Council tax banding seems too high

Lady_K

I am very shocked to find out that my daughter is on the same tax band as me 'B' the house she is renting is very small, the agent told her it was band A when she viewed the property. I have a 3 bed semi with a big garden garage and driveway, hers is the size of a very small terraced house with no driveway and tiny back garden with 2 small bedrooms. Its a town house 2 of them together but the other side of her house also has next doors bedroom joined onto hers, not sure if that one will be classed as coach built.

I checked the council tax for that street and it says hers was banded at b in Dec 2005 which may have been when it was built as its faily new. I noticed that the banding does seem high for most of the houses in fact some are band D but there are various sizes of houses there but like a lot of new estates they are all built crammed into small plots of land. Her joined on nieghbours both sides are band C, one has a garage one doesnt but they seem overbanded to me. There are 5 band A's in the street but it looks like they could be the flats/appartments.

How likely is she going to be able to get the banding down to A?

dmg24

On the information given, not at all likely. If all the equivalent properties are in band B, she has little chance in arguing that hers should be lower.

Have you ever considered that her property may be worth as much as yours, or yours may be in too low a band?

Lady_K

The house was up for sale for about 99k a little while before she started renting it which is definitely lower than my house by quite a lot but all the houses on my street are band b apart from a few that are now band c after big extensions but they are detached 4 and 5 bed properties with lots of garden and compared to her next door nieghbours which is also band c its crazy. Are they banding newer home estates higher now? Both of these estates are given different levels of council tax over all the sizes of houses, if you picked one of the band c's off my street and plonked it in my daughters street it would probably be equivilant to a band f or g or something and mine could be a band e

mitchaa

Lady_K wrote: »

I am very shocked to find out that my daughter is on the same tax band as me 'B' the house she is renting is very small, the agent told her it was band A when she viewed the property. I have a 3 bed semi with a big garden garage and driveway, hers is the size of a very small terraced house with no driveway and tiny back garden with 2 small bedrooms. Its a town house 2 of them together but the other side of her house also has next doors bedroom joined onto hers, not sure if that one will be classed as coach built.

I checked the council tax for that street and it says hers was banded at b in Dec 2005 which may have been when it was built as its faily new. I noticed that the banding does seem high for most of the houses in fact some are band D but there are various sizes of houses there but like a lot of new estates they are all built crammed into small plots of land. Her joined on nieghbours both sides are band C, one has a garage one doesnt but they seem overbanded to me. There are 5 band A's in the street but it looks like they could be the flats/appartments.

How likely is she going to be able to get the banding down to A?

To me anyway,

Band A is a studio apartment, small 1 bed flat
Band B 1 to 2 small bedroomed flat
Band C/D 3/4 bed semi average size
E/F+ for larger properties

So I would say she is banded correctly and you incorrectly. I doubt she has a cat in hells chance

lincroft1710

Unless it is in a poor area, a recently built 2 bed terr in England is unlikely to be in Band A. In the area round here most 1 bed house are in B. If anything your Band B sounds low unless it is a council built house.

If your daughter has been in house less than 6 months she does have right of appeal against her CT band, but it is little use her quoting your house as a comparable. She should look around and try to find similar size modern terr non council built 2 bed in a Band A.

dmg24

lincroft1710 wrote: »

Unless it is in a poor area, a recently built 2 bed terr in England is unlikely to be in Band A.

I would agree to a point, but many houses built within the past few years have not been correctly assessed, so cannot be used as comparisons. As an example, my road (built three years ago) are all in band A ... including the four bed detached properties!

lincroft1710

I'll add the phrase "or incorrectly banded" then.

Either some people in your road are in for an expensive shock one day or you're unaware of the disused chalk workings under the road!

dmg24

lincroft1710 wrote: »

I'll add the phrase "or incorrectly banded" then.

Either some people in your road are in for an expensive shock one day or you're unaware of the disused chalk workings under the road!

Don't worry, I know exactly what is under my house!

I know that I am incorrectly banded, and fully expected it to be changed long before now. I have had a nosey and a friend's self built five bed house is also band A ... looks like we have all been put in a big old 'To Do' list!

Lady_K

It seems its all messed up.

In this town there are lots of terraced houses the same size as hers at band A but not in her particular little new estate. There is a Tescos in the middle, the new estate one side and the other side there are streets of old terraced houses band A and in fact many 3 bed ones where as hers is 2. I also live in the surrounding circle of the Tescos on another side and my house was never a council house.

I know it wouldnt be any good to compare my own house to hers but all she can do is compare the terraced ones just out of her estate and others in the town but as the whole eastate of new buildings are set at similar bandings I agree it doesnt sound very promising to get it lowered. She has been in the house for less than 6 months

I wonder if they will backdate the houses that are incorrectly banded if they are too low and paying less than they should

lincroft1710

Increased bands aren't backdated, but reduced bands are backdated.

It's not unusual for old terrace houses to be in a lower band than modern ones, as in many areas old houses weren't selling for as much money as modern ones in 1991.