After notifying council on shutting down my business last year (Oct 2011), I kept getting business rate bill, irrespective of the fact that they are aware that the same premises had been taken over by another business and had since their commencement received their own new business rate bill. The next thing I received from them was a court summons which on attending the court, the council official did not allow me to attend or see the presiding judge in order for me to explain myself. All I got after the court attendance was a phone call asking me to get a letter from the landlord whom I know gives a kick back to the council officials in order to save himself from the empty property business rate. I am sure the landlord will not give me such letter as we are not in good terms because of his dodgy and cowboy dealings with tenants. Please advice, how can I go about dealing with this and clearing my name from this unnecessary debt.

You will ultimately be liable for the rates on a daily basis up to the npoint on which you vacated the premises. Did you notify the Council when you vacated the property? If so, then they should have been able to verify its vacant nature. If not, then you may need to provide documentary evidence of the vacation date, removal invoices etc should the landlord not back you up. from the date of vacation, there will be a 3 month rate free period (provided you occupied for mroe than 6 weeks) after which the "person entitled to possession" must pay empty rate (currently same as occupied rate). Liability will depend on whether you still had a right to occupy (lease or licence etc), if you do and the landlord did not accept forefeiture, then you will be liable for this empty period up to the next occupation, or the expiry of your agreement.

Most Councils are good at keeping accounts up to date and provided you provided notification so that they could visit and very the empty nature then they should have been able to establish your final liability. If you had been paying monthly instalments under your statutory payment method, then you should have fully discharged your occupied liability and would not have been subject to enforcement proceedings. If the landlord deems you responsible for the empty rate and you signed an agreement then this may be difficult to argue.