Tenancy agreement + Landlord + Council tax dispute

[SNIPER111]

Hello there,

 

I moved into my property (1 bedroom in a 5 bedroom house share) and signed a tenancy agreement which clearly states £500pcm including bills (excluding council tax). I was lead to believe i needed to pay the CT to the council directly with the other tenants.

 

Now im am due to move out the landlord claims hes paid it and i need to pay him. None of us believe he paid it and when i ask to see the proof he says he will sort it out -but never does.

 

When i move out do you think the landlord has the right to keep my deposit? and say 'thats what you owe in council tax'.

 

To be honest i think he registered the proprty as a business address and is somehow fiddling it to pay less/no council tax. he keeps a lot of tools stored here and none of us tenenats are registered on the electoral role.

 

please help!

[Joa]

Speak to the council tax office. Ask them to check whether double payments were made. Ask in what category this property is registered with the council. Keep all your Council Tax receipts safe and if your deposit is not returned to you, come back and we will help you to kick butt.

In the meantime,you can send a short, innocent note to the landlord to give him a heads up that he better plays fair and to pre-empty all the confusion about C Tax. For example:

Dear Mr X

In preparation for the expiry of my tenancy agreement, I would like to ask you to confirm what conditions would have to be satisfied in order for you to refund my deposit

I intend to speak to a housing adviser myself to make sure that I fulfill all my obligations properly. I will also submit copies of all my Council Tax payments receipt as according to the tenancy agreement it was one of my responsibilities. I will also check with the C. Tax office to establish that all payments were received OK.

I hope that you will be satisfied with this and refund my deposit in full.

 

Regards.

 

Good luck

[MrShed]

Have you been paying the council tax yourself? If there was never an agreement with the landlord to pay the council tax, then it could be argued that you do not have to pay him anything, regardless of whether he is telling the truth or not.

 

Either way, if you have been paying it, you definitely have no obligation to pay, so I would be inclined in this situation to withhold the last months rent to cover the deposit.

[SNIPER111]

To be honest all of us tenents have slightly different tennancy agreements; some pay rent + council tax contribution (£40/50) per month, others such as myself pay rent 'excluding council tax'. I wrote to the council to pay and signed the elctoral role but i have never heard anything back.

 

Landlord claims heas paid it now and i should pay him but none of us are convinced its been paid. Is it possible hes registered the address as a business and is in someway dodging/paying a lower amount?? suspicious. The fact that you pay council tax only 10 months of the year too, is dodgy as we are supposed to pay every month....

 

I will call the CT office monday to find out whats going on if its been paid.

 

hopefully i wont have to pay anything as the landlord is a bit of a joker. he comes round whenever he wants, (fiddles our heating system so he has to pay less gas bills inclusive in rent you see). Hes close to one of the other house sharers so he us that as an excuse to come whenever he wants.