Re: How to defend against a liability order for council tax?

[aidoo326]

I have a similar problem. In my case, the property is a self contained flat which I rented out to the same person for 3+ years. The tenancy agreement definitely stated that it is the tenant's responsibility to pay the council tax. Anyway, out of the blue a while ago, I received a bailiff letter claiming that I owed 3 years worth of council tax at the property and that they would be seeking a liability order against me. The arrears amount to around 5K. I rushed home and emailed the bailiff (Rundles) the 3x signed and witnessed tenancy agreements and informed them that the same tenant was still resident at the property. A week or so later, Rundles emailed me back stating that they would be taking their enquiries elsewhere and that I would receive no further letters or demands from them.

 

 

Another 2 months passed and I received a letter from the Council stating that they had got a liability order against me for the arrears. Thinking that this was all a terrible misunderstanding, I copy the Council my correspondence with Rundles and also provide them with emails I sent to all the utility companies when the tenant first moved in; a confirmation email from the Deposit Protection Service confirming receipt of the tenant's deposit; a copy of 2x third party credit reference reports that I performed on the tenant during his tenancy and a number of other documents to prove that the tenant was resident at the property and indeed still there. Imagine my horror when the Council wrote back to me stating that Rundles had no business telling me that I was not liable. As far as the Council were concerned (and despite all the evidence I'd sent them) they still deemed me as liable for the arrears.

 

 

Anyway a few months later I went to Valuation Tribunal to appeal the liability order. The Valuation Tribunal judged against me. The reason for this is that the Council lied through their teeth - claiming that I had never informed them of the start of the tenancy 3.5 years prior; that when I did inform them of the tenancy, I told them 'retrospectively' - another lie because the tenant was still there; that they could not find any trace of such a person existing - even though they had referred to the electoral register, Google and Facebook - more lies as the tenant has a prolific internet footprint and can be found with just a few clicks.

 

 

Roll forward to last week. I received a notification from the Council that unless I pay the full arrears and costs within the next 14 days, they will apply for an arrest warrant against me. I have taken legal advice throughout this whole nightmare and the consensus seems to be that my only recourse is to go to High Court to get the liability decision reviewed. The costs I have been quoted for doing this range from 10-12K. What is worse, I am told that even if I win, the High Court is unlikely to order the council to pay my costs. Is this true? If it is true, it seems that there is no justice in the world ....

 

 

You might be wondering how 3 years of arrears mounted up without me knowing? Well, that's because the Council 'forgot' that I had informed them about the tenant moving in so they did a land registry search to find the registered owner (ME) and then started billing me BUT at the wrong address. At the Valuation Tribunal hearing, the Council confessed to having billed me at the wrong address for 3 years and then when they were fed up of not getting any response they started (for the first time) to bill the tenanted property. I found the bill in the course of a routine inspection of the tenanted property...

[brassnecked]

MP involvement for sure and independent legal advice.

[unclebulgaria67]

Yes. M P involved and a complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman as a matter of urgency. You don't have to go the court route, given the cost issues. If you can get the LGO involved they may be able to get the council to put on hold any actions, until they have reviewed.

[EDW2000]

How do you appeal a council tax liability order to a "valuation tribunal"?