Council Tax rebanding - opinions please!

bosseyed

Hi all - first up, if this would be more appropriate in a different folder, by all means move it! I recently had a crack at getting the council to reband my house to a lower council tax bracket and I'd be grateful for some opinions on the answer I received (Oh and I'm not allowed to post links so you'll have to paste into your browser windows I'm afraid. If you want to that is)

Some background first then.....

Ok, so: I followed the guide on this site to make a query about my council tax banding. Currently we're in Band C, which costs me £142 per month. Having gone through the steps listed here:

LINK! moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/council-tax-bands-change LINK!

I get this:

A property located in UK which was valued at £137000 in Q4 of 2008, would be worth approximately £48412 in Q2 of 1991.

So at a rough guide value of £48,412 in 1991, this falls smack into Band B on the 1991 property value table.

We're a mid terrace 3 bed surrounded by 3 bed semi detached houses with large extensions who are on Band C, the same as us, so even though we're on the same band, the actual house is worth less and the land is smaller etc etc, I thought it wouldn't hurt to query.

One problem is that my application to have the band revalued is apparently not a 'Valid' proposal as we have been at the property longer than 6 months. At the time of my query we had been there around 9 months (how I laughed), so the official line is that I cannot appeal the decision in any way.

I've attached the letter I received back so that you guys can read through and see what you think.

LINK! h t t p / /img16.imageshack.us/img16/7803/councilletter.jpg LINK!

Now admittedly I don't actually know how much the house was worth in 1991, I only have the guide to base all this off, which seems to be the central point as raised in the council letter.

So, I'm grateful for any thoughts, and also if anyone knows where I might be able to find out the actual sale price/value of the house back in 1991. most price indexes only go back to around 2000.

Many thanks!

lincroft1710

The VOA have details of virtually every house sale in the country but are not allowed to disclose them where there is no valid appeal.

There are only 2 things you can really do:

1) See if you can find archive local newspaper property ads for 1991, but remember these will only show asking prices.

2) See if you can find any nearby similar houses in Band B.

Although you cannot appeal VOA decision, if either of the above comes up with possible evidence to support lower band, you can then ask VOA to look at your case again.

Finally the VOA are not part of the council, they are part of HMRC.

bosseyed

Hmmm, ok. I suppose I don't have many options! Thanks for the reply and the info though