How do i find out house prices in 1991

Sidwell · 22 September 2008 at 12:14PM

You cannot use the house values shown on the Nationwide calculator as VOA will not accept them.
I quoted them and was told they want actual sales details.
I tried getting the actual sales details used by VOA under the Freedom of Information Act, but they claimed the information could not be disclosed.
Does anyone know of any other source of this infomtion, which is acceptable to VOA?

Altarf · 22 September 2008 at 6:03PM

As I said earlier in the thread, visit your local library and check the newspaper archive. You should be able to find examples of similar properties to yours and the advertised prices from that time. As properties at the time were not selling for more than advertised price, you can use those prices as a maximum.

lincroft1710 · 22 September 2008 at 10:13PM

Sidwell - you can get 1991 sale prices from VOA, but ONLY if you have made a valid appeal against your Council Tax band. The VOA have the prices so if you were not able to make a valid appeal, you should say to them - "Without disclosing specific addresses what were x bed houses of same size as mine in my street and 2/3 either side selling for in 1991". When I worked for VOA I would tell taxpayers that "x bed houses of same or slightly smaller size sold for between £a and £a+, within your road/next road".

Altarf's has given sound advice if you want to try to find the evidence yourself. The asking price however may not be helpful for your case if the actual sale price was a few k less, e.g £70k (Band D) asking, but sold for £67.5k (Band C).

Sidwell · 23 September 2008 at 10:10AM

Altarf- thanks for your useful comments. I have moved out of the area so cannot visit local library.
lioncroft1710- I made a PROPOSAL but that was rejected as I had been owner over 6 months. However, Banding was reviewed and told Band E was correct.
When I pointed out 2 identical houses opposite were Band D the VOA said that they were unable to determine why the bandings were reduced. They also quoted the Actual Sales prices in 1991 point.
I will try your suggestion regarding Sales Prices again but surely 'unable to determine' is not a valid excuse?

lincroft1710 · 23 September 2008 at 6:47PM

I would guess that the caseworker who reduced the bands of the houses opposite didn't put in writing why they were reduced. Present caseworker may also have more evidence which leads them to believe Band E is correct, or can see no logical reason why these houses had bands reduced.

In the early days of Council Tax bands were sometimes reduced incorrectly because of incomplete investigation or because of incorrect facts. If this has happened with houses opp then caseworker would be correct in not reducing your band.

Sidwell · 24 September 2008 at 10:05AM

Lincroft-1710 Thanks for your further comments. I will try your earlier suggestion to get some idea of the sales value during 1991.

arunadasi · 31 December 2008 at 8:44AM

I've just written my letter to the local VOA but wanted to chack back with you all before delivering it (the office is just down the road from me).

I'm in a third floor, 2 bedroom flat in a block of 10 Victorian terraces, all converted into flats.

All the other Third Story flats in my block are in Band B or Band A, including the identical, mirror-image flat next to my own (Band

. My own flat is in Band C.

So the neighbour check passes the test easily.
The valuation check is a bit dodgy, though.
Using the Nationwide calculator, I get a value of just over £53000 for my flat in 1991, which puts it just over the limit into Band C.

It's possible, though, that I overpaid for my flat back in 2004. It's in a very desirable area and the house market here at that time was booming.

What are my chances of being rebanded? I certainly don't want to have all the other flats in the block going up!

Altarf · 31 December 2008 at 6:37PM

At the moment all you have is evidence of a mistake, that is yours is a C, other flats are B or A. What you have is no proof of which is right.

If you send in a letter pointing out the anomaly without any further evidence (and mentioning the Nationwide calculator is going to harm your case not help it) and ask that they investigate. They may then re-band all of your neighbours upwards; re-band you downwards; or if they believe that you are in the correct band but your neighbours are not, in certain circumstances they can leave everything as it is (it may be unfair but they are allowed to do this).

The problem with doing this is that if they come back and say that you are in the correct band and everyone else is wrong (irrespective of what they do about it), you have nothing to come back at them with.

Doing a bit more research (why are some flats A and some B, what are the differences? what were the flats (or similar in the area) being sold for back in 1991 using the newspaper archive at your library), which shouldn't take an awful lot of work. It took a couple of hours for me to find the information for my case that was successful, which given the refund I got worked out at a great hourly rate.

Even if what you find doesn't prove definitive then you can still fall back on "why is my flat C, when the others are B" and chance your arm. If you do, I wouldn't mention it to my neighbours though...

arunadasi · 31 December 2008 at 6:50PM

Thanks. What I don't quite understand is how to do this research. The only place where house prices are published (as far as I know) is in the estate agent's weekly supplement of our local newspaper. Is this what you mean? Do they even keep these supplements?

lincroft1710 · 31 December 2008 at 7:33PM

In your original post you stated that your flat is in an end terrace rather than an inner terrace house, this may and I stress may mean your flat is worth a bit more and thus in a higher band. ET houses are definitely worth more than IT and this is reflected in the bands. Altarf's post correctly sums up the situation. Working at VOA I frequently checked Nationwide and Halifax price calculators with actual sales, they never came within 5%, worst was 20/25%. Usually the calculated 1991 price was lower than the actual sale price.

How do i find out house prices in 1991

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