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We were resident (my wife and daughters) at a property from 2010 until june 2016. As part of our tenancy agreement with the landlord, we paid a portion of the council tax and utilities as an addition to our rent of £900 per calendar month, which the landlord then paid to the council tax department. I have the tenancy agreements we signed with the landlord as well as a piece of correspondence we had from him advising us of an increase in the council tax and utility charge due to him, from us. We also called the council tax office when we signed the agreement to check that it was a legitimate way to proceed and they said that it was.
We were recently contacted by Liberata through my wife's email address that must have been provided by the landlord (who happens to be a solicitor) . They said that we owed them over £600 for a period from june 2015 to march 2016 although we did not move out on March of 2016 as the landlord claimed, as we left in the june of that year. It was our understanding (as that's what he had told us) that both the House and the adjoining annex where the landlord and his wife lived for the entire 6 year period of our residency were treated as the same address for the purposes of both council tax and also because of the shared utilities.
We did have a piece of correspondence in 2015 saying that the properties were considered separate now for council tax purposes. We took the letter to our landlord who said he would deal with it and as we heard nothing more, either from him or the council tax people in over a year, assumed that he had. we continued paying him our contribution to the council tax and utilities as per our agreement from then until we left.
We replied to Liberata a few weeks ago and have now had another email from them saying that we now owe them £1170 pounds. Despite the fact we provided evidence of the agreement, the fact we were duped and are honest seems to have gone against us. we're obviously extremely upset and unsure of what happens next. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
We were recently contacted by Liberata through my wife's email address that must have been provided by the landlord (who happens to be a solicitor) . They said that we owed them over £600 for a period from june 2015 to march 2016 although we did not move out on March of 2016 as the landlord claimed, as we left in the june of that year. It was our understanding (as that's what he had told us) that both the House and the adjoining annex where the landlord and his wife lived for the entire 6 year period of our residency were treated as the same address for the purposes of both council tax and also because of the shared utilities.
We did have a piece of correspondence in 2015 saying that the properties were considered separate now for council tax purposes. We took the letter to our landlord who said he would deal with it and as we heard nothing more, either from him or the council tax people in over a year, assumed that he had. we continued paying him our contribution to the council tax and utilities as per our agreement from then until we left.
We replied to Liberata a few weeks ago and have now had another email from them saying that we now owe them £1170 pounds. Despite the fact we provided evidence of the agreement, the fact we were duped and are honest seems to have gone against us. we're obviously extremely upset and unsure of what happens next. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
