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Received a Council Tax Bill for a property I sold 3.5 years ago

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  • Received a Council Tax Bill for a property I sold 3.5 years ago

    Hello. I have just joined the site and wonder if anyone might have any advice to offer me on the following Council Tax issue, please. I apologise in advance for the lengthy post.

    My mum passed away in 2013 and her entire estate - including her house - passed to me, as the sole beneficiary. Long story short, I was in a position to choose that the deeds to mum's house were put into my name; I wanted time with her house before selling it, so I decided I would put it up for sale, myself, in due course.

    The transfer of my name onto the deeds happened on 3 October 2013. At this point, the Executors notified the various utility companies, the local council etc that I was now the owner of the property and, as per my instructions, they said all correspondence should be sent to me at my own home address. I continued to live at my usual address as normal, it's only a 5min walk from mum's property so I could pop back and forth between the 2 very easily.

    In January 2014, I put the house up for sale with a local Estate Agents. It sold very quickly to a BTL Landlord and then it was just a case of waiting for the Conveyancing to be finished. The sale completed in May 2014, around 23 May I think. During the weeks before completion, I contacted all of the utility companies, the home insurance company and the Council to tell them I had sold the property and where applicable, to ask for final bills etc. Then I paid these, and handed the keys to the Estate Agent.

    I was able to get a CT Exemption for most of the time during which I owned the property, only being charged for one month after the Exemption ended, which amount I paid promptly. This last bill was dated 9 May 2014, and under the charge details it said: The Council Tax Bill issued on the 10 March 2014 for the year 2014/2015 needs amendment because your Council Tax Liability for this property has ended.

    Anyway, fast-forward to the present day. I was sorting through a pile of documents to be filed yesterday and I came across a Council Tax Bill addressed to me (the bill had been taken out of its envelope and put aside with my other correspondence, to await filing). My husband handles our Council Tax payments and so it was unusual to find a bill among my own paperwork, therefore I looked more closely at it and saw that it related to my mum's former house, and was dated 20 June 2017.

    The bill is for information only, it covers the period 19 June 2017 to 31 March 2018 and it shows 100% discount for Unoccupied and Unfurnished Homes has been applied for this whole period (total payable is therefore £0.00).

    I can think of 2 possible explanations for why I hadn't spotted this misdirected bill sooner - one is that I assumed my husband had left it on my pile by mistake, I glanced at the addressee and saw that it was for information only, and just put it to one side to file away later; the other is that I saw it was a bill for my mum's old address and assumed it was an old bill which I'd neglected to file away with all of the other documents relating to her property.

    I will give the Council a call tomorrow morning, to see if this matter can be sorted out with a single phone call. At this stage, I'm assuming it can be and I don't foresee any problems arising.

    That said, I'm really puzzled about why, after hearing nothing further from the Council since May 2014, all of a sudden they've sent a Council Tax Bill to me again. I don't have anything in writing to prove that I contacted them just before the sale of the house went through, apart from the final bill saying my CT liability for the property had ended.

    Am I safe to assume that actually does mean 'you are no longer responsible for paying Council Tax for this property', or am I likely to get any unpleasant surprises when I make the call tomorrow? Could it be that my buyer has never bothered to give the Council their details as the property's owners, and so when their last tenants moved away the CT Bills reverted to me as the last known owner?

    Any information, advice or ideas would be greatly appreciated, please. Thank you in advance.
    Tags: None

  • #2
    Re: Received a Council Tax Bill for a property I sold 3.5 years ago

    Could it be that my buyer has never bothered to give the Council their details as the property's owners, and so when their last tenants moved away the CT Bills reverted to me as the last known owner?
    That would seem the most likely, I've certainly seen that happen many times in the past. I was discussing similar with one of my clients a few weeks ago.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Received a Council Tax Bill for a property I sold 3.5 years ago

      Originally posted by lgfa92 View Post
      That would seem the most likely, I've certainly seen that happen many times in the past. I was discussing similar with one of my clients a few weeks ago.
      Hi, thank you for replying.

      If that's what my Buyer has done, then I hope there won't be any comeback on me. I spoke to the council earlier and explained that I'd sold the house, they asked to whom did I sell it but I didn't have the paperwork to hand, to look up the Buyer's name. I did give them the name and location of the Estate Agent I used to handle the sale, though.

      The council said they'd look at the account and remove my details, which is the result I was hoping for. I suppose they'll be in touch if they want any further information. Fortunately, I do hang onto paperwork for a long time and all the Conveyancing documents are tucked away in the loft, should I need to produce any of them.

      Are these cases normally quite straightforward to sort out, in your experience?

      Thanks again.
      Last edited by cloudy_daze; 11th December 2017, 16:49:PM. Reason: Repetition of 'straight'

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Received a Council Tax Bill for a property I sold 3.5 years ago

        Are these cases normally quite straightforward to straighten out, in your experience?
        Pretty easy - it's generally quite easy to tell if the story it was sold adds up as a quick check on Zoopla etc will confirm it was actually sold in most cases (doesn't give names but it's a nice, independent, check to make). Once the evidence of sale has been established the problem of sorting the issues is down to the council.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Received a Council Tax Bill for a property I sold 3.5 years ago

          Originally posted by lgfa92 View Post
          Pretty easy - it's generally quite easy to tell if the story it was sold adds up as a quick check on Zoopla etc will confirm it was actually sold in most cases (doesn't give names but it's a nice, independent, check to make). Once the evidence of sale has been established the problem of sorting the issues is down to the council.
          Thank you Igfa92, that's good to know! And there's always my box file to fall back on, if they put the burden of proof on to me for any reason.

          Many thanks indeed for your help.

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Received a Council Tax Bill for a property I sold 3.5 years ago

            I thought I would just post an update. The council has sent me an email to confirm the account has now been closed wef May 2014 and I am no longer listed as the owner of the property.

            They've also apologised for any confusion this bill has caused me.

            Thank you again for your help.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Received a Council Tax Bill for a property I sold 3.5 years ago

              Originally posted by cloudy_daze View Post
              I thought I would just post an update. The council has sent me an email to confirm the account has now been closed wef May 2014 and I am no longer listed as the owner of the property.

              They've also apologised for any confusion this bill has caused me.

              Thank you again for your help.
              Excellent, always good to see an outcome without major hassle.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Received a Council Tax Bill for a property I sold 3.5 years ago

                This would clearly have been an administrative error in the office, in that your “ownership” on their database has not been amended.

                Comment

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