I bought a house in 2006 which was a house and annex - the 2 were divided by a partition wall. I knocked the house into one and had it valued by the VOA as one property. The house was a repossession and the Kitchen in the Annex had been removed. In 2009 I put the kitchen back in and advertised the flat to rent. A neighbour called the council and I had a visit from the Planning enforcement officer who said that the flat (a garage conversion) had no planning permission and I was not entitled to use it. Subsequently I have received a bill from the Council Tax on the conversion even though it does not have planning permission and I cannot use it. They are trying to charge be back tax to 2006 for two properties even though I have paid all the bills as one property.

Can the council charge me Council Tax a property that they say has no right to be there and which I cannot use?

You say you had it valued as one property after removing the kitchen and knocking into one. You should still hold that VOA valuation which will show it was one property and on what date, and was correctly valued for ct, so they will not be able to charge you tax on the annex as seperate accommodation.

Can the council charge me Council Tax a property that they say has no right to be there and which I cannot use?

As I understand it, yes I'm afraid. There is no exemption from Council Tax just because a premises is unauthorised in planning terms. Just think of all the money that could be saved by not applying for new properties!!

As Conniff says though surely you are only liable for the CT for the premises for the time it actually existed and if they valued it in 06 as a single property I don't see they can charge you back to then for 2 properties. When in 09 did you split it again? I guess there'll be a bit of time then when they could charge you for the two properties...