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Case 13 of 19 · Level 3
Council tax · a liability order and enforcement agents
Years after the tenancy
Docketory's own files · about 15 minutes
The complaint
Eight years after he moved out of a rented flat, enforcement agents acting for a London council emailed the former tenant an unpaid debt notice, then said an agent had attended a property. The notice named no sum and no period. He wrote back that he did not know what the debt was and had no connection with that council. Once he saw the statement of account, he said the order charged him council tax for a time when he was no longer the tenant, applied to the magistrates' court to set the order aside, and served a notice on the council the same day disputing that he was liable for the period.
The council's answer
The council's agents say the debt is a liability order the magistrates' court made in the summer after the tenancy, for about £750 of council tax on the flat, with about £300 of their own fees added since, about £1,050 in all. The council says nobody told it he had left: neither he nor the landlord. With no leaving date, it held him liable until new tenants arrived that autumn. It emailed him about the account in the months after the order, traced a new address for him some years later and wrote there, and that letter was not returned. The case has reached its final stage, and it offers a payment plan.
Evidence in the file
Exhibit A · The agents' notice
An unpaid debt notice by email, then a second email saying one of the agents had attended a property. Neither gives an amount or a period.
Exhibit B · The statement of account
The liability order, about £750; the agents' fees, about £300, added this year; about £1,050 in all.
Exhibit C · The tenancy papers
A tenancy agreement for the flat starting in August of the first year, and a rent statement whose last charge is July of the second year. He moved out that February; the tenancy ran on to July.
Exhibit D · His first reply to the agents
He wrote that he did not know what the debt was and had no connection with that council that he was aware of. That was wrong: the flat had been in that borough.
Exhibit E · The council's position
The order covers the period after his tenancy ended, up to the month new tenants arrived. The council says it was never told he had left, by him or by the landlord, so it kept him on the account.
Exhibit F · The court
His application to set the order aside, with a signed witness statement, was filed in August. The court asked for his current address, then listed a hearing and sent the papers to the council.
Exhibit G · What he never did
He did not tell the council when he moved in, and he did not tell it when he moved out.
Proof of when the tenancy ended
The deposit scheme's emails about the return of his deposit, and the final heating bill for the flat. Both put the end of the tenancy before the period the order covers.
The council's earlier contact
In the months after the order, the council's enforcement service and then the council itself emailed him about the account; the last email said a balance was overdue. He says he did not see them. Years later the council traced a new address and wrote there; the letter was not returned.
The landlord's notice to the council
Not in the file: neither he nor the landlord told the council that the tenancy had ended.
The agents' fee breakdown
The fees were added this year, when the case came to the agents, under the enforcement fee rules. They stand or fall with the order they enforce.
How a liability order works
Background, not from this file: a council asks the magistrates' court for a liability order when council tax goes unpaid, and the court makes it without deciding who was living where. The council that obtained an order can withdraw it, and an order can be set aside on application if it should never have been made.
What his witness statement says
That he moved out in February of the second year, that the tenancy ended that July, and that the order covers a later period. It is signed with a statement of truth.
Which way do you decide?
The ruling
Given by the council
The order withdrawn
Why
Before the hearing, the council looked at the evidence and decided the question itself. The deposit scheme's emails and the final heating bill showed the tenancy had ended before the period the order covered, so he was not liable for it. The council closed his account from the date the tenancy ended, withdrew the order, recalled the case from its agents, whose fees went with the order, and said the hearing would be cancelled. No court ruled: the council acted first. The same letter said he still owed council tax for the earlier period, when he did live in the flat and paid nothing, and that part stayed open between him and the council.
What had to be done
Withdraw the liability order and close the account from the end of the tenancy; recall the enforcement agents, with their fees falling away. The council tax for the time he lived there stayed owed.
What an adjudicator takes from this. The evidence that ends a tenancy does more than any argument: a deposit's return and a final bill settled this. And check your own history before you deny a debt. He told the agents he had no connection with the council, and his own papers showed he had.
Docketory's take
The tenant never told the council he had moved in, and never told it he had moved out. Years later that bought him a liability order and an enforcement visit for a flat he had left long before. The papers that got the order withdrawn were the dull ones, the deposit scheme's emails and a final heating bill. And his first reply to the agents was wrong: he said he had no connection with the council, and his own files showed he had. Read your own history before you deny a debt.
Based on a case from Docketory's own files. The details are changed so that the story on this site does not give the answer away; the facts the decision turned on are as they were.
Read the guide: Council tax bailiffs during a live appeal: your rights
What is fair and reasonable is a judgement. The ombudsman gives one; people who read the same file often give another, and this game is about how people weigh the same facts, not about being right. Built from cases the Financial Ombudsman Service and other bodies have published, and from Docketory's own files, rewritten in our own words with every name removed. Docketory is not connected with any of them, and this game is not advice on your own case.
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