Landlord Lying about Council Tax

[jaime37x]

Hi there I'm new to this site but would be really grateful of any advice as I'm at a complete loss as to what to do next!
In April 2011 my partner, new born baby and I received an eviction notice from our landlord via our letting agency, through no fault of our own (even the letting agency said they were taking the landlord off their books because of how he treated us). Due to us being in extreme financial difficulties and struggling with credit we couldn't find another affordable property so we had to speak to the council who after lots of visits from the homeless crisis team and speaking with housing benefits we were given emergency housing and moved out of this property in July 2011. The council spoke to the letting agency who gave them a final cheque for rent and we handed the keys back to the letting agency.
However, since October 2013 we have been receiving letters from the council for arrears of council tax for keeping a second home from July 2011 to February 2014 along with a court summons. The reason for this is because the landlord has said that when we moved out we changed the locks and he has not been able to get access to the property. We have expressed that this is not true and have told them that we handed the keys back to the letting agency, on which the council reviewed the situation. Since then the council has got back to us and has said that the landlord has said that we didn't inform him that we moved out nor handed back the keys and that he has tried to take action through the courts to legally terminate our tenancy in Dec 2012 (we moved out the yr before). We didn't inform the landlord as we didn't deal with him directly we dealt with the agency of which we handed back the keys.
So the council have sent us a new bill for £1,586.96 for a 2nd home rate of council tax along with a bill for £258.22 for court proceedings.

The council have paperwork of everything that happened in 2011 and knew our situation. So I am at a loss as to why they are just taking this landlords word as gospel and we're being billed for a property we've had nothing to do with for nearly 3 years now. Surely this is an issue of lack of communication between the landlord and letting agency!

Is there anyone out there that has experienced anything similar or knows of any rights we have over this?
Sorry I've gone on a bit!

[ploddertom]

Re: Landlord Lying about Council Tax

And have you been back onto the Letting Agency to see if they will back your story up?

[jaime37x]

Re: Landlord Lying about Council Tax

The letting agency are denying that they even sent us an eviction notice, although we have an official eviction notice from them!

[enquirer]

Re: Landlord Lying about Council Tax

... we had to speak to the council who after lots of visits from the homeless crisis team and speaking with housing benefits we were given emergency housing and moved out of this property in July 2011.

So there will be a paper trail from the council itself, backing up your story. If this is produced in court, the council will look very stupid indeed.

The council spoke to the letting agency who gave them a final cheque for rent and we handed the keys back to the letting agency
[....] the council has got back to us and has said that the landlord has said that we didn't inform him that we moved out nor handed back the keys

You dealt with the landlords agent. That is sufficient. If it turns out that they didn't tell the landlord, that's between the two of them.

...and that he has tried to take action through the courts to legally terminate our tenancy in Dec 2012 (we moved out the yr before).

He'll have proof of this ... or not. If he did make such an application, then he misled the court. Is one to believe that he had no idea what was going on in his property for a whole 12 months?

... so the council have sent us a new bill for £1,586.96 for a 2nd home rate of council tax along with a bill for £258.22 for court proceedings.

The original was probably churned out automatically by a computer.

The council have paperwork of everything that happened in 2011 and knew our situation.

If you have any gaps in your paperwork, or think that there could be more that would be useful, hit them with a SAR (Subject Access Request) under the Data Protection Act 1998.

The letting agency are denying that they even sent us an eviction notice, although we have an official eviction notice from them!

Do you have this in writing? If not, obtain it.

Assemble a detailed chronology, ensuring that every step is backed up by documents (write it up as if a judge who knows nothing will be reading it later). That done, complain directly the CEO.