Council tax on rental property

[mug2018]

My partner moved into a private rental flat Sept 20. The landlady agreed to cover bills & council tax until Jan 21 when they were transferred to my partners
He then covered all bills as agreed.
He has now moved out, transferred bills back to landlady & notified council tax of his move.
All fine - until he has now received a demand for £400 from council tax for the period Sept 20 to 2020 year end.

They had no written tenancy agreement & the landlady is now saying it's my partners bill.

Any advice as to what he can do ?
He's is constantly speaking with council tax but nothing gets resolved

Seems weird she was going to cover bills and council tax at all. That's a tenant's responsibility. Does he have any record of the landlord agreeing that?

Why would she cover bills for 3 months? Did be pay her extra for it? Council tax and bills would be a couple of hundred of quid on top of the rent.

If there was no tenancy agreement then how can she prove that he was the one responsible for council tax during that period? Aren't tenancy and landlord rights void without a written agreement that both have signed?

I'm no expert so don’t know the ins and outs, it just seems a bit off to me.

Usually Councils will ask for tenancy agreement to settle a query with responsibility for a bill, there isn't one here. However as your partner seems to have admitted that he was living there at the time it looks like he will be liable.

They had no written tenancy agreement & the landlady is now saying it's my partners bill

well there’s your answer. No Tenancy, no agreement, tough luck I’d say to the LL. How can she prove it? He may well have misunderstood - LL is likely to expect HIM to pay bills. Would it get to court? I doubt it.

When I was renting, it was written in my contract that I was responsible for the council tax. Some landlords do include it in the rent so I don’t see how she can show that he was responsible for it without a written agreement.

He should just tell them that the owner was responsible for it at that time as he wasn’t an official tenant, she will have to prove otherwise.

Regardless of whether or not there was a tenancy agreement, if he was on the voter's register from Sept 20 onwards, he has declared he was living there.

But whether or not he paid rent, if he was living at that property, he owes the council.tax.

Where did he find the rental? If Gumtree or similar do they have a copy of the listing that states what was included?

If he can provide any evidence that the landlady agreed to pay the Council tax *advert/email/text etc) he could potentially pay the Council to get them off his back but take the landlady to small claims court to sue her for the money.

Council Tax hierarchy says the occupier pays unless HMO. Any agreement they have between themselves about payments is up to them but the occupier should be legally liable. So if he has admitted he was here/on the electoral register then he is liable.

Unless it was a hmo or he was a lodger, he is liable

Landlord's responsibility. No tenancy agreement - her fault.