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

Maisie

Dribble. I emailed several local chartered surveyors last night asking for information on 1991 house prices. Two have replied and say they cannot help and to contact an estate agent or valuer!

Will email all the local estate agents next.

What a task this is proving to be but I won't give up.

Maisie

Maisie

Dribble wrote: »

Hi Guppy

I THINK we agree then.... Hit 'em with ALL the evidence possible. But with ADVERTISEMENTS the figures aren't actual SALES. (UNLIKELY isn't a word they take much notice of.)....and although they will give you THEIR figures,they won't give you ones to oppose their assessment without a battle.
The surveyors/estate agents/solicitors/builders/neighbour's deeds etc can be the real strength of your case.

When I proved my PRICE argument they hit me with a larger SIZE argument which proved to be ludicrous....and questionable in their rules for assessing 1991 values. (I even managed to obtain my old house plans with accurate floor area information from a developer)

The way I see it is - in many cases,they MUST try their best to defend their wrong decisions as there could be repercussions. Changing MY band could have a domino effect on a whole street with big pay-outs likely.(Somebody ain't going to be popular)

It appears some people have an easy time going through the process which suggests to me there ARE fleshy,air-breathing HUMANS in those VOA offices.They must see the OBVIOUS when it is presented to 'em and act accordingly. Unfortunately,on this board we hear of the borderline and problem cases which need a bigger push.

Thankfully,folk like Maisie dedicate a lot of their time to helping out and offering encouragement.

Dribble you're right about changing a band and having a domino effect on the whole street. The situation is exactly the same here.
I've found about 15 lower banded houses (exactly the same houses as about a hundred others ) and I think that's why voa are giving me a hard time over rebanding. My identical neighbour is in a lower band!

Just to add a note of irony the council tax statements for 2007/8 have not arrived in this area. Apparently lost in post.
Council still taking DD from bank account although I have told them I believe they are breaching banking rules by not advising customers of amount due.

Thought at first we hadn't received statement as they were changing our band! We should be so lucky!!

Maisie

Dribble_2

Maisie wrote: »

Dribble. I emailed several local chartered surveyors last night asking for information on 1991 house prices. Two have replied and say they cannot help and to contact an estate agent or valuer!

Will email all the local estate agents next.

What a task this is proving to be but I won't give up.

Maisie

No,No,Maisie - this ain't the way it's done ! E-mails are a pain-in-the-neck....like SPAM if they're not to do with people's personal interests and businesses. These busy people don't HAVE to help us and you have to use a bit of psychology if you expect to steal their time. I prefer the face-to-face approach....with a big smile. (Even got a coffee from a solicitor's secretary once)

Maybe,if I'm wearing my CYNICAL hat,they are thinking of IMAGE and FUTURE BUSINESS....but I prefer to put it down to good old friendly human nature. Anyhow - I've had 'em grubbing about in dusty cellars and pokey lofts etc.Wonderful !

As for your neighbours benefitting from your hard work - I sympathise....same here.That's just the way it goes. I'm not sure roping them in for a mass assault will bring out the best in VOA staff reactions.
My local VOA office do NOT appear to automatically lower bands in the area following a decision.....so I'm not personally going to escalate their workload at the moment for purely selfish reasons.

May the force be with you ! (If it's still around)

Dribble

john1984

I'm new to this thread. Found out 3 weeks ago that my semi -detached neighbour, and 2 other houses in our row are in band D but I am in E. I bought my house in August 1991 for £90,500 to include carpets. Thanks to one of the contributors in this thread I was referred to the Council Tax Regulations which said that "the effect of any fittings is to be ignored". I'm not sure how to take this. Does it mean that they have a value to be deducted from the sale price? If so, this could help a lot of people on the borders of a band.
By the way my whole estate has errors. Told a friend of mine about the fact that her neighbourwas a D band and she was E. She now has a cheque for nearly£2000! There are 16 other houses that could do the same!

darderfallas

Just a question on this - if you are rebanded following a reassessment, does this mean that you can claim money back for water/sewerage rates for the same period? This is also based on the banding. If anyone knows, please post a reply

jamesiebabie

darderfallas wrote: »

Just a question on this - if you are rebanded following a reassessment, does this mean that you can claim money back for water/sewerage rates for the same period? This is also based on the banding. If anyone knows, please post a reply

Yes you are right and here's a little bit of proof. It may be worth looking deper into the attched thread to get more detail.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=346119&page=10
Post 168 I think.
I hope this helps.

J

jamesiebabie

john1984 wrote: »

I'm new to this thread. Found out 3 weeks ago that my semi -detached neighbour, and 2 other houses in our row are in band D but I am in E. I bought my house in August 1991 for £90,500 to include carpets. Thanks to one of the contributors in this thread I was referred to the Council Tax Regulations which said that "the effect of any fittings is to be ignored". I'm not sure how to take this. Does it mean that they have a value to be deducted from the sale price? If so, this could help a lot of people on the borders of a band.
By the way my whole estate has errors. Told a friend of mine about the fact that her neighbourwas a D band and she was E. She now has a cheque for nearly£2000! There are 16 other houses that could do the same!

John1984,

In some cases this may help, but in very limited areas and it would be up to you to prove the case. The VOA have to 'standardise' everything; this means that if you have a basic street with identical houses, you would expect all of them to sell at the same price if they were for sold on the same day, however, if you had the most fantastc kitchen installed and it increased the sale price by 10% and subsequently put that property in a higher band, then you could argue for a lower band as this was exceptional and not the norm, but as you can imagine, this is extremely difficult for anyone to prove, unless it is blatently obvious.

It may be of use to some, but I think God would have to be on their side in a big way.

J

guppy

Maisie wrote: »

Dribble you're right about changing a band and having a domino effect on the whole street. The situation is exactly the same here.
I've found about 15 lower banded houses (exactly the same houses as about a hundred others ) and I think that's why voa are giving me a hard time over rebanding. My identical neighbour is in a lower band!

Think you're right Maisie, not sure this is of much practical help but the following from the VOA council tax manual on their website does explain a few things about VOA policy:

"Identification of a problem:

Usually this comes from dealing with proposals or from correspondence from taxpayers where apparently different value dwellings are in the same band or where ostensibly similar value dwellings have different bandings applied to them."

"The general policy expectation is that there should not be “mini revaluations”, and any such review would only be undertaken where the circumstances indicate that the stability of the list in a wider locality than the immediate estate is at risk. Just as when considering the banding of a single dwelling, changes should not be contemplated without a thorough and full investigation of all the evidence and circumstances that might lead to a more widespread review of bandings in a neighbourhood."

"Altering Bands"

http://www.voa.gov.uk/instructions/chapters/council_tax/council_tax_man_s2/d-ct-man-s2-pt3.htm#P114_3854

Also:

"Aide Memoir for Listing Officers considering mass band reviews"

http://www.voa.gov.uk/instructions/chapters/council_tax/council_tax_man_s2/zo-ct-man-s2-app2.34.htm

square-eyes

Band E, still band E
Redhill and Reigate B.C.
Amount got back = Nil

Well folks, it didn't work for me. Boo-Hoo! I scanned the success board and there was not a single mention of Redhill or Reigate so perhaps the Valuations office there do not admit that they made an incorrect decision ever.
I had a two page explanation addressing all the points about comparables that I mentioned. They just say that the valuation is correct according to other similar sales in the area in April 1991. I have walked the road with the list of bandings and found loads of inconsistent (to me) valuations.
I don't know whether to just give up and go on holiday. I don't think I can get the valuations officer to change his mind as people don't once they have made a decision.

Penguinloz

darderfallas wrote: »

Just a question on this - if you are rebanded following a reassessment, does this mean that you can claim money back for water/sewerage rates for the same period? This is also based on the banding. If anyone knows, please post a reply

Water rates are actually based on the rateable value of a property which was the system before council tax,and i believe but i may be wrong the only way to alter your water bills is to get a water meter fitted.