My nephew has a little Council flat, he's lived there on his own for years. He has a female friend stay sometimes, and when he is away working in London all week, she happily comes and walks his dog for him.

This lady has to be very careful about giving out her address - she used to work for the LA, and so did her violent ex-partner. There are still people at the Council who will feed back information to him (2 or 3 personal friends of his, and now former friends of hers). She went through a period of him tracking her down at every single address she lived at - and then we discovered how, the blessed Council tax friends were telling him everytime she had to move! She only found out for certain as another former employee let it slip. Complaining to the Council did nothing, other than an employee being disciplined.

So, she moved out of the County and stayed with her 81 year old godmother, coming back for work, (new job by now) spent the weekend with my nephew. Then her father became ill so she went from living with the godmother, to hopping back and forth to her parents. She stayed with her parents a lot (now back in the County) as her father got worse and her mum couldn;t cope. Her father was taken into hospital, they were told he wouldn't be coming out, she was upset and hated staying in the family home alone, so throughout the period her father took to die, about 15 days in all, she stayed at my nephews as a guest. After her dad had died, her mum went downhill, with greif. She stayed between my nephews, her godmother and her mum and still continues to do so today, although the needs of her godmother have gone beyond any care she can provide alone now, sadly, so these trips out of the County are less frequent now. Her mum is now starting to rally a bit and my nephew and his girlfriend had decided that after the May bank holiday, she would move in with him. When this happens the Council will obviously have to be told, but my nephew was just going to say that he was no longer entitled to the 25% single persons discount, without revealing to anyone her name. This lady cannot even register to vote in case she is found.

Just before Easter my nephew found a note from the Council in the letterbox when he came home, asking him how long his girlfriend had been living in the property. They used her name. He visited the Council and told them categorically that they had the wrong information. They have told him that unless the girlfriend writes to them and confirms where she is living he is going to have to be backdated by a year or so and lose his discount. If my nephew tells them where she is living its puts her at risk. And what could they do if he genuinely didn't know or had no contact with her?

Surely the onus is not on my nephew to give out another person's details under threat of being financially penalised if he does not? And there is no way on this earth that the godmother's address will ever be revealed to anyone - it is a safe house for her when she needs it, and will put the elderly occupant at risk of violence herself if it is known.

Have the Council got the right to put the thumb screws on someone like this? It just doesnl;t sit confortably with me at all.

Thoughts welcome, I'm spoiling for a new fight!

The obvious thing would be to speak to the police officer who dealt with the original harassment, and ask him/her for advice - they will know what to do in such circumstances.

Yes, good idea, will tell him this. Trouble is the poor woman has not just only the violent ex - but also his highly uneducated family members, all willing to take pot shots at her after 7 years!! I was actually in town with her one day, and two of this characters sisters launched an attack on her as I was distracted loading up the car with groceries - and these two females looked like they were going to kill her. I had to drop everything (no time to call 999) and start whacking them about the heads with a full bag of shopping! One of them hit the floor, I shoved the poor woman in my car, and as the other female was coming after me I charged round to the other side of the car, managed to get in and lock the doors, and she was still beating on the windows at us like a banshee on acid. I had no option but to drive off, not my fault if she chose to cling to the car! And I didn't even know these females - both much younger than me, disgraceful bloody behaviour.

I am really concerned that my nephew has been told he must disclose this lady's whereabouts or suffer a financial penalty! That just doesn't sit comfortably with me.

The council can not force your nephew to disclose his friends previous whereabouts.

But when determining an entitlement to a discount the council has to act on the 'balance of probabilities' which may be unfavourable to your nephew if he's not forthcoming, and the council also have a wider duty to ensure that discounts or benefits are correctly calculated at his girlfriends previous addresses in their county.

Your nephew may want to speak directly to the manager explaining the situation ad that may be sufficient, especially given the history. The alternative is for your nephew to tell them that she was NFA, living abroad, or at a Women's Refuge - which would stop them looking too closely.

If they do decide to cancel his discount, he can always appeal the to the Valuation Tribunal, which is independent of the council.

Thanks, I shall tell him this. Technically she is NFA - lost her home due to this crowd, and hasn't had a permanent home since late 2006. She had to keep moving around, was upfront and honest with the Council UNTIL she discovered exactly how each address was being discovered by the moron. Another example, she told me that the final straw came in about late 2008, she had just got settled into another new flat, and thought she would be safe as it was very close to a large sheltered site for the elderly. Her neighbour downstairs was blind and 97 years old. Wrong, the moron found her when his friends in C/Tax gave the address out to him, and turned up on the doorstep when she was out. He then proceeded to try and kick in the door of the old boy downstairs as he hadn't realised it was a separate flat (uneducated and thick you see). After this she moved temporarily to her godmother out of the county, came back for work, to her parents and to my nephew. So, no settled home, and no C/Tax responsibility anywhere. And since late 2008 she has had no communication with the Council. She is very concerned about my nephews safety in his home, but my nephew just shrugs and says "come into my parlour said the spider to the fly!"

Well done Revs37, nephew saw a manager, was very honest, manager went away for 20 minutes and checked out what was being said about the person who was disciplined all that time ago, and that swung it in his favour. Its now enough for him to say that "someone" moved in with him on the bank Holiday in May, and from that date he is not having the discount any longer. He was assured that her name is not being recorded. Hope they're telling the truth on that one!

That's good.

If they had wanted me to pay the extra 25% i would have paid the 75% that i actually was obliged to pay.

Surely the onus is on them to prove that someone is living there. And besides she had a few other addresses.

Ive had a Council say i didn't live at my old address but they never said i lived elsewhere.

Thick fools.....

Also i forgot to add, perhaps she should change her name.

I know she shouldn't have to but it would make things a lot harder for her stalker to contact her.

If you want safety and peace of mind then unfortunately needs must.

I haven't changed my name but i have a stalker and i know he's never going to stop harassing me. It was suggested that i change my name and i may have to do so myself.

I think this may be somewhat biased in favour of the council.

The council wrote asking how long she had been living in the property. What we do not have is any evidence they have that she is. It may simply be malicious anonymous information. In that case the council probably won't tell you that it is.

They appear to have decided that she is, and if you do appeal to a tribunal you would be entitled to know what their evidence is, if any. And they have to provide evidence. I do not think there is any rule that you have to tell them where she is. The tribunal may decide to believe what you say in which case end of but I should not be too hopeful.

It has to have proved that there was no entitlement before issuing a backdated adjusted demand notice.

If the council is carrying out a benefit fraud investigation as this response suggests then you have no duty to provide them with any information.

The council can not force your nephew to disclose his friends previous whereabouts.

 

But when determining an entitlement to a discount the council has to act on the 'balance of probabilities' which may be unfavourable to your nephew if he's not forthcoming, and the council also have a wider duty to ensure that discounts or benefits are correctly calculated at his girlfriends previous addresses in their county.

 

Your nephew may want to speak directly to the manager explaining the situation ad that may be sufficient, especially given the history. The alternative is for your nephew to tell them that she was NFA, living abroad, or at a Women's Refuge - which would stop them looking too closely.

 

If they do decide to cancel his discount, he can always appeal the to the Valuation Tribunal, which is independent of the council.

If they live together as man and wife, she will be jointly liable for council tax, so yes, he will have a legal duty to provide her name to the council as regulations stipulate they can fine you for not providing this information. And no, I don't trust agencies to keep information private and the Information Commissioner routinely produces reports showing that even the police misuse their own data bases, but there is little you can to about this.

It might be worth suggesting to the council if you think somebody is merely being malicious about this, and trying to get you both into trouble.

Questions the council might ask are where she keeps her possessions and so on during the disputed time slot. The council has to decide where her sole or main residence is.

http://www.darlington.gov.uk/Advice%20and%20Benefits/Council%20Tax/Sole%20or%20Main%20Residence.htm

My nephew has a little Council flat, he's lived there on his own for years. He has a female friend stay sometimes, and when he is away working in London all week, she happily comes and walks his dog for him.

 

This lady has to be very careful about giving out her address - she used to work for the LA, and so did her violent ex-partner. There are still people at the Council who will feed back information to him (2 or 3 personal friends of his, and now former friends of hers). She went through a period of him tracking her down at every single address she lived at - and then we discovered how, the blessed Council tax friends were telling him everytime she had to move! She only found out for certain as another former employee let it slip. Complaining to the Council did nothing, other than an employee being disciplined.

 

So, she moved out of the County and stayed with her 81 year old godmother, coming back for work, (new job by now) spent the weekend with my nephew. Then her father became ill so she went from living with the godmother, to hopping back and forth to her parents. She stayed with her parents a lot (now back in the County) as her father got worse and her mum couldn;t cope. Her father was taken into hospital, they were told he wouldn't be coming out, she was upset and hated staying in the family home alone, so throughout the period her father took to die, about 15 days in all, she stayed at my nephews as a guest. After her dad had died, her mum went downhill, with greif. She stayed between my nephews, her godmother and her mum and still continues to do so today, although the needs of her godmother have gone beyond any care she can provide alone now, sadly, so these trips out of the County are less frequent now. Her mum is now starting to rally a bit and my nephew and his girlfriend had decided that after the May bank holiday, she would move in with him. When this happens the Council will obviously have to be told, but my nephew was just going to say that he was no longer entitled to the 25% single persons discount, without revealing to anyone her name. This lady cannot even register to vote in case she is found.

 

Just before Easter my nephew found a note from the Council in the letterbox when he came home, asking him how long his girlfriend had been living in the property. They used her name. He visited the Council and told them categorically that they had the wrong information. They have told him that unless the girlfriend writes to them and confirms where she is living he is going to have to be backdated by a year or so and lose his discount. If my nephew tells them where she is living its puts her at risk. And what could they do if he genuinely didn't know or had no contact with her?

 

Surely the onus is not on my nephew to give out another person's details under threat of being financially penalised if he does not? And there is no way on this earth that the godmother's address will ever be revealed to anyone - it is a safe house for her when she needs it, and will put the elderly occupant at risk of violence herself if it is known.

 

Have the Council got the right to put the thumb screws on someone like this? It just doesnl;t sit confortably with me at all.

 

Thoughts welcome, I'm spoiling for a new fight!