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

Maisie

Mandy Meant to say also there isn't a template as such but i think further back on thread someone has written a letter out that may help. You could just appeal through https://www.voa.gov.uk website where it says appeal and start the ball rolling but as I say you're going to need a lot of information and supporting evidence about your house and it''s banding.

Good luck. Maisie

guppy

Definitely browse back through this thread if you are thinking of challenging your banding! There have been loads of excellent posts providing advice for almost every situation, plus plenty of info about other people's experiences too. Practically everything you could need to know is on here.

Anyone hear Martin on Radio 1 today talking about council tax and bank charges? I missed it

chocogirl

Have tried to do a search, but nothing seems to be coming up.

I have looked on voa website, and all the houses are a B band like mine is, most of the houses are council houses, some have been brought from the council.

When we brought our house in 1999 privately we only paid £42K and when i checked the prices for 1991, our house was £34K, and Band A is for house under £40K.

So how can all our houses be Band B if in 1991 they are under £40k meaning Band A so im confused, please can someone help

fireuptheband

Hi,

I'm guessing you received a discount for being a council tenant and therefore paid less than the prices in the bands.

These house prices were averages and went off their value - not what people paid for them.

Hope that makes sense.

cattie

I've just emailed my local office, using the few words asking that banding be corrected, as recommended by Martin in his article.

However, I'm wondering is emailing good enough, or should I write a proper letter & send it?

Zebedeee

cattie wrote: »

I've just emailed my local office, using the few words asking that banding be corrected, as recommended by Martin in his article.

However, I'm wondering is emailing good enough, or should I write a proper letter & send it?

Hi cattie, just emailing seems to work for some folk so you could give it a week or two and if you haven't heard anything give them a phone call, just to chase it up. You may end up writing dozens of letters and submitting loads of evidence, but you never know, you may be one of the ones who gets an easy ride!

Zebedee

chocogirl

fireuptheband wrote: »

Hi,

I'm guessing you received a discount for being a council tenant and therefore paid less than the prices in the bands.

These house prices were averages and went off their value - not what people paid for them.

Hope that makes sense.

Sorry if i didnt make my post clear but no we wasnt council tenants, we brought the house from an estate agent and that was the price we paid. So that was the value of the house on the market back in 1999 £42K. And went i looked at what houses are going for now and worked it back to the 1991 price it works out £34K which is Band A.

Zebedeee

chocogirl wrote: »

Sorry if i didnt make my post clear but no we wasnt council tenants, we brought the house from an estate agent and that was the price we paid. So that was the value of the house on the market back in 1999 £42K. And went i looked at what houses are going for now and worked it back to the 1991 price it works out £34K which is Band A.

Hi chocogirl,

Sadly, the house price calculators hold no water with the VOA. You need to find actual house price sales for 1991. You can do this by going to your local newspaper's property pages archives, often to be found at a local library on microfiche. Sounds like hard work? It is, but its the only way. There was a house-price slump in the mid-90's and its hard to extrapolate where yours would have been in 1991, so you are going to have to find some hard evidence.

Hope that helps!

Zebedee

chocogirl

Thanks Zebedee, will look into it.

Maisie

guppy wrote: »

Definitely browse back through this thread if you are thinking of challenging your banding! There have been loads of excellent posts providing advice for almost every situation, plus plenty of info about other people's experiences too. Practically everything you could need to know is on here.

Anyone hear Martin on Radio 1 today talking about council tax and bank charges? I missed it

What was Martin saying about council tax today? I missed it too.