Moving abroad & confused by council tax bill

[MarkyP123]

Hi,
We are moving abroad on 4th August & have given our landlord the required 1 months notice (rolling contract). We have also informed the council that our tenancy will end on 4th August. Also, we are in receipt of council tax benefit, which will end when we move. So, I was shocked to receive a council tax bill for £847.74. The letter states that we are not liable for council tax after the 5th August, and that our benefit will also cease on this date, then shows what we will owe from 04/08/19 to 01/04/20 and will have to pay £162 a month which will come from our direct debit we set up! We will no longer be here, so why do we have to pay council tax for this period? Surely this should be passed on to our landlord.

[efpom]

Looks like a screw up - council tax liability is on a daily basis. You have no liability for council tax from 5th August, as confirmed by the council.

[efpom]

Section 2 of the Local Government Finance Act 2002 states:-

2 Liability to tax determined on a daily basis.

(1) Liability to pay council tax shall be determined on a daily basis.

(2) For the purposes of determining for any day—

(a) whether any property is a chargeable dwelling;

(b) which valuation band is shown in the billing authority’s valuation list as applicable to any chargeable dwelling;

(c) the person liable to pay council tax in respect of any such dwelling; or

(d) whether any amount of council tax is subject to a discount and (if so) the amount of the discount,

it shall be assumed that any state of affairs subsisting at the end of the day had subsisted throughout the day.

If you give up possession on the 4th August, rather deliciously, the council will owe you 1 day's council tax!

[MarkyP123]

Thank you very much for that. I take it that I should contact them about this rather than ignoring it.

[lgfa92]

The council have most likely updated the account to show you are no longer resident but the account has not been ended. Housing and council tax benefit will cease as you are no longer resident but council tax liability is determined differently.

You don't always cease being liable for the council tax just because you have ceased being resident, there are cases where a person can remain liable. To ensure that they catch those sorts of cases some councils will not close the council tax account until the landlord has confirmed the tenancy end date.

Confirmation by the landlord to the council of the end of the tenancy will sort the issue.

[efpom]

The owner is liable for council tax, if it is unoccupied. Can't see a landlord rushing to pay, by notifying the council that he is liable.

[lgfa92]

The owner is liable for council tax, if it is unoccupied. Can't see a landlord rushing to pay, by notifying the council that he is liable.

The owner being being the key word however owner for council tax purposes has it's own definition - it is not simply the person who owns the property.

Under s6 of the LGFA 1992 the owner is the person with the lowest material interest of 6 months or more - so a tenancy granted for 6 months or more can form this interest. Whilst the person meets this criteria then they remain liable as the owner if they were to vacate the property (See Leeds CC v Broadley for a Court of Appeal decision on the issue.),

More councils are becoming careful of the issue these days and will generally assume the tenant meets the definition of owner. They then hold the non-resident tenant liable as owner until the landlord has confirmed the tenancy is over.

In the original poster's situation it appears that his tenancy will have ended so clearly his liability would cease at that point (assuming he ceased being resident) but until the council have it confirmed they appear to be continuing to treat him as the owner (the council do however seem to have omitted some key considerations in this point - happens often and it's a dispute I see regularly, sometimes having to take it as far as the tribunal).

Council Tax is not always as straightforward as appears and needs to be treated like any other form of tax law, straightforward most of the time but not always.

[efpom]

But here the outgoing tenant ceases to have any material interest, because on 5th Aug he no longer has any contractual licence to occupy the whole or any part of the dwelling - See 6 (2) (d) of the Act.

Of course, Local Government, despite being creatures of statute, do tend to make the law up as they go along.

[lgfa92]

But here the outgoing tenant ceases to have any material interest, because on 5th Aug he no longer has any contractual licence to occupy the whole or any part of the dwelling - See 6 (2) (d) of the Act.

Of course, Local Government, despite being creatures of statute, do tend to make the law up as they go along.

He hasn't a liability under s6(2)(a),(b),(c),(d) or (e) where he is not resident but under s6(2)(f) a person may fall liable as the non-resident owner, and remain liable until such time as the landlord confirms the end of the tenancy. This is the default logic many (if not, most) local authorities now work on until they have evidence otherwise that they are satisfied with. Believe me when I say I argue the same case regularly with local authorities.

I don't doubt on what he has posted that he has ceased a tenancy and is no longer liable - the problem is that the local authority has to be convinced of the same (and at present they are not). What they should be looking at is that fact that on a periodic, assuming it's statutory, there is no longer the relevant material interest to make a liability as soon as residence stops, even if a tenancy was still to be in place. This means that, even without looking further, the end of council tax liability can be established without even making reference to the landlord.