My dyslexic friend has got himself into a tangle which I'm trying to help him unravel.

He is the leaseholder of a flat where he, a series of tenants and his daughter have lived over the past 5 years. His life has been a bit chaotic during this time.

He lived in his flat when he was unemployed and in receipt of benefits.

During most of this time he has been living with a girlfriend, in her house, in another local authority area than the one in which his flat is and at times staying with friends.

A month ago, he split from his girlfriend and moved back into his flat.

In the process of informing the local authority that he was moving back in, he discovered that neither his tenants or daughter had been paying council tax.

The local authority have now sent demands for most of the missing payments plus court costs.

I have sat down with him and worked out a detailed table of who was living in the flat and when, which I sent to the local authority.

The local authority have replied and want:

copies of original, signed tenancy agreements

and proof of where he was living and registered for council tax

He's discovered his ex girlfriend had not included him in her council tax payments and was instead claiming a single person discount. Despite paying her monthly more than enough money to cover this, he does not feel able to 'drop her in it' with her local authority, due to the acrimonious and distressing nature of their break up - she has a mental health history, too.

Questions:

If he supplies tenancy agreement copies for most of his tenants (apart from his daughter, who just had his permission to live there), does he HAVE to prove where he was living?

If he was staying with friends - a married couple paying standard council tax, would they have had to listed him, to their local authority as living there in order to prove he was there? Would a letter from them serve as proof? Would they be liable to pay any more, if they were already paying the full amount for two people?

Is he liable for court costs for bills he never saw?

Is there anything else that can help him?

After some disastrous years, he just managed to see a debt-free future in reach and the possibility of a bill for nearly £3000 is a major setback.

If the Council have him down as living in the flat then I am sure they will want to know where he was living. The more he tries to get out of giving info the more suspicious they will become especially as it was him that told them he was living elsewhere.

If the couple were paying the full amount then it shouldn't make a difference whether he was staying there or not. There are no extra charges for more than 2 people to be living in a property. I think a letter would suffice. Is he on the voter's register? If so where?

I would think that if he can show he was not liable for these periods then all the Council Tax owing and the Court costs should be removed from his account and new accounts set up for the tenants who were liable for these periods.