

The right to rent checks are at the start - passport etc. That rarely includes an address and even if it did, the tenant wouldn't know their future address after the tenancy at that point. Upon move out, they're under no obligation to share a forwarding address and the LL has no way to force it. 

CIS

Yami_Prem said:

Hi there,

I've had the local council chase us for some details of past tenants. I've provided leases and names and dates to them. They have just replied with the following:

"In order to allow me to update our records and create liabilities for the tenants between January 2018 to April 2021, I require forwarding addresses or email addresses and also evidence of rental payments for the lease term.

Unfortunately, without the above information, I am unable to create retrospective liabilities and the landlord would be made liable."

My question is, what if I don't have email or forwarding address? Am I required to ask for these as a landlord?

Not all tenants have email addresses (especially the European tenants who don't seem to stay long) so I won't have such details for all.

Thanks.

Council's can be a right pain - and that comes from someone who deals with council tax disputes as my day job.

There is no specific requirement for the aforementioned data in legislation but if it went to a valuation tribunal they will ask for as much evidence as possible. I would personally however argue over whether or not an email address or forwarding address adds anything other to make a council's life slightly easier, it's not an absolute requirement. There are also a few technical issues that the council's always seem to forget about.

The last tribunal I had for a client had them asking for all sorts of evidence.

Your case isn't entirely lost, I've fought worse, but it's going to be an argument.