Lawyer letter

[Manodestra]

Hi, hopefully someone can guide me in the right direction. Received a letter out of the blue recently from a lawyers office demanding over £5000 in apparently council tax arrears. This was from a flat I rented from Nov 13 till Aug 2016. There was a verbal agreement made between a third party and I that the rent was inclusive of this except gas/electric bills. No written agreement was discussed or signed. I have received no demanding letters from anyone else and all other bills were settled. Iv'e my council tax before staying at this flat and until now. My question is, where do I stand legally if there is no paperwork to back me up? Thanks

[luxardo]

I'm guessing that the 3rd party (you are the 1st party, is there a 2nd party ?) was the person you were renting the flat from and you had no official tenancy agreement ?
That you simply moved in and verbally agreed to pay a sum which was to include everything but the gas and electric ?

Do you have anything ? A rent book ? How did you pay ? Please don't say cash !!! If it was cheque or transfer you may have something. You could show that the amount was excessive just for rent so therefore council tax was included.

Who was paying the other bills ? Water and ground rent and maintenance for example ?
It's my bet that this 3rd party has not paid and has been chased for council tax and has told them the flat was rented out to you for that period and you are liable.

The good news is that no demand has been issued so you are not facing legal action yet; but without seeing the letter it's not possible to tell if this firm are acting for the council or not. They may be acting for the owners.
You need to determine who exactly you are dealing with before you act. Don't respond to this letter until then.

[Manodestra]

Hi, thanks for the reply. Basically the 3rd party was mother and 2nd party being the daughter who lives on the other side of the country who owns the flat, so the dealings (as it were) was with the mother. The lawyers letter is acting on behalf of the daughter. All payments were made through bank transfer and the rent was reasonable as part of the agreement was for some refurbishment to be carried out,This was to install a new bathroom suite and to tidy the flat and was completed. I took pictures of the flat prior to handing back the keys. They also have the dates wrong, suggesting I was there longer by 6 months. Surely £5000.00 is excessive for two and a half years and as a single person ,even if I were liable?

[luxardo]

I think they are trying it on.
Did you pay for and carry out the refurbishment yourself ?
I'd write back indicating you deny you owe council tax as it was agreed to be included in the rent and you will not be paying.

A point in your favour is the council tax seems to be for full occupancy. If it was in your name you would obviously have applied for the 25% discount.
The fact that the discount was not applied indicates you are not responsible.

Other point is the water bills are not in your name. Nobody lets a flat and pays the water bills themselves. This shows that the sum you paid was for more than just rent as the water was included. You have now proved the water was included (because they have not asked you for that back either) so it's a simple assumption that the council tax was as well.

I wouldn't mention this in your letter though, keep those bullets in the chamber in case they take you to court.
And keep all your gas and electric bills, especially the final ones, to prove the dates you were there.