Council Tax "Avoidance": Is it possible?

[volvodriver]

Re: Council Tax "Avoidance": Is it possible?

Does your father own his property?

Did he go voluntarily into a home, or on the advice of a health practitioner?

As has been suggested its far better to go down the route of you yourself becoming his deputy under the court of protection.

In terms of a Power of Attorney (which is different to guardianship), your father has to have capacity to sign it. His current refusal and legal views may indicate that the time for that is passed.

In order for that to happen you will need to have an assessment of his mental capacity by a qualified practitioner.

Google court of protection. Theres loads of information, and I found the forms relatively straightforward.

You can also approach the pension service to be his reoresentative which will enable you to sort out his pension and ensure he receives all the benefits he is entitled to.

Forget the legal issues, you will have enough on your plate coping with your father and his mental health issues, which regrettably, and from experience will get harder, not easier.

Vdr

[haradoka]

Re: Council Tax

Perhaps you could persuade him to sign the power of attorney but phrase it in such a way that he feels you are making life earsier. IF he gets angry with nurses etc then maybe that would be a could moment to get the lasting power of attorney signed. Just to make your life easier dad I'll speak to them . I just need to show them your permssion ,typical beaurocrats got to have everything in writing. So you sell it as doing him a service to make his life easier.

I appreciate your suggestions, but Power of Attorney is not really the issue. Perhaps I have allowed myself to become a little distracted from the purpose of my original post, which was try and establish whether there is any basis in law for my father not paying his Council Tax.

[haradoka]

Re: Council Tax

I have visited my father and tried to establish whether his justification for not paying Council Tax was based in Common Law. He said no, it was based on "Treatment Law" (does this even exist?). He insists that he has "treated" the council to payments, and because he has stated that these are "full and final" and "not open to offer", and has receipts for these payments, that is the end of it.
I explained that "Invitation to Treat' is an aspect of contract law, but he wasn't interested. He just repeated that he could "treat" the council to whatever he thought fit and they had to accept it.
In the end he refused to speak to me, saying that I was against him and trying to trick him, i.e. he went into denial.
Anyone care to comment?
(Oh, and he is not a Freeman of the Land)

[haradoka]

Re: Council Tax

Does your father own his property?

Did he go voluntarily into a home, or on the advice of a health practitioner?

As has been suggested its far better to go down the route of you yourself becoming his deputy under the court of protection.

In terms of a Power of Attorney (which is different to guardianship), your father has to have capacity to sign it. His current refusal and legal views may indicate that the time for that is passed.

In order for that to happen you will need to have an assessment of his mental capacity by a qualified practitioner.

Google court of protection. Theres loads of information, and I found the forms relatively straightforward.

You can also approach the pension service to be his reoresentative which will enable you to sort out his pension and ensure he receives all the benefits he is entitled to.

Forget the legal issues, you will have enough on your plate coping with your father and his mental health issues, which regrettably, and from experience will get harder, not easier.

Vdr

I had not considered the option of becoming his deputy myself under the Court of Protection. I will look into that. The thing is, whilst he has a somewhat delusional psychosis, he has not lost his mental faculties. He knows exactly what is going on, he just interprets it in a unique way.

[Caspar]

Re: Council Tax "Avoidance": Is it possible?

Well done for raising it, it must have been difficult.

Treatment Law does not exist in this sense. It exists only in the sense of allowing or refusing medical treatment in certain conditions under law.

He could well be referring to Invitation to Treat as this can form a binding contract, but not in this case, as whoever accepts his Council Tax payment would not be of a suitable position to accept on behalf of the council, so a binding contract would not have been formed.

All of these things seem to rely on having a binding contract and agreeing or opting in or out of a contract. Invitation to Treat does have more real examples in statute, for example in an auction. It would not however apply in council tax.

I'm sorry, but whatever your father thinks, he will find he has not got a binding contract with the council whether or not he has receipts, and full and final settlements definitley cannot be agreed by your father stating the payment is full and final and not open to offer.

Whatever you look at it, your father is acting against the law, and at some point this is likely to catch up with him.

[haradoka]

Re: Council Tax

Well done for raising it, it must have been difficult.

Treatment Law does not exist in this sense. It exists only in the sense of allowing or refusing medical treatment in certain conditions under law.

He could well be referring to Invitation to Treat as this can form a binding contract, but not in this case, as whoever accepts his Council Tax payment would not be of a suitable position to accept on behalf of the council, so a binding contract would not have been formed.

All of these things seem to rely on having a binding contract and agreeing or opting in or out of a contract. Invitation to Treat does have more real examples in statute, for example in an auction. It would not however apply in council tax.

I'm sorry, but whatever your father thinks, he will find he has not got a binding contract with the council whether or not he has receipts, and full and final settlements definitley cannot be agreed by your father stating the payment is full and final and not open to offer.

Whatever you look at it, your father is acting against the law, and at some point this is likely to catch up with him.

It wasn't so difficult.

Anyway, yes, indeed. I concur with all you say. I understand the basics of Contract Law, i.e. regarding "Invitation to Treat", but this does not apply in this case.

I'm of the opinion that my father doesn't really understand the lawfulness or legality of what he is/has been doing.

He is way out of his depth in "deep yoghurt" without a leg to stand on. Now there's a mixed metaphorical image to conjure with.