Finding out rateable values for freehold purchase

Ginky2

Hi

I wonder if anyone can help. We are interested in buying the freehold of our house and want to do a quick calculation to get a rough idea of how much this might cost us before we write to our landlord. In order to do this we need to know the rateable value of the property when it was first built and at 1 April 1990. We have managed to find the 1990 figure but so far haven't been able to find anyone who can help with the original RV figure (April 1965). Can anyone suggest where else we might try?

lincroft1710

Rateable values for houses were calculated by the VOA (part of HMRC). I'm ex VOA and the rateable values in force in 1965 were still in use up to 31 March 1973. However the VOA destroyed the lists of these many, many years ago.

Both the relevant water authority and council had copies but I very much doubt if they are still in existence. Even if by chance either authority had kept them, finding someone who knows what you're looking for (1963 Valuation List is what you need to tell them) or where it is kept (hidden/stored) will be a problem and you'll very likely get a denial of it existing or of knowledge of any such document.

To further complicate matters you will need to the name of the pre April 1974 borough/district council in which your house is situated as that will be the Valuation List you will need. If your house was built after 1 Apr 1963 you'll need the "Direction Pages" - very large, heavy brown book(s).

Ginky2

Thanks lincroft - that unfortunately seems to be the case based on what we have tried so far. Some of our neighbours have lived here since before 1973 so may be time to evaluate who might be the biggest hoarder and see if they have any old documentation which might help! Based on the Lease Advisory information not sure how we will arrive at the basis of the calculation, let alone the actual fair purchase figure without this information.

lincroft1710

From my deep distant memory of helping prepare the 1973 VL (the list which has 1990 RV) the 73 figures were about 2.8/3.0 times the 63 figures, so you could see if an estimated figure of one third 1990 RV would be acceptable.

Quite frankly it's about time these outmoded methods of calculation were updated - even getting 1990 figure can be difficult.

Ginky2

Thank you, certainly worth a try and at least lets us make an educated guess about the possible value of the freehold.