I had a tenant move into a property in Birmingham & engaged a Letting Agent to find and complete all matters regarding the tenancy including notifying the local council of his occupancy and start date of 27.11.2023… However they failed to do that and as a result Birmingham City Council did not send a Council Tax letter to the property.
I was contacted by an enforcement agency two days ago who said they had sent all correspondence to the Letting agent but had no response, my name was on their records so they are now chasing me for non payment of Council Tax for the amount of £2,405.
I explained the matter to the Enforcement agents but they were not that helpful.
Can you please explain my legal position in relation to the liability in this situation?
Forward your contract to the local authority. That should be enough.
If not send right to rent check,
Demonstrate there was a tenant in situ.
If no luck go to the local authority ombudsman and tell the local authority you are doing so
That brings them to the table
Is the tenant willing to pay his council tax? if so, then ask him to contact the CT office at the council and let them know he’s been resident in the property for the duration of the period in question. If he’s not willing to pay, I fear that you will have to and then take action against the agent. You would start with a formal complaint to them and asking for compensation. If you don’t get a satisfactory reply, you escalate the complaint to whichever redress scheme they belong to. They have to powers to intervene on your behalf and its free to use.
If your tenancy agreement includes a clause making the tenant liable for any council tax incurred, then you could also sue the tenant.
Thanks for taking the time to reply. The AST does include the clause that the Tenant is responsible for all utilities including council tax. They were good enough to charge me £662 for the privilege of their efforts and then screw up.
I would not pay any council tax on behalf of the tenant .
It is the responsibility of the council to chase the tenant whilst there is a contract is in place.
They legally can’t bill you .
The tenant may not have money but the council have the power to deduct it from payslips and benefits before it reaches the tenant
Im with a_a on this. Just tell the council formally the day the tenant received the keys and that he is still in there.
Personally i never give the council a copy of the ast, it doesnt really prove when a person moved in or out and its a bit of a fishing exercise.
In this case you maybe need to though.
maybe do not engage with debt collectors except to say tenant is responsible but do engage if they are officers of the court.
FYI: Last year i picked up a £1000 bill for unpaid ctax by a tenant, the council just ploughed on through the courts after me and i eventually just wrote it off. The tenant went to prison in the meantime so they werent getting it off him so they just bullied me into paying or risking escalation. I find of the four councils i deal with one is particularly aggressive
Never pay council tax on behalf of a tenant if your AST protects you against this.
The above case was not identical to yours but was won by the n r l a on behalf of all landlords.
It’s a landmark ruling.
They fought it to protect us from this kind of nonsense .
You should have gone to court
If you lost the n r l a would likely have taken on your case for you as the judgement affects all landlords
My tenant left and gave her departure date to the council.
She required two months notice and left days after her notice .
I even got her utility money to be paid by her
The contract trumps the tenant .
I sent the council the AST and they rebilled her because the AST trumped the tenants notification
She had to pay the council tax . She didn’t pay them and was told to wait to go to court . I never received any correspondence to rebook me and that was two years ago .
I would fight this all the way because it’s a solid win for the landlord.
