So I am having issues with my local council and need a bit of advise here.

My misses is a student full time and she took out a lease starting from 01/06/17 she didnt live in the property during the summer and paid a summer retainer which is common in student places. Roll forward to 01/09/17 and she and I moved in. I tried to claim jobseekers but got refused as I am an ex pat who came back to the UK and they said the job centre said I needed to be back 3 months in the common travel area before they would do anything. We were in Ireland in July staying with family. So I had to wait until mid October to get anything out of the job centre.

I applied for housing benefit as the council said they would help with my bit of the rent. But they only paid me from mid October when the jobseekers got paid. On the 20/11/17 I started a new job which I was delighted. Then in January I got a bill for council tax in both my wife's name and mine. We then applied for the 25% discount as shes a full time student and doesn't have to pay. They appied the discount and issued a new bill in my name only.

I have problems now as I am being billed for time when I did not live in this place. I even have a letter from the landlord proving it. They have billed me from 01/06/2017 the tenancy is not in my name its in my other half's. I don't think I should have to pay for the time I was out of work or the time I was not living here. I wrote to the council about this but am yet to hear back I have told them I wont pay until this is sorted out. Can someone give me some advise please on what I should do?

You can only wait until the LA gets back to you with their findings.

Pointless wasting energy trying to second guess what they pluck out of the air....you have the proof, that should be the end of it.

Yeah I guess its not that I wont pay, I want to pay the correct figure and not have to fight for a refund after

Yeah I guess its not that I wont pay, I want to pay the correct figure and not have to fight for a refund after

My local authority is fairly quick in processing refunds, and they are equally as fast in getting liability orders. If you continue to refuse to make any payments, you may well find the bill escalating with court costs and bailiff fees.

Unless you can secure an written undertaking that the LA is putting the collection of unpaid CTX on hold pending the outcome of a review, you should be making some payments towards the outstanding bill. If the LA go for a LO for the current 2017/18 bill, they may well refuse a payment plan the 2018/19 bill and go straight for a second LO.

the tenancy is not in my name its in my other half's.

The fact that they are appear to be wrongly treating you as a joint tenant is where some of your problems come from.

For the period when no-one was resident then only the council tax definition of 'owner' can be liable - this would be your partner if she was the sole signatory and the tenancy was for 6 months or more.

For the period you were resident as her partner then you are jointly liable under s9 of the LGFA 1992, . The council tax liability, with the 25%, should have been in both names but they've wrongly treated you as a joint tenant rather than a resident partner (It's an odd quirk of council tax legislation - the fact that she was a student makes no difference under s9 whereas it would under the standard case of s6 of the LGFA 1992).

The council can continue to pursue the monies however until they are cleared or an adjustment is finally made to the charge.