Do you remember rates?

Mrs_pbradley936

I am involved in a thread in Discussion Time and rates (before Council Tax) has been mentioned. This is what I said:

"I was looking through some old paper work and found the details of a house we used to own. We paid £32K for it in 1977 and the ratable value was £302 @ 53.6 per £. Does anybody know what that means? It would be good to see a comparison with the Council Tax."

Someone replied and said that we would have been paying £161.90 per annum. Is that right?

Mrs_Money

Yep- that's what I made it - actually £161.87 - I don't know where the "rateable value" came from - we had one - can't remember what it was though - we bought our house in 1979 for £10,400 - so you must have bought a lovely big house! I know that when the poll tax came in it was much, much more and I had to go and get a Saturday job in a shop and leave DH to look after our 3 sons (youngest was 15 months!). I resented that a bit- we were charged as 2 individuals, but I didn't work and hubby didn't earn enough to pay both lots - it did suck!
And now the Council Tax is just as bad!

Savvy_Sue

Was the 'rateable value' not based on the notional value for which you'd be able to rent the property out if you chose to do so? I think it still is for businesses (which still pay rates!)

LeeSouthEast

Or, about £1,016.86 in today money!

Mrs_pbradley936

LeeSouthEast wrote: »

Or, about £1,016.86 in today money!

That's interesting because the Council tax would be band H and I think just under £3000 (depends on the council) but the house would be about £450K. So the Council tax has trebled but the house has gone up by 14 times!

Old_Git

rates are still paid in Northern Ireland ,and appear to be much less than CT

Old_Git

Mrs_pbradley936 wrote: »

That's interesting because the Council tax would be band H and I think just under £3000 (depends on the council) but the house would be about £450K. So the Council tax has trebled but the house has gone up by 14 times!

how much have wages gone up since them

[Deleted User]

the old rates in the late 70s also included water rates,no seperate bill

nearlyrich

woodbine wrote: »

the old rates in the late 70s also included water rates,no seperate bill

Ours didn't we always had a seperate bill and our water rates are still worked out using the old ratable value....

Mrs_pbradley936

Old_Git wrote: »

how much have wages gone up since them

Not sure but we did not have a minimum wage then nor did we have equal pay for men and women.

mumibear

I seem to remember the older your property the cheaper your rates were?