Vendor has never paid council tax!

[sunmorning72]

I'm not sure if I'm being unreasonable. NC for obvious reasons!

We are buying a house and have just figured out that the vendor has avoided council tax for a large number of years by never registering for council tax.

This really bugs me, in part as it's just wrong but also very inconvenient! The house hasn't been graded into a band and this will take ages so can't start paying ourselves yet and we don't even have bins as they didn't officially exist! We will sort all of this out of course but AIBU to be very irritated to the extent that a tiny bit of me hopes they get caught?!

Are you too late to pull out? I might just do that to him in your position.

Why? He’ll just sell to someone else

“Maybe get this moved to legal ? The OP should certainly take expert legal advice.

Reading the detail;s my first thought was whether the council could seize the house to enforce the debt against the vendor - meaning it's not the vendors to sell anymore ?

Repeating the suggestion for legal advice.”

Are you serious? You’re first thought was whether the council could seize the house? Fuck me 🤣 btw they can’t

You’re first thought was whether the council could seize the house?

Yes, my first thought

btw they can’t

Thanks for the legal cits you provided showing you're not just some idiot on the internet without a clue where there arse in, let alone the finer points of statutory debts.

Council tax debts are special in law, and councils have a scary armoury of powers they can dip into in order to recover them. A basic of property law in England (Scotland differs) is that you can't sell what you don't own, and the "vendor" may not have title to the property if it emerges they've scammed the council out of their whack.

Ultimately this is why conveyancing and house sales need proper legal scrutiny. Hence my advice to the OP to get some - pronto. Not take my word for it, and certainly not take yours.

Yes, I did.

Council tax is not related to home ownership. And OP has had legal advice- her solicitor

Hi all

It seems getting this moved to legal could be a good idea!

I've never needed a thread moved before, anyone know how I do that please?

Report it and ask for it to be moved to legal x

How do I report it please? I use the mobile app.

In the post there are three black dots in the bottom left corner, click on those and a pop up with options will appear, one of which is Report.

Bottom right 🙂

We had this situation with our house after we bought it.
A man had lived here with his mum. The house belonged to his mum, who was elderly and she had died some 10 years or so previously and left the house to him.
He continued to live in it but told the council and utility companies that his mum had died and duly sent copies of the death cert to prove it.
However, he omitted to tell them that he was living there. Hence 11 years of bill free living. He then died himself and the house went on the market.
We then found out about the cost free living when we registered for council tax and utilities.
I simply told them the date that we had moved in and heard nothing more about it from the council or any other company.
I didn't know whether to laugh of cry at his audacity.
Just phone them and explain that you have only just moved in, sending a copy of your exchange date as proof if necessary. There shouldn't be any comeback whatsoever on you as it's not your bill nor your debt.
See your solicitor if you need your mind putting at ease.

Sorry, died some 11 years previously, not 10.

@CanCanAGoGo thanks CanCan. That was what I thought initially but some posters were starting to get me a bit worried!

I see someone else has suggested a retention fee regarding removal of fixtures and fittings - I would discuss this urgently with your solicitor. Work out what new issues have come up since the price was agreed and aim to retain enough to ensure everything can be sorted out if necessary after completion. This sounds to be a non-standard situation that needs non-standard treatment!

Hope you get it sorted and regularised with no further nasty surprises!

@Pythonesque thanks for the reply. They are bankrupt so it's a tricky situation as everything has to go to the trustees which takes forever. I fear we would end up missing the completion date by a long way if we go back.

Most of the issues we did know about. It was the stripping of the fittings so it looks awful that was most annoying but to be honest (other than the smoke alarms!) they were all pretty hideous and 18 years old anyway. It just grated (quite a lot) as changes the priority order of things we have to do.