Council unaware of residence

nickety

I have a friend who moved to the UK some 20 years ago.  For the first 10 years or so she lived only in rooms rented from others, and hence was not the Council Tax payer at those properties.

Some 10 years ago she began renting an entire flat within a converted house, and she still lives there today.  For some reason, this flat does not exist in the council's tax database (although it does exist as a separate address pretty much everywhere else: in other council systems including voter registration, postal databases, utilities, central government including HMRC, etc).

Being from another country and never before having paid Council Tax, she was not aware that such a charge exists let alone that she should have been paying it these past 10 years.  It recently came to her attention that she should have been paying this tax and she is both mortified (to have omitted it) and terrified (about the consequences).

What are her options in this situation?  To suddenly have to pay a decade of council tax is unlikely to be affordable to her.

nickety

I should add it is possible that, for Council Tax purposes, her flat has been included as part of another flat within the same house and hence the occupant of that other flat might (unwittingly) have been paying for her flat too.

CKhalvashi

The worst that would happen is going back 6 years. There are hardship funds and benefits for council tax discounts going forwards if this is applicable (assuming either EU citizenship with settled status or British citizenship, plus some others).

She should also speak to her local elected representatives at both local and national level (Councillor and MP), but the worst case scenario is going to be time being arranged to pay the debt at a rate she can afford. The reality I'd assume in a non-standard case like this will be that a substantial part of the debt is written off but I can't tell you how much.

I would assume in a case like this (which looks like official error somewhere down the line) that there will be no criminal prosecution, so there should be no need to worry on this front.

CIS

CKhalvashi said:

The worst that would happen is going back 6 years. There are hardship funds and benefits for council tax discounts going forwards if this is applicable (assuming either EU citizenship with settled status or British citizenship, plus some others).

She should also speak to her local elected representatives at both local and national level (Councillor and MP), but the worst case scenario is going to be time being arranged to pay the debt at a rate she can afford. The reality I'd assume in a non-standard case like this will be that a substantial part of the debt is written off but I can't tell you how much.

I would assume in a case like this (which looks like official error somewhere down the line) that there will be no criminal prosecution, so there should be no need to worry on this front.

The council can go back more than 6 years for council tax purposes. In this case though, the property has not been banded and, depending on the situation, the VOA may not be able to backdate the banding (and thus the council tax charge can't be backdated).

It's far from an uncommon issue with council tax to have charges backdated though and, in most cases, the debt isn't written off as otherwise it encourages others to hide their liability.

There's no criminal issue with failing to declare liability for council tax purposes.

lincroft1710

If this is a case where a house has been divided into 2 or more flats then the CT band can be backdated to the date of division. It does not appear to be an "annex" case which would not be backdated in England 

macman

Has she discussed this situation with her LL? What does her AST say about liability for utilities and CT?

lincroft1710

macman said:

Has she discussed this situation with her LL? What does her AST say about liability for utilities and CT?

In law a tenant is liable for the CT, unless the property is an HMO. So if the LL has been paying the CT and reflecting this in the rent, then when the house is reassessed as 2 flats, he should get a refund from the council and pass this on to the tenants. It would be good if the AST did say "CT included in rent" as OP would get some money towards the forthcoming CT bill 

macman

The OP might  also enquire as to why the owner did not apply to have the property registered as a separate dwelling place with the LA? In which case the usual questions arise about declaration of rental income etc.
OP, are all the utilities properly divided between the two properties (water, gas, electricity)? Does the flat have it's own independent access?