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.

I'd contact the council and start a dialogue with them.

My daughter didn't claim the single person discount for four years and when she rang up to ask them to implement it, they said they would discount her future bills to make up for it. She was thrilled. Just start to talk to them rather than getting involved with lawyers etc.

@blue1000

I'd contact the council and start a dialogue with them. My daughter didn't claim the single person discount for four years and when she rang up to ask them to implement it, they said they would discount her future bills to make up for it. She was thrilled. Just start to talk to them rather than getting involved with lawyers etc.

This is really bad advice - your daughter was not in debt to the council so they were always going to be nice to her.

Councils can be awful about debts, they have to report how much they recoup - solicitors required IMO.

I would be more inclined to start a dialogue with the employer.
Some well-phrased questions asked politely.
For example " could I please have a copy of the tenancy agreement I signed so I can have it available if required by the council tax people?" etc.

I had an Attachment of Earnings order for non payment of CT years ago, it was awful. They do pursue to the nth degree so please take some advice.

A payment plan is only way to go. Ask for it over 7 years, the time it took to build up. They can't write it off as have a duty to pursue. Also even if you had no bins emptying some goes for schools and fire service. Presumably your children went to school.

I would be talking to your employer about why they hadn't notified you of the arrears. Someone must have been receiving the defaulter letters.

Also, it's hard to believe the council let it get to 10k before acting on it.

@Mangofandangoo

I would be talking to your employer about why they hadn't notified you of the arrears. Someone must have been receiving the defaulter letters.

Also, it's hard to believe the council let it get to 10k before acting on it.

^ also this. I work for the council and something isn’t right here! Do not offer a repayment plan, that means you’ll be stuck with it. Obtain legal advice.

If it was similar to a flat above a shop then the business may have contacted the council stating that the flat was unoccupied and used as a store room for the business for example this would get it taken of the council tax books. Then when Op has contacted with new address and said I lived here previously it has come to light that the flat had come back into occupation by therefore needing council tax robe paid.

The business didn’t query it as they weren’t getting bills (a bit wrong of them not that have informed the council that they were now renting out the property). Op doesn’t know as she isn’t aware she has to pay.

You said earlier that none of the other people there had to pay council tax only you. To help we really need to know the set up of the property did you have the whole flat to yourself or did you share with other people? If you lived with others were any students.

If it was self contained are the other people who live there do they have the same address? Are they in self contained accommodation? As I find it strange that the others wouldn’t have to pay council tax unless they are all in shared accommodation.

As others have said contact the council tax dept

£10k seems an awful lot of council tax to pay for 7 years. OP - what council tax band is the property in? You need to make absolutely sure that the charge is only for the small part of the building occupied by you, and that they have the correct banding. And that you are getting the single occupancy discount.

I'd also be wanting to know where all the letters from the council to 'The Occupier' have been going.

To be honest, I think your employer is partly at fault here, because you say that no other employees have to pay council tax - only you. How were you to know that, unless your employer told you when you signed the tenancy agreement? If you'd asked your colleagues they would have said they didn't pay. I think your employer is partly culpable, because they should have told you and they didn't. They should also have passed on any correspondence and they didn't. Come to think of it, were you all paying the same amount of rent? If so, then effectively you were being paid less than everyone else because you were supposed to be paying council tax too, and they weren't.

They are your landlord. When a property is empty, the landlord is responsible for it council tax-wise as an empty property. When a new tenant comes along then the landlord should have told the council that it was now occupied. Did they do that? If not, why not?

Also, I think the council has been incompetent. It should never have been left this long, and they can't just threaten you like this after all these years of you never having been told you owed anything.

The whole thing is a massive foul-up isn't it? And I don't think it is your fault.

All the best op

You need to find you the agreement you signed when you moved in as some companies who take on seasonal staff update the agreement each year and full time staff tend to get forgotten about as already living there. The amount does seem high for 7 years of accommodation though.

Just to add to the great advice you’ve been given already, your council may have a discretionary scheme to help with council tax.

Is it a pub company?

Did they have an accommodation policy?

I agree with pp who say get legal advice on your actual liability. Councils make mistakes. If you are liable they don’t have to recover it all they can use discretion. But you need proper advice not guesses or opinions.

Re the advice regarding requesting a section 13a write off it is a legal requirement for all councils to have a scheme to allow for applications to be made for this
I would based on experience try to talk to CAB/MP etc and ask if they have assisted with this type of case previously.

Any application for this must be considered on a case by case basis and you can request for details if your councils process for applying for this. At the same time ask for a hold to be placed in any recovery action while any such application is considered.

These debts absolutely can be written off if the individual case details merit that action. You will need to provide evidence etc and having someone in a official capacity ( eg MP/ councillor)can certainly benefit in these cases.

Good luck

practisingperson sounds like you are drumming up business

@Bluntness100

I suspect the business had extended empty property relief. So they were paying nothing and the council wasn’t chasing either . There’s going to be some noise in there that’s caused this.

The op signed to say she’d pay the tax, didn’t notify the council she was moved in, the empty property relief stayed, the business did nothing as it was her responsibility and seven years later this is the outcome as she’s now told them she was living there for that time.

I know each council is different but I can't believe any council would allow empty property relief for 7 years.

My council only allows it for 6 months. We bought a house that had been empty for 5 and a half months as the owner had died. We didn't move in for almost a year and only got the half a month relief as it started as soon as the house became empty.

Some councils actually double the tax if a property is empty for more than 2 years

" Just like if you move house it’s not your job to tell the council who has moved in. It’s the new owner or tenants job. The landlord doesn’t do it either,"

In my case, the landlord's agent did it.
Obviously, if they hadn't I would have thought of it myself after a bit, but then I wasn't paying rent and bills all included at the time.

@DentonsFringeArnottsWaistcoat

Debt write off doesn’t usually include Council Tax debt though unless there is extreme hardship

I've helped numerous clients get debt written off by DROs and bankruptcy and council tax arrears have always been included.

Thinking about it, £10k seems like a lot for 7 years, unless it was pretty big accommodation. If you were living there alone, OP, you should have been getting a 25% discount as the only occupier.

It may be worth checking the amount. The website mycounciltax.org.uk will give you the council tax band for the accommodation, and it should be relatively straightforward to find out the historic amount for that band in each year you were there, and to check that the 25% discount was applied.

I've also known it happen that accommodation has been subdivided, but the info has never got through to the council. In this case, the full amount for the whole of the original accommodation had been charged to the occupier of just one part.

Given that you had been misled about council tax liability, and the council never took any steps to find out who was living there, they really ought to be amenable to letting you pay it off in instalments.

@LakieLady

Thinking about it, £10k seems like a lot for 7 years, unless it was pretty big accommodation. If you were living there alone, OP, you should have been getting a 25% discount as the only occupier.

It may be worth checking the amount. The website mycounciltax.org.uk will give you the council tax band for the accommodation, and it should be relatively straightforward to find out the historic amount for that band in each year you were there, and to check that the 25% discount was applied.

I've also known it happen that accommodation has been subdivided, but the info has never got through to the council. In this case, the full amount for the whole of the original accommodation had been charged to the occupier of just one part.

Given that you had been misled about council tax liability, and the council never took any steps to find out who was living there, they really ought to be amenable to letting you pay it off in instalments.

Mine is £1200 per year.... single flat

I said this before but will say it again. THEY CANNOT RECOVER DEBTS MORE THAN 6 YEARS OLD. If the debts is £10k for 7.5 years then you will actually have £8k arrears so still bad but not as bad. Also, if this is their error or partly their error then they will be happier to come to an agreement for you to pay by reasonable instalments that you can afford. But firstly find your original rental agreement and check what it says in the small print (don't just accept what you've been told) and contact citizens advice for assistance in dealing with this matter.

@redastherose

I said this before but will say it again. THEY CANNOT RECOVER DEBTS MORE THAN 6 YEARS OLD. If the debts is £10k for 7.5 years then you will actually have £8k arrears so still bad but not as bad. Also, if this is their error or partly their error then they will be happier to come to an agreement for you to pay by reasonable instalments that you can afford. But firstly find your original rental agreement and check what it says in the small print (don't just accept what you've been told) and contact citizens advice for assistance in dealing with this matter.

Yep sound advise

@blue1000

practisingperson sounds like you are drumming up business

for whom? I'm not a solicitor. Just think the folksy approach is risky for the OP.

Only read one page of replies so far, so apologies if duplicated.

What about the electoral register, were you on this? And yet the council didn’t pick up someone was there on a residential basis but no council tax was paid?

Also empty residential properties are still liable for council tax so why wasn’t the council billing the property owner if they knew they had residential property?

All seems a bit odd.