Council tax is presented as a flat obligation that falls on every adult occupying a property. The fuller picture is that council tax is a charge raised against a legal person by a corporate body called a local authority, under a statute the legal person is presumed to have accepted by registering as a resident. None of that is, by itself, a debt of the living man or woman.
The lawful position is that no one has a duty to fund a corporation they have not contracted with. The council is a corporation, registered, with directors, accounts, and a Dun and Bradstreet number like any other firm. Its statutes apply to those who have contracted, by registration or by conduct, to be bound by them. The question, on every demand, is whether you, the living being, have given that consent in a way that can be evidenced.
The sequence in practice
Step one. When the demand arrives, do not ignore it and do not pay on autopilot. Note the name on the envelope. If it is in capitals, it is addressed to the legal person.
Step two. Open the file with a Notice of Understanding and Intent, served on the named officer at the council. State your standing as a living man or woman. State that you are not the legal person on their records and that you require, before any further dealing, evidence of the contract under which they assert a claim against you personally.
Step three. If they reply with another demand, send a conditional acceptance. You will settle in full, on condition that they provide a wet-ink signed contract bearing your autograph, evidence that you consented to be bound by the Local Government Finance Act 1992, and the name of the living claimant making the demand. Almost no council can produce these.
Step four. If they ignore the conditions, send a Notice of Default, then an affidavit of truth setting out the unrebutted record.
Hold the line
The council will, in most cases, continue to send computer-generated demands as if your letters do not exist. They may issue a liability order through the magistrates' court. They may instruct bailiffs. They may threaten committal. None of that means your position is wrong. It means their machine is built to keep moving regardless of who answers what.
Do not panic at any individual escalation. Stay in the sequence. Each move on their side is met with the appropriate move on yours: a Notice of Conditional Acceptance to the bailiff firm, a notice of trespass at the door if they attend, an affidavit on the court file if a hearing is set. The work is the work. The record is what matters.