Tribunal for council tax when I do use the land?

Tribunal for council tax when I do use the land?

13:29 PM, 5th April 2017, About 7 years ago 3

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Does anyone know of any legal arguments and cases in law re tribunal for council tax liability on one of my properties.

I have a property with two separate sets of deeds and the land I use myself and have my mail delivered to and the house on separate deed I rent and have DHS tenants being paid for by the council.

They have been receiving council tax discount (it is not an HMO just a single or joint tenancy). The council are insisting I live in the property with my tenants and have sent me a new bill for the last five years of council tax.

Are there any similar cases I could refer to and quote? I have a tribunal date booked in June and I are going to defend myself and try and change the council tax liability back to the tenants who were billed the first place then they changed it.

The tenant incidentally still receives her housing benefit for rent payments, but I am expected to pay the council tax for her it is the legal arguments and the cases I’m interested in and if anyone else has had that experience and what they did please?

Caroline


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Comments

Larry Sweeney

20:47 PM, 5th April 2017, About 7 years ago

Hi Caroline,
Look at the council tax regs 1992. There is what is called a hierarchy of liability. If the tenant resides there and it is not a HMO then liability falls to the tenant. You need to bring to tribunal copy tenancy, any proof they obtained Liability orders against the tenant and if you can prove you live elsewhere and not at the property eg ct bill, v5 for car, hmrc letter, utility bills etc. Quite often the council will attempt to bully and extort monies from the landlord if the tenant refuses to discharge their over inflated bills.

Ian Narbeth

11:53 AM, 6th April 2017, About 7 years ago

Dear Caroline
Get some legal advice either from a solicitor or the Citizens Advice Bureau. Sometimes getting a solicitor to write a letter will cause the Council to back down.

From what you say the only issue appears to be one of fact but if it were that simple all you have to do is provide evidence to the Council that you do not live in the house with your tenants. I suspect there is more to it than that.

Unless you have a lot of spare time to become expert in this area, you are better off getting expert advice.

16:27 PM, 17th May 2017, About 7 years ago

Simple answer is that Section 6 of the LGFA 1992 established liability for council tax, there's no discretion in this matter for a local authority. (The only real catch is if it falls under Section 8 and the landlord remains liable in law)

The solution in your case is to prove that you are resident elsewhere - if you can then you cannot be liable whilst there are tenants resident in the property. There's no need to argue anything else providing that this can be shown.

It's a common issue I've seen over the years many times with landlords I've dealt with.

Craig

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