Complicated Council Tax issue

[Tangerine Beret]

Firstly, I need to confess that I have registered as a new user to post this as will become apparent, I am writing this for somebody else who feels unsafe and any cross reference to their location might be deduced from my other posts. I have changed some details because they would help to identify her but they don't make any material difference.

 

And I also have to point out that I don't know the whole story - it predates my relationship - and it seems a bit sketchy but I am not looking for answers, I merely want to ask where she should go for advice.

 

My girlfriend used to live in a house with her then partner for about twenty years. They never married and never had a joint bank account. He paid the mortgage, she paid all the bills including Council Tax.

 

About eight years ago, they split up. More precisely, she returned home to find her stuff had been put in her van and she was locked out of the house. She had to find somewhere else to live and things became quire acrimonious but after some time they decided to co-operate in order to sell the house. Even though she was living somewhere else, she kept the house tidy and moved some of her stuff back into the house to make it look more attractive to potential buyers.

 

The house was eventually sold years later for a not inconsiderable sum. She got nothing from the sale and found that he had even sold some of her belongings including a small vehicle which had been kept there which although was hers had been registered in his name.

 

At some point after the sale of the house, he moved abroad was completely out of the picture for years until his return to the area fairly recently. But even though she had not lived in the house for eight years, she had still been receiving the Council Tax bills.

 

Since I have known her, she has lived in a rented house and even though she has a well paid job, she has always been skint and it was not until a few months ago that I discovered why. She has had her salary garnisheed by the council to pay the Council Tax for the years from when he kicked her out to the sale of the house. But it gets worse than that - she is not allowed to see the records of her payments to the council because they say that it is confidential information which does not relate to her property!

 

It had, apparently all been paid off until for some reason the council started taking more money again this year. At this point, my insides were getting eaten away by the helplessness and frustration. I had resolved to get her to take advice from somewhere. She said that she had seen a solicitor but it had cost £500 to have a letter sent to him which he completely ignored. She cannot afford to take legal action under the circumstances.

 

I had all but persuaded her to make a CAB appointment later this week when she discovered that some of the stuff she put in the house to help sell it was for sale in a local antique shop and that he has been selling it regularly.

 

He can be quite a nasty person, from what I have heard, and she is concerned for her safety - as am I - and is worried that he may react violently to anything she does.

 

As I said initially, I don't pretend to be fully acquainted with the fact but the current situation says a great deal. She is living in virtual penury, is in debt and has the council taking money directly from her wages whilst he is selling her belongings and has taken all of the hefty profit from the sale of the house.

 

Who should she be talking to?

[assisted blonde]

Hi there appears to be more than one issue involved here, council tax, selling of belongings etc.

If they are her belongings can she show proof of ownership? If he has sold them without her permission its basically theft and she should contact the police.

Council tax, if she was registered at that address as well as her partner, regardless of who paid the mortgage etc they were both jointly and severally liable, while the property was empty a percentage of council tax is charged.

Obviously there is an attachment of earnings order attached to her salary and its ridiculous to say she cannot have any acces to what has been paid and what hasent. She needs to make an appointment with the council tax dept at the Council and they will tell her how much is owed, how much is still to pay etc. You cannot get an AEO without telling the court how much is owed and you cant keep paying somthing if you dont know how much you owe.

If she can show that she was not connected with the property while it was empty she should be able to get the council to reasses the outstanding council tax.

As for getting nothing from the sale I can only suggest that she sees a solicitor as she will need to show that she has contributed to the property (bills etc) in able to claim for a percentage of the sale price. I am assuming that her name was not on the mortgage.

She really does need to seek legal advice over the sale of the property and her possesions, although I cant quite make out why she didnt remove them when the property was sold before the new owners moved in.

The council tax issue should be quite easy to resolve but she needs to get on with it as for the alleged thefts etc it may be better to cut her losses as she obviously hasnt missed her property until she realised that it was being sold.

[Tangerine Beret]

Thanks for the reply.

 

As I said, there is much I don't know about what has happened but it has been clear to me that she has been afraid of confronting him or having any contact with him whatsoever - that may be why she has not tried to recover her stuff. There may be an unusual way of proving that the property is hers but I cannot divulge that on here but some of the items were heirlooms. But I know from personal experience that relationship breakups can play havoc with priorities and sometimes the primary goal is to get away from the situation.

 

Regarding the Council Tax, I had suggested that she make an appointment with the council finance manager and refuse to speak to anybody else - the council tax staff have been a bit computer-whipped, I think. As luck would have it, I just discovered that a mutual friend has been elected as a councillor and since posting this I have spoken to him. He agrees that she should demand to speak to somebody more responsible and told me that he is happy to take it as far as he can.

 

The whole thing has taken a huge emotional and mental toll on her and I know that she cannot face dredging everything up again - but I have to persuade her that it is for her long term wellbeing that she faces up to it now.

[assisted blonde]

The council tax issue is really important and should be easily sorted though. the property is a different matter if the items are heirlooms she will have to show provenance and proof that she hadnt authorised the ex to sell them on her behalf, or that she hadnt sold them to her ex. A lot depends on the value but if the property were left in a house that she didnt live in and she has made no effort to retrive them then it could be said that her ex has the right to dispose of them in whichever way he feels fit.

Good luck with the council