Council Tax Cost Cutting: reduce your band and grab any discounts Discussion Area

guppy

You can often find local newspaper archives at your local library, I don't know of anywhere on the internet.

Zebedeee

I have appealed our Tax banding as we found we are in a higher band than most of our neighbours. We were rejected by the VOA on the grounds that we are outside of the 6mth period. We wrote again listing all the reasons why we should be rebanded and the VOA again rejected it. They have sent our details off to Tribunal and we are now waiting to hear.

I keep reading on here of lots of success being had by Money Savers and I just wonder, has anyone actually had to go to trubunal, or have they had things sorted out prior to this? Has anyone actually had their appeal turned down by the tribunal? I can't help worrying!

Here's hoping for the luck some of the previous Money Savers have had!

christineperseus

:eek
I am tax band G - my neighbours are each E (I am one half of a pair of semis)
The Valuation Officer says ours is correct - I wonder when they will get the knock at the door!*!

Deeviking2006

I just wanted to thank the original poster of this info and Martin for keeping it in the weekly email.

After checking the VOA site and discovering that most of my neighbours were Band E whilst I was Band F, in a much smaller property I didn't think I could appeal on any of the grounds listed.

However, I followed all the advice in the previous thread and rang my local Valuations office. They suggested I write to them, explaining my reasons for challenging the banding. They replied within the week and sent me a very simple form to complete, which I returned with another letter and some supporting 'evidence' from the Nationwide house price page.

Less than 2 weeks later, (yesterday) I was in Tesco, doing my very 1st R&R (check out the Tesco misprice thread if you want to know what that's all about) when my phone rang and it was a very nice and terribly apologetic lady from the Valuation office. Apparently, my property has been incorrectly banded since 1991, and they are rebanding it immediately to a Band E. The re-valuation will be backdated to 1993, and I will be refunded for all the overpayments since I bought the house in 1994.

Now, I'm really not sure how much this will add up to, but the current difference between Band E and Band F is £300 per annum - so, work it out for yourselves - it will be a LOT of money.

Again, I really can't thank the original poster and all the contributors to this thread enough - I would never have checked or queried this if I hadn't seen the information posted here. Thank you, thank you, thank you !!

Oh .... and I got my washing powder tablets for FREE in Tesco, too )

**UPDATE**

Finally got a figure from the local council - the refund amounts to approx £2137 - thank you again everyone!!! )

AubreyA

[/B]

thegreybeard wrote:

Just be careful; if the Valuation Officer finds or believes that your band is too low, he can put it up!

The article does not deal with the problem of valuing property that did not exist in 1991 - very very few new properties were on the market in 1991 for comparable valuation. The Valuation Officer has no duty to justify his banding except on appeal to a Tribunal - at the Triubunal the burden of proof falls on the appellant. I am a Chartered Surveyor who researched very carefully the 1991 values and the Tribunal gave no reasons for rejecting my argument as they did. THERE NO APPEAL EXCEPT TO THE COURTS against perverse decisions by VT in domestic cases . Members of VT are laymen without professional training in Valuation. The VT is the only Tribunal in English Law where there is no appeal against judgements to a higher Tribunal .
My conclusion is that a large number of taxpayers living in property built after 1991 are being penalised by the unfair system

Maisie

Deeviking2006 wrote:

I just wanted to thank the original poster of this info and Martin for keeping it in the weekly email.

After checking the VOA site and discovering that most of my neighbours were Band E whilst I was Band F, in a much smaller property I didn't think I could appeal on any of the grounds listed.

However, I followed all the advice in the previous thread and rang my local Valuations office. They suggested I write to them, explaining my reasons for challenging the banding. They replied within the week and sent me a very simple form to complete, which I returned with another letter and some supporting 'evidence' from the Nationwide house price page.

Less than 2 weeks later, (yesterday) I was in Tesco, doing my very 1st R&R (check out the Tesco misprice thread if you want to know what that's all about) when my phone rang and it was a very nice and terribly apologetic lady from the Valuation office. Apparently, my property has been incorrectly banded since 1991, and they are rebanding it immediately to a Band E. The re-valuation will be backdated to 1993, and I will be refunded for all the overpayments since I bought the house in 1994.

Now, I'm really not sure how much this will add up to, but the current difference between Band E and Band F is £300 per annum - so, work it out for yourselves - it will be a LOT of money.

Again, I really can't thank the original poster and all the contributors to this thread enough - I would never have checked or queried this if I hadn't seen the information posted here. Thank you, thank you, thank you !!

Oh .... and I got my washing powder tablets for FREE in Tesco, too )

That's great news Deeviking.

Glad my original post helped you get this massive rebate.

Pass the word to check council tax banding at https://www.voa.gov.uk

Shows you can get rewards with a little bit of effort.

Well done!.


Maisie OP

Maisie

MunsterGirl wrote:

I phoned the VOA (in Northampton ) last month. Does anyone know how long it normally takes for them to say if the band will be changed or not ?

Thanks,

Munstergirl. I would give them a gentle reminder. Might get your case brought to the top of the pile.

Someone might not have started the ball rolling with your phone call.

Good luck.


maisie .. original poster.

MunsterGirl

Hi Maisie,

good news !! checked the VOA site today, and my house and the other neighbour have both been changed from F to E (3 houses exactly the same, mine and one other in F , the third one in E, which is why I followed your advice and phoned)

Just waiting to find out how much the refund will be.

So, many thanks for the original post.

M

Zebedeee

AubreyA wrote:

[/B]

thegreybeard wrote:

Just be careful; if the Valuation Officer finds or believes that your band is too low, he can put it up!

The article does not deal with the problem of valuing property that did not exist in 1991 - very very few new properties were on the market in 1991 for comparable valuation. The Valuation Officer has no duty to justify his banding except on appeal to a Tribunal - at the Triubunal the burden of proof falls on the appellant. I am a Chartered Surveyor who researched very carefully the 1991 values and the Tribunal gave no reasons for rejecting my argument as they did. THERE NO APPEAL EXCEPT TO THE COURTS against perverse decisions by VT in domestic cases . Members of VT are laymen without professional training in Valuation. The VT is the only Tribunal in English Law where there is no appeal against judgements to a higher Tribunal .
My conclusion is that a large number of taxpayers living in property built after 1991 are being penalised by the unfair system

This the situation we are in. Our house was built in 1994, so there are no 1991 values to go on. I would have thought that the fact that identical neighbouring houses are all a band lower would have been justification enough for a rebanding, but we have been rejected and sent to a tribunal. How can they justify that?

jamesiebabie

Zebedeee wrote:

AubreyA wrote:

[/B]

This the situation we are in. Our house was built in 1994, so there are no 1991 values to go on. I would have thought that the fact that identical neighbouring houses are all a band lower would have been justification enough for a rebanding, but we have been rejected and sent to a tribunal. How can they justify that?

I was in a similar situation. I bought a brand new property, where there was no previous equivalent type of house built, so I created my own false date of when there were several sales and noted the prices of all the houses on my estate and their relative bands. I then stood back and considered whether or not my was similar to some of the others. I had to make a decision as to which ones looked correct and then see if my was bordeline. I did and I sold the idea to the VOA and I won.

You can try the same. Agood start point though is to ask the VOA for your property details, such as the size of the property, the number of bedrooms and reception rooms. You can ask for this info. under the Freedom of Information Act, but you can only get your property.

Have you tried the Nationwide value calculator? How much did you pay for your property back in 1994 or have you bought it more recently?

If you PM me the details, I may be able to do some desk top research.