Money Moral Dilemma: Should I tell the previous owner of my home he's due a council tax refund?

jess56

I think you’ll find the Local Authority will only refund you any council tax you have overpaid for your period as the council tax payer.  They will refund the previous council tax payer for the amount he has overpaid for the period of time he was the council tax payer at the address( assuming he had paid in full and hadn’t been in arrears) . The local Authority will more than likely have his forward address.

KenWDen

No goodwill, no refund. He's broken promises so no. Should really be you that gets the £8,000 though as it's you who have overpaid due to council mistake.

Martin839

Normally I think you should, but given the behaviour of the vendor I would not facilitate him/her receiving an undeserved £8k windfall.

JBR999

The chap is obviously dishonest, so my first reaction would be not to tell him!  On the other hand, give him the opportunity to refund you the £2000 you lost and see if he is worth the advice.

juan2012

Looks like simple karma to me. In this world you get as good as you give, so tough luck.

mimgable

You have to tell him as otherwise you are committing theft. You could be in court if he or anyone else found out you’d stolen money he is due.

the loss of money from broken promises is a separate issue and needs addressing separately. Which probably is more than it’s worth for the hassle. Both house moves I’ve done I’ve been out of pocket due to things like solicitors not paying stamp duty. Last min price hikes by sellers (having already paid money for solicitors work).

best to swallow hard tell him+move on in life. You could ask when you tell him if he’d help out with the out of pocket expenses but don’t expect a positive response! Not everyone is able to see things from other’s perspective 

Swan6

I would say take the 2k from the 8k and give him the rest, tell him your not like him.

MsFoulis

100% think you should tell them. 

When we moved into our house in 2017, I used the MSE tips on the council tax banding issue ans managed to get our reduction going forward and get a refund for anything back to 1991 or something ridiculous. 
I told the people we bought the house from and they got around £4.5k back and were absolutely so grateful, they bought us a bottle of champagne.
You might make someone's week, month or year, change someone's life!

young_codger

This is not a problem.  The Council will refund any overpaid monies to the previous registered payer(s) - provided they've got his bank account details or new address  (we got an unexpected refund from our previous Council when we moved here)- so it's not your concern.   

natasha.robinson

Yes, tell him, and mention the debt to you at the same time.  Prepare to be disappointed, but feel very proud of yourself.  OR you could recognise that your Council is hopelessly underfunded, do nothing, and consider your seller to be helping support the Council with a generous £8k donation.  Either is good.