Council Tax for Tenants

Chojinalpha

Hi,
New to the forum so apologies if I have misplaced this thread. I wanted some opinions on my situation regarding council tax in my rented house.

I live in Ealing in London in a shared house (4 people in total). When I looked on www.voa.gov.uk it had a split of properties in my road, some paying band G and some band F. My property is band G a semi detached along with my next door neibour who is also G. When I looked around and surveyed the houses in my street I checked on those of the same design and went back to the web. 11 of the 20 properties on my street that were the same plan as mine were in band F.

I then called up the north London valuation officer and asked about this. She said after I qoted my evidence that the properties on my road I quoted were of smaller floor size and thats what the difference is based upon as well as value of house. I didnt expect them to rush to downgrade me and rebate but this stopped me. I told her I would investigate more and get back to her. I am a little worried that they could bump me up a level if I ask them to investigate further, or even bump up my neighbours. It seems unlikely to me that the other houses in my road are larger in area, I need to check this out further but need to be sure before I go ahead.

Doing a calculation using nationwide house calulator with dta from nethouseprices.com I find my property was worth £156,000 in 1991.

F
£120,001 - £160,000

Expected Band

G
£160,001 - £320,000

Current Band

H
over £320,000

This with good neighbour evidence I beleive seems like a good basis for a claim. A little scared though that they could alter and bump me up a level, Current house value is around £485,000. Is this a possibility?

lincroft1710

They won't increase your band, but as house price indices are only a guide and can easily be 10-15% inaccurate they may not reduce it either. VOA will have details of virtually every property sale in the country, so they should know what these houses sold for in 1991.

Of course if your band is correct and your neighbours' are wrong the VOA may, and I stress may, increase their bands.