Hi Zoe, John has recommended I place new thread to you from my last post. My mortgaged property is in Birmingham and I pay council tax to them. I am voluntarily surrendering my house as I have just (this weekend) moved into rented accommodation. My council tax on the mortgaged house is in B'ham and my rented in a different borough. I rang Birmingham and explained my situation although I did not mention BR (due 7th April), just said house empty, going to give back, etc. She said that I need to get a letter from Mortgage co. (Northern Rock) confirming I have given it back? or I will be liable? My first payment for the new financial year is April 1st? Can you advise what my best course of action is? I have never had arrears in council tax.
Hi sorry its been so long to come back to you i dont get on here very often as i have a new baby! Your best course of action in the first instance is to write to the Council to advise that you have done this, make sure that you put in that the property is completely empty. You will undoubtedly also have letters from your mortgage company which confirms that you have handed the keys back to them. You are entitled to 6 months empty property exemption if a property is empty. but if the mortgage company are in possession og the property you are entitled to a class q exemption (property left empty by a bankrupt) I would also recommend that you cancel any direct debits and put in the letter that you have done so. Hope this helps and if you need any further advice contact me
Thanks Zoe. Fortunately I had not set up the direct debits for 09/10 as I had the two months off paying and during that time changed banks. I will write to them. I am picking up the last of my things this weekend. I havent actually handed back the keys to the mortgage company yet. I will be ringing them up tomorrow to inform them of my intention to do that. I was leaving it as close to my Court date as possible which is on the 7th. Thanks Zoe.
Council Tax advice from Zoe
Posted - 23 March 2009 : 23:16:40
