Council tax 10 yr old liability order

[Stanley 10]

Hi I was hoping someone with experience of similar situations may be able to help out with advice:

 

- in May I received a demand from the council for £380 including costs for council tax relating to a property I sold 10 yrs ago.

The council seem to have recently discovered my new address and asked for payment.

 

I have no records of the debt and asked for correspondence to prove the sum is due.

This took weeks of back and forth however it would appear that the council sent a summons and served a liability order using an out of date and as it happens incorrect address (the post code was typed wrongly). These never arrived. 

 

- at the time the property was empty and there was a full exemption which was used up and then 50 % became due for a period of 6 months until the house was sold.

I was unaware of this change and the debt was a huge surprise. 

 

- In the course of disputing the debt the council then found that I owed a second property and it had lain empty for 2 months in between letting during the same period of time as the arrears for the first property.

They have added court costs and this is £285.

The liability order is over 10 years old and they have me down as living at this property and they have not yet sent me a liability order so I do not know where it was sent. 

 

In fact during this time I was travelling and at neither place.

Since the correspondence address they used for property 1 (which may also have been used for property 2 was wrong I received no notice of the debt and have no bank records dating back to then.

 

- the council have threatened me with bailiffs if I do not pay up within 2 days. 

 

- I understand that there is no statutory limitation to the liability order.

 

However:

 

1) can a bailiff still seize goods from my current address based on a liability order for an old address 10 years ago.

 

2) can the council claim council tax for two properties in the same borough covering the same period if they say I am resident at one does that exclude the liability on the other?

 

3) If they have used the wrong post code would a stat dec that I never received the summons or reminder because of the incorrect post code help my situation.

 

4) I am struggling to find funds for this out of the blue so need time to pay it and/or refute it? I just want to buy time if I can - would a compliant to the ombudsman help delay things?

 

Thanks for any help or advice you can give on this.

 

stan  

[dx100uk]

1.not if you ignore them no. there is no forced right of entry.

2. you can own 2 properties regardless to wherever you reside in them or not.

3.nope.

4. there isn't one.

 

its very rare LO's can be over turned.

the only thing you could do is SAR them and check their data as you intimate there might be incorrect calculations regarding benefit etc and the LO's amount might be wrong. that might work whilst they sort and check your claims.

 

but eitherway you obv owe 'something' so it might pay you to get an arrangement going too in the meantime to show goodwill.

and ofcourse avoid NOE's @ £75 each and enforcement feeof £235 from the bailiffs being added if you let this run.

[London1971]

Yup,

 

Best to ring the council and make an arrangement, avoid Bailiff fees.

[Stanley 10]

Okay that’s good advice thanks 

[London1971]

Make sure you get to speak to someone in collections or revenue, rather than some call Centre operative. Take a look online to see if there is a separate number rather than the main council one.

 

If you don't get anywhere, you can always run it past the local councillor for that area.

[dx100uk]

keep us informed

[ss002d6252]

Quote

The liability order is over 10 years old and they have me down as living at this property and they have not yet sent me a liability order so I do not know where it was sent.  

Liability orders are not orders that are posted out - the liability order is simply the court order that is granted, there is no requirement to notify you that it has been granted. Some councils will write out to say one has been granted but they don't have to.

 

Quote

) can the council claim council tax for two properties in the same borough covering the same period if they say I am resident at one does that exclude the liability on the other?

A person can be liable on any number of properties at a time, council tax is not just limited to one (or two) properties.

 

Quote

4) I am struggling to find funds for this out of the blue so need time to pay it and/or refute it? I just want to buy time if I can - would a compliant to the ombudsman help delay things?

The local government ombudsman can look from the point of view of a council acting incorrectly from a procedural point of view however they cannot interfere with the actual liability order as it is outside of their powers to do so. Any complaint to the ombudsman which can be made does not prevent the council recovering monies in the meantime.
 

Quote

The liability order is over 10 years old and they have me down as living at this property and they have not yet sent me a liability order so I do not know where it was sent.  

In fact during this time I was travelling and at neither place.

 

Liability may be disputed but that would need a valuation tribunal if you couldn't resolve it with the council.

Edited June 26, 2019 by ss002d6252