Help needed ct arrears 10yrs ago!!

[sam2holden]

hi am new to this site so hopefully have put this in the right place my problem is just recieved a letter from a council to say i owe £500 for council tax arrears from 1996! it was ajoint tenency with my former partner who is refusing to pay the letter states that i have 14 days to pay or make arrangements to pay or the bailiffs will come in but i hadnt recieved any letters from this council untill now i have since moved out of that area and moved from the house in question in 1998 what happens now i havent kept any documents as it was 10 years ago.
can they do this?
please help
thanks for reading

[make them aktiv runners]

Legislation in the form of the Limitations Act prevents debt repayment after 6 years. However, I am sure the council are exempt and can chase forever.

Councils do proceed to court, so it is unwise to ignore them. Whose name appeared on the council tax form? If your ex, then tough. If both, unfair to expect you to pay more than 50%. If you, your ex might be happy but you would be fully liable.

[Edz11]

THis is from the Insolvency website;

The council should not go to the magistrates court and ask for a liability order for community charge (poll tax) if the community charge was due more than six years before the liability order hearing. This means that the council can only pursue you for outstanding community charge if they got a liability order within 6 years of April 1993 at the latest. This rule is outlined in Regulation 29 of the Community Charge (Administration and Enforcement) Regs. 1989 (as amended 1991).

In practice the Council may go to Court and ask for a Liability Order for a Council Tax or Community Charge (Poll Tax) debt which is more than 6 years old. They will get it unless you put forward a Limitation defence at the hearing.

[pt2537]

well looking at the Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992 (SI 1992/613)


34 Application for liability order

(1) If an amount which has fallen due under [paragraph (3) or (4) of regulation 23 (including those paragraphs as
applied as mentioned in regulation 28A(2))] is wholly or partly unpaid, or (in a case where a final notice is required under
regulation 33) the amount stated in the final notice is wholly or partly unpaid at the expiry of the period of 7 days
beginning with the day on which the notice was issued, the billing authority may, in accordance with paragraph (2), apply
to a magistrates' court for an order against the person by whom it is payable.
(2) The application is to be instituted by making complaint to a justice of the peace, and requesting the issue of a

summons directed to that person to appear before the court to show why he has not paid the sum which is outstanding.

(3) Section 127(1) of the Magistrates' Courts Act 1980 does not apply to such an application; but no application may be

instituted in respect of a sum after the period of six years beginning with the day on which it became due under Part V.

so it appear that their actions are limited

[sequenci]

1) When was the final demand served for the council tax?

2) When was the liability Order granted?

[The Phantom]

Had a similar problem with the council a while ago..

They sent me & my OH a council tax bill for a flat we lived in (rented) in 1994

The funny thing was, for some unknown reason I had kept our tenancy agreement from that time and it stated the council tax or any community charge was included in the rent, we were only to pay fuel & water
(We also never actually received a council tax bill at that address so never paid any thinking the landlady was paying it)

However, when the council "found us" (we never knew we had gone anywhere) we were made liable for the entire time we lived there plus some time after we had actually moved out and the flat was empty (!).


We made an appointment with the council tax people and showed them all the paperwork (old tenancy agreement, receipt for our returned deposit when we moved out and documentation for our new place where we were currently paying council tax)
Guess what -- they didn't care. They said they were told differently by the landlord and were going by what she told them.

We had to pay the council tax and should take the landlady to court instead
, because if they (the council) took us to court for it we would loose anyway as judges always find in their favour and we would be in a lot of trouble.then..

At that time I didn't know about this website, otherwise I would have asked for help here
So we ended up paying the council tax in installments again, despite the fact we already paid for it through our rent initially !

Ever since them I pretty much had it with the council

Rant over...good luck with your case and I hope you get some help here and some sound advice (which I am sure you will)

[sequenci]

Old Council Tax is a nightmare and there is tonnes of caselaw involved.

The crux is when the final demand for payment was and when the LO order was granted.

[sam2holden]

hi thanks for the replies
dont know when final demand was but letter says
'At the hearings on 23/10/96 and 08/08/97, the Magistrates granted a Liability Order for recovery of council tax and costs were awarded against you.

spoke to council and got a abrupt response saying that im jointly responsible for debt even through i didnt even know i owed them money.

am thinking of offering to pay half then they can chase my ex for the other would they except this?
unfortunatley i have little contact with my ex (am still waiting for him to pay csa 4 years on but thats a different story!!)

thinking of going to citizens advice but feel the pressure is on to make payment within 14 days of letter

[Goldlady]

Threaten and do get your MP involved. Especially if it is going to cause you hardship. As soon as you tell the council you have written to your MP they will back right off.