I’m a little annoyed this morning on opening a bill from my local council for Council Tax. Yes, yes I hear you cry, aren’t we all, but hear me out. I consider myself a reliable landlord. I notify the council when tenants move out and when they move in, I pass on forwarding addresses as a matter of course to make it easier for them to collect what’s due and I always pay what I owe.
So this has made me mad! I had a tenant move out on 31 Jan this year. I had a new tenant move in on the same day. I informed the council of this via email. All good I thought, nothing left for me to do here. Until I received a bill today for one day, £2.52, the 31st January.
It may seem nothing, £2.52, but imagine if that every single time, all those extra days billed to landlords who shouldn’t be paying it. Most probably wouldn’t even notice, especially if they’re multi-managed or pay via agencies.
An automated voice then told me when I called the number on the bill that if I believed my bill to be wrong, I *must* submit a written account online. Pah. I persisted and after being on hold for 12 minutes got through. The lady on the phone was vey nice and said the reason I’d been billed was that the new tenant had emailed in saying her tenancy started on the 1 Feb. But hang on, I still shouldn’t have been billed as the old tenant would be paying for the 31st and the new one for the 1st? Oh yes, she agreed, we’ll cancel the bill.
What’s my point? CHECK YOUR BILLS, LANDLORDS!
In these days of councils grabbing all the money they can from the easiest targets, it’s eminently possible you be paying more than you should, and with no allowance for temporarily empty properties (don’t get me started on that one), it all adds up.
And guess what….. I just checked another one & that’s wrong too!
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