Estate agent lied about Council Tax band (London)?

Question

Hi,

We recently moved to a lovely house in London. The thing is, estate agent we signed tenancy agreement with said that the Council Tax band is B (working out for around £86 per month) while we just got a letter from Council saying it is C (£106 per month).

As the house costs us already £200 more than the previous rent, I was happy that we could offset a bit of this increase by paying less Council Tax!

What can we do now?

Can I get them to pay back this money I have to pay now (I'm very unhappy because that will further increase my expenditure!!)

Thanks!

Answer 1

I think it's unlikely that you can do anything unless they put it in writing stating it was a band B and then you found it was a band C.

They could argue that they told you nothing of the sort, or that they were under the impression it was a band B and were offering it as advice, or that the last tenants told them it was a band B - or maybe you took it as read when they did say they thought it was a band B - was that the only thing that persuaded you to rent the property? it's only another £5 a week.

I suspect your tenancy agreement makes no mention of the council tax except to say that bills, taxes and charges (including council tax) are the responsibility of the tenant, in which case you are unlikely to be able to prove it. Still, it might not hurt to mention it to someone at the agency, even if they are not going to do anything about it for you, they will not misinform the next tenants.