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

Dribble_2

jbman wrote: »

Hope someone can help a newbie to chat forums and the council tax cashback article by Martin.
I have followed what he suggested (he makes it sound so very easy), found a property like mine that sold recently, used that valuation in Nationwide House Price Calculator and received a valuation of £43896 in Q2 of 1991.
This should place me in band B and yet I have been in band C since 1993.
I have lived in this property since it was built in 1971.

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Hi Jimmy
It's never THAT simple. They're not dishing out candy.(Well, maybe for some) Go back through the posts and you'll find all the answers you need for your relatively 'easy' problem.
It get's tougher if you have to convince 'em your house is in the right banding if it was built AFTER 1991. Their logic can be a wonder to behold.

Maisie

jbman wrote: »

Hope someone can help a newbie to chat forums and the council tax cashback article by Martin.
I have followed what he suggested (he makes it sound so very easy), found a property like mine that sold recently, used that valuation in Nationwide House Price Calculator and received a valuation of £43896 in Q2 of 1991.
This should place me in band B and yet I have been in band C since 1993.
I have lived in this property since it was built in 1971.
I challenged the Valuation Officer, firstly was told "Invalid" - "out of time", I then appealed and was told it would go to the Independent Valuation Tribunals Service.
Since then a person from the Valuation Office came and took a Photo of the outside of my property and the most recent letter from them informs me they do not agree that a different valuation band should apply and that they are satisfied the valuation of my property reflects April 1991 level of value which places my property within the range £52,000 to £68,000 and the current band of C is correct. They have told me they do not intend to alter the Valuation list entry
Apart from the Nationwide House Price Calculator how can I prove the value of my property in 1991.
Regards
Jimmy

Hi Jimmy.
Yes you will have to read this thread there's information suited to your questions.
For a start see post #1058 . Chartered surveyors are one source of information for 1991 prices. Also archived library newspapers( estate agents pages) for sales. Also talk to your neighbours especially anyone having info for around 1991. ' projectanalyser' is another source.
Don't go on the Nationwide calculator alone voa won't accept that.

Don't forget also if you are in Scotland or Wales the council tax system is different to the English one.

You'll probably have a long slog with voa like some of us are and it's been going for months in my case.

There's lots of excellent information on this thread (especially from jamesiebabie/zebedee/guppy) and you can probably find something to help you amongst the posts.

Anyone just starting on the rebanding process should read this thread. It gives a good background and then afraid you'll have to do your homework and prepare for a battle with VOA.

Good Luck.

maisie

Boonbetty

As a point of interest, does anyone know if VOA is accepting Projectanalyser as evidence? They are definitely not accepting the Nationwide calculator but in my own case both the Nationwide calculator and Projectanalyser put me in a lower Band.

Maisie

Boonbetty wrote: »

As a point of interest, does anyone know if VOA is accepting Projectanalyser as evidence? They are definitely not accepting the Nationwide calculator but in my own case both the Nationwide calculator and Projectanalyser put me in a lower Band.

Voa probably won't take projectanalyser either! They have their own set of sales figures/prices and stick to them but won't let the applicant know of them.

It's all very frustrating and I thought the FOI would allow this info to be seen by the public. Seems not.

You could try them BoonBetty. Might be lucky!

Seems to be projectanalyser/nationwide calculator/archived library sales/ Land registry /talk to neighbours/valuation reports for close to 1991/ and chartered surveyors as mentioned on this page for information. All that combined with any other evidence might make voa listen?????

riccis

Hi,

Can anyone confirm if home improvements (i.e. redecorating, new kitchen, new bath suite ect) has a bearing on the value of the property in relation to the band. I bought my property back at the end of 2001 and a couple of months ago had pretty much all the rooms improved/redecorated etc.

I have now written to the VOA asking for a reassessement but am worried that if they come and inspect it will think it's worth more (although it still shouldn't go up a band. My understanding of the VOA's website is that the valuation officer should assume a certain level as regards the state of "repair" and not necessarily the how nice the kitchen is or bathrooms are etc.

Can anyone clarify the situation as regards this?

Thanks.

Maisie

riccis wrote: »

Hi,

Can anyone confirm if home improvements (i.e. redecorating, new kitchen, new bath suite ect) has a bearing on the value of the property in relation to the band. I bought my property back at the end of 2001 and a couple of months ago had pretty much all the rooms improved/redecorated etc.

I have now written to the VOA asking for a reassessement but am worried that if they come and inspect it will think it's worth more (although it still shouldn't go up a band. My understanding of the VOA's website is that the valuation officer should assume a certain level as regards the state of "repair" and not necessarily the how nice the kitchen is or bathrooms are etc.

Can anyone clarify the situation as regards this?

hanks.

riccis. They don't usually take into account any work you have done like that while you live there.

Is your band higher than others in road?

riccis

Maisie wrote: »

riccis. They don't usually take into account any work you have done like that while you live there.

Is your band higher than others in road?

Maisie, thanks for the reply.

I am one of six apartments in a block. All the other apartments with the exception of the one opposite me are in a lower band and I note that from the VOA website, one of the flats above appears to have successfully, at some stage, appealed or had a review that has brought it's band down a group. Other than the fact that because I am on the ground floor and hence have direct access to the communal garden at the back, all the flats are pretty much the same (3 bed, 2 bath etc).

Following the steps in Martin's article, the Nationwide HPI appears to confirm that my flat should indeed be in a lower group (although I would be at the very high end of tha group). If the other flats in the same block and which are virtually the same as mine (save for the home improvements recently carried out) are in a lower group than mine then I can't think of any justifiation as to why mine should be in higher group.

Thanks again.

Stevie59

My first ever posting - so congratulations to me! I read on the website that if you are renovating an empty property you can get 50% reduction on council tax for an unlimited period. I am indeed renovating a property, but my council will not give me a discount as they claim that exemption was for 12 months only - which was given to the previous owner. I have looked on ODPM website but cannot find any reference to the 50% reduction. Does anyone know where I can find this regulation so that I can go back to my council and get my reduction?
Thank you!

Maisie

riccis wrote: »

Maisie, thanks for the reply.

I am one of six apartments in a block. All the other apartments with the exception of the one opposite me are in a lower band and I note that from the VOA website, one of the flats above appears to have successfully, at some stage, appealed or had a review that has brought it's band down a group. Other than the fact that because I am on the ground floor and hence have direct access to the communal garden at the back, all the flats are pretty much the same (3 bed, 2 bath etc).

Following the steps in Martin's article, the Nationwide HPI appears to confirm that my flat should indeed be in a lower group (although I would be at the very high end of tha group). If the other flats in the same block and which are virtually the same as mine (save for the home improvements recently carried out) are in a lower group than mine then I can't think of any justifiation as to why mine should be in higher group.

Thanks again.

riccis. If you look at page 21 post#802-804 of this thread it confirms what I originally said about your alterations.
The council tax banding was based on the property as of 1991.

Good luck.

Maisie

marc_ely

Hi

I've been trying to reduce my council tax band and so far it's now worked. I thought I'd see if people think that I have reached the end of the road with this one. Apologies for the rather long post.

I moved into my house about 4 years ago. All the houses in the street are individual, or in pairs, we are in East Cambridgeshire.
The house is band-F which I always thought rather high, so when I discovered that you can get it re-valued I thought I'd look into it.

I found the historical price for the house when council tax was introduced was more like £110k, in band-E. I backtracked from the price I paid 4 years ago, and current valuations now (we're just going on the market again). Both gave me £110k more or less.
So then I checked the street. I was astonished to find BIGGER houses than mine just a few doors away in band-E. Not just one or two either, an entire close round the corner are all band-E.

So I presented all the info to the VOA, including annotated satellite images of the houses etc About 7 pages of info in all.

The reply came back looking like it had been typed by a robot, telling me that band-F was very fair and that the other houses were according to their "records" smaller than mine.

So I called them to discuss this, and they sent out an accessor. She measured my house and I then showed her the others. She agreed that it was "very fishy" indeed that they were banded lower, whilst being obviously larger. She even took a photo of one of the other houses.

So two weeks later I receive another letter telling me that my house is the size they thought it was, and again, her records show that the other houses were according to their "records" smaller than mine. They tried to skirt the issue by trying to tell me that the houses must have been extended. This is plainly rubbish since two of the large band-E's are identical properties.
She also maintains that the property was in band-F in terms of price, quoting that a "smaller property" in the street sold for £121k around the time council tax was introduced.

Their "records" are obviously wrong on some of these properties. There is no shadow of doubt that there are larger houses in lower bands just a couple of doors away.

But if I've gone this far does anyone think it's worth going further?
The next step would be to surreptitiously measure the other houses and submit this new evidence. But they appear to have made their decision and as far as I can see there is no further appeal route. Is this correct?

Regards
Marc