bill after 18 years

[Ineedadvice]

Hi all,

I'll get to the point.
My parents have not paid council tax for 18 years.
They have never hidden and paid any bill that was sent, including TV licence and utilities.
For the last 10 years they have also received a pension.
The house was never banded untill a few weeks ago by the council.
They thought the council tax was coming out of their pension for 10 years, which isn't the case.
The council are now demanding 18 years of tax to be paid over 6 months, about £3500 per month.
They paid the 1st one as they were so worried,but can't afford the rest.
The council won't budge or back date the pension discount 10 years. Citizens Advice won't help.
Can anyone here please help.
Thanks.

[lgfa92]

Re: bill after 18 years

The council have to backdate to the date given by the valuation office agency - even if this goes back some time. The general basis of that is to make sure that no-one can avoud payment but sometimes properties do slip through. CAB won't help on the tehnical side of disputes as it's well outside of their level of experience, I often see clients who have been to CAB and been rejected because of this.

By spreading payments over 6 months the council are actually being generous, they don't need to have given any more than 14 days to make the payment. What I suspect will happen is that council will pursue to a liability order and then, once this is in place, they'll allow payment to be spread over a longer period.

Not sure what you mean by 'pension discount' - do you mean council tax benefit and council tax support ? These reduction schemes are, for various reasons. very limited on the time periods they can be backdated over.

Craig

[Ineedadvice]

Re: bill after 18 years

Thanks for the response Craig,

As everything is correctly registered now, the discount on there council tax for being pensioners (basic income) will only start from now.
If there where aware, they could have been entitled to this for the last 10 years which would put the council tax down to a minimal amount.
As councils operate in such a unbalanced manner, it appears that won't get their full entitlements.

Also would it not equally be the responsibility of the council to collect there entitlements.
and therefore bare some responsibility.

In regards to the main amount, I've heard of a 6 year rule, where the council are only capable of claiming up to 6 years in arrears. Could this be applicable?

[lgfa92]

Re: bill after 18 years

Also would it not equally be the responsibility of the council to collect there entitlements.
and therefore bare some responsibility.

The council can only collect what they know about and what the Valuation Office Agency have banded.

In regards to the main amount, I've heard of a 6 year rule, where the council are only capable of claiming up to 6 years in arrears. Could this be applicable?

The Council have 6 years from when the demand notice is issued to obtain a liability order, if needed. The amount only becomes due once the demand is issued so this is when the 6 years starts - the amount, could, in theory go back to 1993.

[MIKE770]

Re: bill after 18 years

1993 Poll Tax Days

[Debt Camel]

Re: bill after 18 years

Why won't Citizens Advice help? Sorry but this suggests that there may be something mportant missing here.

Have they talked to their local councillors? MP?

Presumably, they own their house, not renting.

[Ineedadvice]

Re: bill after 18 years

Thank you all for the great advise.
Citizens Advise just said similar to what's been posted. With probably less detail.


I'm thinking of asking the council for a detailed breakdown of the bill then offering a settlement based on what's considered to be fair and financial affordable.
And/or letting it go to court as a last resort.

[ploddertom]

Re: bill after 18 years

Is there a particular reason why their property was not banded?

[lgfa92]

Re: bill after 18 years

Why won't Citizens Advice help? Sorry but this suggests that there may be something mportant missing here.

Have they talked to their local councillors? MP?

Presumably, they own their house, not renting.

CAB won't generally get in to anything which is a dispute over the backdating, liability etc as they don't tend to have the background or the manpower to do so. Certainly with CAB most of them are run off their feet with dealing with the standard debt issues. They're not the only charity or agency who won't get involved in council tax liability disputes etc (as it happens I was recently contacted by one for some assistance on this sort of issue).

[lgfa92]

Re: bill after 18 years

Thank you all for the great advise.
Citizens Advise just said similar to what's been posted. With probably less detail.


I'm thinking of asking the council for a detailed breakdown of the bill then offering a settlement based on what's considered to be fair and financial affordable.
And/or letting it go to court as a last resort.

Two things with respect to that course of action;
a) I've never known any Local Authority settle for a part amount (I've worked in council tax for over a decade). They may offer a longer term payment arrangement but I'd expect that is the most you'd get.

b) The court would have no powers not to grant the order in this situation - they are specifically barred (by way of legislation) from considering banding or liability disputes as that falls under the remit of the Valuation Tribunal Service.

[Ineedadvice]

Re: bill after 18 years

Is there a particular reason why their property was not banded?

It wasn't banded as the house was originally classed as a leisure dwelling, so could not be used all year.
They ran out of money and had nowhere to live so moved in permanently.
The planning is being decided now which consequently started this whole process.

[Debt Camel]

Re: bill after 18 years

Well I repeat my suggestion to involve local councillors and/or the MP.

I too would be surprised if they accept a partial settlement. But it should be possible to persuade them to accept an affordable payment over a long period, possibly accompanied by a charge on the property.