Nearly £100 million in unpaid council tax debt is being chased by Aberdeen City Council, The Press and Journal can reveal.
Local authority chiefs have a list of 4,477 postcodes with outstanding bills for one or more properties.
The P&J can finally report on the scale of the council tax blackhole after a six-month fight with the local authority for answers.
Council chiefs took six times longer than the 20 working days they were expected to provide answers for our freedom of information probe.
When they did, their documents uncovered a citywide debt of £99,681,594.94.
Such a princely sum could end the cash-strapped local authority’s budget woe – as bosses look to cut £83m from spending plans by April 2028.
In this article, we reveal:
- Where Aberdeen’s top 10 largest council tax bills are due
- The 20 postcodes with the highest combined outstanding council tax
- The £375,000 council tax holdouts in a long-demolished Aberdeen neighbourhood
Who owes Aberdeen City Council the most in council tax… and where?
The largest sum owed by a single household in Aberdeen is £26,019.83.
In order to protect the identities of those with the biggest outstanding council tax bills, city chiefs have only given us the first six digits of their postcode.
But we know the property is on one of a handful of streets in Northfield or Middlefield.
The AB16 7T* postcode covers Springhill Road, Manor Avenue, Manor Drive and parts of Logie demolished to make way for the bypass around the Haudagain roundabout (read on for more on that).
Our top 10 household council tax debts in Aberdeen are:
AB16 7T* (Northfield or Middlefield) – £26,019.80
AB11 8B* (Walker Road area of Torry) – £25,702.39
AB16 6S* (Sheddocksley or Mastrick) – £25,238.96
AB15 4A (Rubislaw area, including leafy “Millionaire’s Row” Rubislaw Den North) – £24,928.89
AB10 6S (Union Grove area) – £24,743.72
AB13 0E (Milltimber) – £24,236.93
AB14 0N (Peterculter) – £24,218.69
AB15 8E (Hazlehead or Kingswells) – £23,876.58
AB16 7R (Northfield) – £23,842.88
AB24 1W (Old Aberdeen or Seaton) – £23,830.07
Bills worth nearly half a million mount up at Aberdeen student halls
Across the city, neighbours are mounting up huge council tax dues collectively.
As Aberdeen City Council scrambles to gather the cash, there are streets holding out on hundreds of thousands of pounds.
The worst offenders – according to the local authority’s records – have resided at Caledon Court in Auchinyell Road.
Despite full-time students being exempt from paying council tax, Aberdeen City Council has residents at the student accommodation, across the road from the Robert Gordon University campus, down as owing £458,977.06.
It is unclear how the eye-watering sum has mounted up. But the local authority does warn on its own website that student exemption is not “automatic” and must be applied for.
Neighbourhoods popular with students account for many of the biggest neighbourhood bills.
The top 20 Aberdeen postcodes with the biggest collective council tax debt
AB10 7FU Caledon Court – £458,977.06
AB24 3HB Jute Street (even numbers) – £263,232.41
AB11 6FB The Galleria, Langstane Place – £218,957.7
AB11 8SY Balnagask Avenue (odd numbers) – £215,453.26
AB24 3EX Jute Street (odd numbers) – £200,137.59
AB23 8BR Seaview Caravan Park – £193,923.39
AB21 9LG Blacksmiths Croft Caravan Park – £193,199.34
AB24 2QA Sandilands Drive (even numbers) – £185,028.68
AB24 3LH Bedford Road (even numbers) – £184,549.91
AB24 2TF Harris Drive (odd numbers) – £182,842.99
AB16 7BB Cummings Park Drive (evens) – £179,140.24
AB10 6AJ Bloomfield Road (odds) – £169,902.85
AB11 8TT Balnagask Circle (even numbers) – £169, 430.21
AB25 3UL Holland Street (even numbers) – £165,903.92
AB24 5AX King Street (even numbers) – £165, 313.87
AB25 3UG Fraser Court – £164,816.50
AB24 2RL Hayton Road (odd numbers) – £160,896.08
AB24 1RN The Chanonry – £159,449.41
AB25 1LW Charlotte Gardens – £157,268.25
AB24 2PT Sandilands Drive (odd numbers) – £157,234.93
The Middlefield Triangle: A mysterious place where taxpayers vanish
In among Aberdeen City Council’s 4,477 postcodes with amassed council tax debt, a peculiar story is spelled out.
Hundreds of thousands of pounds of debt is being chased in among the rubble of a levelled city community.
Five years ago, the Logie area was cleared to make way for the £49.5m road built around the Haudagain roundabout.
More than 100 homes on Logie Avenue, Logie Place and North Anderson Drive were razed to clear the road for the Haudagain bypass.
The jam-busting, 180ft slip road’s delay-laden construction was eventually completed in May 2022.
Demolition of the so-called Middlefield Triangle – the houses trapped between the Haudagain bypass and Great Northern Road began – in July 2019.
And – five years since the bulldozers’ arrival there – The P&J can reveal the council has been left chasing Logie residents – many of them the authority’s own former tenants – for hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Flattened homes in Logie Avenue, Logie Place and North Anderson Drive – and in Manor Avenue which was impacted by the work – are still down for £375,116.60 in unpaid council tax.
How much council tax debt has been written off in Aberdeen?
Aberdeen City Council has been asked specifically what is being done to trace this money – and when they might otherwise write off the debt.
In the Middlefield Triangle, Marischal College chiefs have written off nearly £40,000 in council tax bills since April 2020.
Since then, across Aberdeen, council tax debts of more than £4.5m have also been dismissed – here’s the annual breakdown.
April 2020-March 2021: £1,423,202.04
April 2021-March 2022: £835,671.50
April 2022-March 2023: £1,269,648.95
April 2023-March 2024: £987,944.91
And what is Aberdeen City Council doing to claw back outstanding debts?
Who knows?
Aberdeen City Council was asked about the huge bill at the Caledon Court student flats, as well as what seem like challenges collecting council tax at two city caravan parks.
The P&J also asked how optimistic council bosses were of recouping the money due from former residents of the Middlefield Triangle, and what the process was before a debt would be written off.
After eight days of deliberating, a spokeswoman told us: “We continue to pursue all debts for council tax using the legislation available to the council.”
Dundee City Council was far more open about its process when asked by The Courier in January.
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