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council tax?


liamtw

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Anyone know if a landlord can legally with-hold your deposit for unpaid council tax??? need some help with this one basically what it is...my landlady has told me upon termination of my lease i am due 200 council tax. My bill from the council came last month and stated i had to pay 194 in tax for the previous tax year and my payments for this year were 51 per month all of this has been paid and she has stated that i would be liable for a shortfall in council tax payments if i were to move out this month.

Any help/suggestions?

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Check your tenancy agreement. Bills etc are usually the tenants responsibility so a landlord won't pay out on the deposit if they think they'll have to pay something you haven't. Well, that's my understanding of it anyway.

I had to give proof to my previous landlord that all the bills were up-to-date before the deposit was returned to me.

If you can't see anything about it in your lease go to Citizen's Advice and they'll give you some help.

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Anyone know if a landlord can legally with-hold your deposit for unpaid council tax??? need some help with this one basically what it is...my landlady has told me upon termination of my lease i am due 200 council tax. My bill from the council came last month and stated i had to pay 194 in tax for the previous tax year and my payments for this year were 51 per month all of this has been paid and she has stated that i would be liable for a shortfall in council tax payments if i were to move out this month.

Any help/suggestions?

Is the bill in your name?

To answer your question, she can withold the deposit and there will likely be a clause in your lease telling you this. All you need to do is move out, get your final bill, pay it, pay the one for the previous year, staple the receipts to the top of the bills and forward it to her...

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They should have been ensuring the Council Tax bill was in your name and if they had it wouldn't have mattered to them whether you had paid it as you remain liable for it to the Council. This being the case they should not be able to hold your deposit. However if the bill remained in their name and they just expect you to pay it then technically they can hold your deposit for their own peace of mind but they haven't set things up correctly and are stupid cunts.

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They should have been ensuring the Council Tax bill was in your name and if they had it wouldn't have mattered to them whether you had paid it as you remain liable for it to the Council. This being the case they should not be able to hold your deposit. However if the bill remained in their name and they just expect you to pay it then technically they can hold your deposit for their own peace of mind but they haven't set things up correctly and are stupid cunts.

The big difference between Council Tax debt and all the other utilities is that it does not get used for credit scoring purposes, so you would think that that bit is right. A tenacy agreement will still always have more weight though, so the landlord can happily keep the deposit if the clause insists on the tenant 'taking full responsibilty for payment of Council Tax, utilities', and so on.

The last bit is totally correct though: I had someone on the phone earlier in the week who let out his property 2/3 times in a five year period who didn't have the names on Council Tax changed across, and he got clobbered with the summary warrants for non-payment. Unless he sends in the tenancy agreements pretty quickly, he is up slack alley.....

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yeh the council tax is in her name as oppose to mine. The only thing thats getting me is im up-to date with my payments according to the payment schedule she forwarded me. She is now saying that when i move out due to the fact my room will be let to students their will a short fall in council tax which i will be responsible for??? so their isn't an actual bill she has taken it upon herself to state this short fall without any bill being sent out from the council.

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yeh the council tax is in her name as oppose to mine. The only thing thats getting me is im up-to date with my payments according to the payment schedule she forwarded me. She is now saying that when i move out due to the fact my room will be let to students their will a short fall in council tax which i will be responsible for??? so their isn't an actual bill she has taken it upon herself to state this short fall without any bill being sent out from the council.

If she's letting it to students she should transfer their names onto the bill then no-one will have to pay it. I'm guessing the students are telling her that they won't pay council tax as they're students, she can't be arsed transferring it so she's getting the shortfall from you. Tell her to get her arse in gear and transfer the council tax as she should have done in the first place and everyone will be happy.

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The big difference between Council Tax debt and all the other utilities is that it does not get used for credit scoring purposes, so you would think that that bit is right. A tenacy agreement will still always have more weight though, so the landlord can happily keep the deposit if the clause insists on the tenant 'taking full responsibilty for payment of Council Tax, utilities', and so on.

The last bit is totally correct though: I had someone on the phone earlier in the week who let out his property 2/3 times in a five year period who didn't have the names on Council Tax changed across, and he got clobbered with the summary warrants for non-payment. Unless he sends in the tenancy agreements pretty quickly, he is up slack alley.....

Yeah but that letting clause is to make it abundantly clear that the tenant is liable for the bills and has accepted that. I can't understand why any landlord would keep it in their name when transferring to the tenants keeps the debt with them regardless of whether paid or unpaid. It may be a scam to try and keep deposits but that seems a risky move to me...

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yeh the council tax is in her name as oppose to mine. The only thing thats getting me is im up-to date with my payments according to the payment schedule she forwarded me. She is now saying that when i move out due to the fact my room will be let to students their will a short fall in council tax which i will be responsible for??? so their isn't an actual bill she has taken it upon herself to state this short fall without any bill being sent out from the council.

Are you terminating the lease early? That's the only reason why I can see her argument holding water but seems a bit shaky to me...I assume there are a number of tenants so the collective council tax bill for the property vs. the gathered money won't add up as it's students. Her best option would be to make sure all tenants are liable to pay...

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Yeah but that letting clause is to make it abundantly clear that the tenant is liable for the bills and has accepted that. I can't understand why any landlord would keep it in their name when transferring to the tenants keeps the debt with them regardless of whether paid or unpaid. It may be a scam to try and keep deposits but that seems a risky move to me...

In most cases it's just sheer laziness by the owner, such is life....

nope my lease was for 6 months then on a month by month rolling basis where a months notice was required which i gave her.

Only thing I can recommend you do is manually work out how much your charge is for the year (bearing in mind that the Council Tax bill starts from 1 April) pay any deficit you have and keep the receipt....

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i have just found out through citizens advice that due to the property being a HMO that the council tax should have been paid as part of my rent and that she has no right to be charging the council tax separately. They also told me due to the fact my name isnt on the bill itself i am not liable at all meaning she has no legal stance when it comes to withholding my deposit.

Thought i'd let people know incase they ever get stuck in the same situation

Thanks for all the advice guys

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