10k backdated unpaid council tax, what do I do?

[CTfuckup]

Been living in staff accom for over 7 years, was never informed I had to pay council tax, moved in at 19, believed it fell under the business address as I didn't have a postal address of my own I.e post doesn't come to my house, private bin collection not council. My rent has come straight out my salary. I've saved hard and I've just bought my first house, contacted council to arrange to pay council tax for house and it's all come about that I owe them £10k. I don't have it, I've just spent every penny of my savings on a house deposit, my monthly outgoings are about to sky rocket as staff accom was cheap and all inclusive and I'm now paying mortgage, CT, bills etc for the first time. What do I do? I have a toddler who is in very expensive nursery. I work all the hours I can. I've cried all day.

OP - be extremely careful. It sounds like you have terrible money management and this could indicate to the council that you were aware of the debt accruing, and intentionally didn't pay.

e.g. You've now entered into a mortgage which leaves things so tight financially.
According to your figures, by the age of only 20 you had accrued so much debt that you had to enter into a DMP. It took two years to get into debt, organise a payment plan and pay it all off?

Do you have any evidence that you were unaware of your liability for council tax? Maybe something to back up that the other tenants don't have to pay? Do you still have your original tenancy agreement?

@LoverOfAllThingsPurple

OP, that is pretty shit. How they haven’t noticed you haven’t paid for years is a massive surprise as they usually desperate to claw back a missed month, let alone 7 years. It does seem sussed to me that the student accommodation included all bills except rent and council tax? I’d look in to it further and as some others have mentioned try and fix a payment plan. I’d also seek legal advice from CAB or law centre or something similar. Please try not to worry, and I hope you’re able to sort it out. X

Yeah this. For them to have 'missed' seven and a half years is absolute bullshit. No WAY should you have to pay all this money @CTfuckup

I would fight this to the death, starting with C.A.B. as some people have suggested. Moving on to your MP, the media, whatever it takes.

I am sick of the powers that be doing this kind of shit to people. It's usually tax credits!

Firstly you do need advice because I thought on some utility bills they were not allowed to go back more than 2 years
I worked for a utilities company decades ago and this was the case then if the customer had never been billed. If we’d sent a bill but they hadn’t paid then they were liable. No idea if it still applies now or if it applies to council tax but it’s worth checking out.

It's not a utility bill, it's a tax.

@TankFlyBoss

I work for the council. I can't comment on your council tax but I can tell you that whatever they tell you, they absolutely do not have the funds to take you to court

I work for the council, specifically council tax. It costs the council £3 to apply for a liability order. The council don't have the funds not to do this - going to court is usually the only way to start recouping debt balances

@Cockle1234 If you work for council tax, can you advise the OP as to how and why it was not picked up that she didn't pay it for SEVEN years (when she was meant to apparently.)

You must get legal advice.

The first thing is don't panic and don't admit anything. The council will have made errors as your ex-employer will have.

Contact the CAB but also get on a forum that has specialists like the "Debt Advice Forum." They are skilled and will have suggestions for legal advice as lots of bad companies in this area. Be ready to put the exact wording from the council on the forum and keep very organised, don't call the council, get everything in writing and keep proof of postage of all correspondence, etc.

debtadviceforum.com/

These people helped me when others recommend I just pay.

[quote ChrisOnTheBeach]@Cockle1234 If you work for council tax, can you advise the OP as to how and why it was not picked up that she didn't pay it for SEVEN years (when she was meant to apparently.)[/quote]
Exactly.. how they can try a recoup a debt that the debtor was not aware of having is beyond me.. Sounds like HMRC and the loan charge..

this is shocking.. no wonder you are stressed OP.

@NotATreacleTart

is spot on with comments about council incompetence

unfortunately there is a lot of mis information on this thread

but that doesn't mean to say you can't get advice about this tax demand from citizen advise, as treacle suggest the tax demand has gone to someone somewhere - probably the business you work for and they have sat on it...

so with possibly both your employees have hindered this coming to light as the tax demand has been sent to them and they haven't said anything to you

the issue is getting around the fact that its a tax demand and ignorance isn't a justification - but your saving grace might be the fact that the company have had the demand in their name for so long. the problem is they may have been paying it and just had a big fat. refund and not like to want to help you out on this..

get some independent advise form a tax specialist type or citizen advice

how they can try a recoup a debt that the debtor was not aware of

its a tax demand and different from normal "bills" this is set out in law

actually I would contact your local MP

Do not say anything to them until you are 100% sure. eg I think those working and living in a care home do not have to pay council tax.

You need to contact your local councillor not your MP at this stage. Your local council telephone operator will tell you who it is if you don't know.
Explain. They will help you.Try not to worry. Good luck.

Talk to your local councillor.They will help you. Good luck.

I have to laugh at the idea some pp in this thread have that tax is a non-negotiable debt.

For poor people, maybe. Rich people negotiate on their tax liabilities all the time. That's why so many stately homes have works of art in them that technically belong to "the nation" - these generous toffs "donated" them in lieu of inheritance taxes. Of course, the paintings get to stay on the wall of toff's house as long as they let The Nation in to have a look at them from time to time.

Sorry, OP, this doesn't help you, unless you've got a fancy painting you can hand over to the council.

Op firstly I would ask the council either yourself ( straight to the chief executive) or via an advocate to place a hold on any recovery of the debt balance while you consider your options.
As you have moved from the property it is a separate account to your new property one so this should be more than possible.

Additionally if you go through a debt management advocate eg national debt line there may be a possibility of them asking for use if the new debt initiative that came into effect from May 2021. This is called Breathing Space if you wish to look it up .

I work in a council in resolution including Council Tax. Therefore I think getting a hold applied to the account should be your first point of call.

This would give you the headspace to consider your options.

Additionally find out if any recovery action has previously been applied to your account. This will inform you of whether or not the account has previously had bills sent on it. Also ask for a record of all notices previously issued on the account.

If it’s not easily found on your councils website ask them for details ( preferably written ) of their discretionary write off scheme.

This kind of thing happens in all councils, errors are made.

It’s important that when you do speak to someone it is someone with authority to make discretionary decisions, ( that way you are less likely to get “ computer says no answers”).

What ever you do don’t ignore letters and calls My sister done this, she owed 3 grand. She was meant to go to court because of it but my dad kindly paid the debt off a few weeks before her court date.

Three times in my life i’ve had debt collectors at my door. Each time was for council tax, each time a different council, each time I had no debt to pay.
Potentially the case for you @CTfuckup too

Have they made a mistake maybe, wouldn't be unusual. A real kick in the teeth, but you should be allowed some form of repayment plan, as someone said. Best of luck. X

Did u not get voting/residential requests for how many in your home.? Where to vote etc.

Repeating what others have said but driving ONE POINT HOME:
Get advice before accepting responsibility.

First, go to the CAB and get them to speed.

You need to find out where the notices have gone. If this is a property, they would have been sending notices to be included in electoral lists, as well. Someone was receiving this and either binning them, not forwarding or possibly giving false information.

I would go as far as to say if you were paying rent and someone was collecting saying "everything included" and you can show paying no other utilities, it may, in fact, be there responsibility as a "landlord" subletting a space.

You may discover that someone was falsifying information

You need to get to the bottom of why you received no notices. If a property is two months behind, it is automatically escalated and keeps climbing.

If, in fact, you become liable, they may even make a token payment.

And if you are found liable but feel that you were deceived by someone else not forwarding information, etc, or making assumptions on your part, you may be able to take them to court to recover.

But deal with it asap. Start with the CAB but don't enter into any agreements until you get to the bottom of why you never received any bills.

Did you sign anything relating to the accommodation? If so what does it say? If you were in the position that they took a monthly sum from your salary towards accommodation and you paid no other bills I think you could make a good argument you are not responsible for paying the council tax and you believed that was included in the rent. You need to be quite robust and unapologetic - the employer is at fault for not clarifying the situation, you have done nothing wrong. It would help your argument if other employees in similar circumstances have not paid council tax so you might want to talk to them (it's a bit tricky to advise without knowing all the details). Sorry, I know it must be very stressful for you.

Is it possible your employer has been paying council tax but not told you and the person at the council who you spoke to hasn't connected the dots?

I would take legal advice, the fact that your accommodation was connected to work and that you were led to believe by you employer that your accommodation was all inclusive, did you have a tenancy contract with them, it should have been made clear in the tennancy agreement what you were liable to pay. If it is a major company you worked for, I would demand they sort it out or face you taking them to the small claims court, chances are they will settle to avoid bad publicity.

I don understand how you owe them 10K and have never recieved a letter demand, bill even though they know where you were living and you were getting your other post. I'd ask them to explain this in writing with a full breakdown of the costs then appeal this / take it further if you feel the sum is not right then arrange to repay in small amounts monthly that you can manage. Do not let them bully you if they ask for more tell them you are not refusing to pay but this is what you can manage. I feel for you. Good luck with it