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

Mark-W_2

a small update on my case, its been over 21 days since my tribunal on the 21st june and i've yet to receive anything from the voa.
So i called the local office to ask if a decision had been made, and was told that because the decision was deferred the clerk had to write up a draft of my case and the final decision then send this to the board for confirmation.

Unfortunately they were unable to tell me of th verdict over the phone and i would have to wait for written confirmation to arrive.
Hopefully this will arrive some point next week, but with the state of the postal service it may get lost.

08689

bantams wrote: »

Just been informed on Friday after protracted discussion that we are being reduced from Band "F" to Band "E". As we have been in the house since 1992 this will mean a refund from 1993 to now. We are in Leeds so the difference between the bands in the year 2007 to 2008 alone is £260!!!

Some advice now:

Unless you fall within the strict criteria posted on VOA's website for appealing, it's a waste of time trying this route. You simply need to get in touch with your local Valuation Office and ask them to review your banding. You MUST have good grounds for a review & be able to back it up with documentary evidence, the best proof is to be able to accurately calculate the price of your house in 1991. There are various House Price Calculators' mentioned elsewhere in the thread, use these. If you moved in after 1993, you might still have contact details of the previous owner, ask them if they have any helpful information. They may be rewarded with a rebate themselves if you are successful!! Do you still have the original estate agent's blurb for the house when you bought it or your solicitor's letters which might mention the price paid.

MOST IMPORTANT is to STICK to the facts, the Valuation Officers are only interested in solid relevant evidence!

Even if you check your banding and find everyone else near you is the same, it doesn't necessarily mean it's correct. Check adjoining streets. The system used at the time was far from perfect. In some areas, they used young people straight out of college, without any experience, to calculate house price banding. Therefore, it's quite possible there are whole streets out there in UK PLC that are wrongly banded.

Finally, I hope this helps someone else & I send a BIG thanks to Martin for publicising this, I would have never even considered appealing simply because I didn't know the process even existed. Keep up the good work!!

Steve

Well done.

How long were your protracted discussions?

Apart from the calculator on martin's website how many more are there and could you tell me how to find them. As we know the VOA office dont attach much credit to them, but if i could get a few calculations, maybe that would help build my case further.

regards

vivatifosi

Mark-W,

Was wondering how you had got on, so good to hear from you, even if you still don't have an outcome! It sounds like your tribunal session was, er, interesting... good luck to both you and Zebedeee, lets hope its worth the wait for you both.

Dribble_2

grace21 wrote: »

Hi Vivatifosi,
Thanks for the information about LGO I'm sure I've read somwhere in this thread that in the VOA's manual it states that they have a duty of care/responsibility when rebanding a house to look at similar dwellings in the immediate area.
Three of my neighbours had had their house rebanded several years ago.There are 6 houses in a row all identical.
Do you think I should ask them to investigate both the council and the VOA?

Grace

Hi Grace21

Excuse my butting in on your question to Vivatifosi....... but for the benefit of yourself and others - YES,you should ask 'em !
If you refer to their rules on 'smaller (below 10) re-banding assesments you'll find they will possibly ignore a known "wrong" situation if it will pass the "live with" test. Check out the four rules at -

http://www.voa.gov.uk/instructions/chapters/council_tax/council_tax_man_s2/Frame.htm

Go to 'part 3 - Altering CT Lists' page, and down to items under section '3.2.4' - GENERAL ,then SCALE OF THE PROBLEM....

Go for it !

vivatifosi

Hi Dribble

Don't worry about butting in. I was answering how to respond to the LGO who is not responsible for the VOA (hence comments re Parliamentary Ombudsman), so any additional info on how to work directly with the VOA and within its own rules is very useful.

dadoronron

I recently challenged my Council Tax banding after going through the stages to check what it could be via the websites etc recommended by MSE. I worked out that I could be in Band C instead of the current D. Two other houses in my road are Band C and are identical to my house. The VOA have said that my current banding is correct. What can I do now?

bantams_2

08689 wrote: »

Well done.

How long were your protracted discussions?

Apart from the calculator on martin's website how many more are there and could you tell me how to find them. As we know the VOA office dont attach much credit to them, but if i could get a few calculations, maybe that would help build my case further.

regards

It took a couple of months from start to finish, I made the mistake of appealing via the VOA website initially, I should have read the blurb first.

I looked thru' this complete thread and found links to different calculators, one could even calculate house prices in 1991 by postcode. In the end, I quoted the Nationwide which the VOA doesn't dismiss out of hand.

Steve

Daisy_Bell

Mark-W wrote: »

a small update on my case, its been over 21 days since my tribunal on the 21st june and i've yet to receive anything from the voa.
So i called the local office to ask if a decision had been made, and was told that because the decision was deferred the clerk had to write up a draft of my case and the final decision then send this to the board for confirmation.

Unfortunately they were unable to tell me of th verdict over the phone and i would have to wait for written confirmation to arrive.
Hopefully this will arrive some point next week, but with the state of the postal service it may get lost.

It's been almost three weeks since my 'Invalidity' Tribunal too Mark. I knew I could not beat this because of my being 'Out of Time' with my appeal but I can't understand why it is taking them so long to tell me I've lost! They said it would be 14 - 17 days for me to get a reply from them!

diane456

We've today had a letter turning down our request to reband our house to band B. All of our neighbours are band B and we are the only ones who are band C. I've been told it's because I have an acre paddock with my house, but I though that plot size wasn't a factor. Also, this is agricultural land, not part of the domestic curtailment.

I need to put together an appeal and hope someone can offer some assistance. My house is identical to my neighbours and was a new build in 2000. We do have a double garage, whereas they have single garages but that is the only difference. In March 2000, our house sold for £54500, as did all my neighbours houses. We purchased it in March 2003 for £99950.

Any help?

Mark-W_2

Daisy Bell,

its so infuriating that it takes so long, but i suppose they are overworked at the moment. Fingers crossed it will have arrived today and its good news.


Diane456,

you need to show that the additional land and double garage would not add substantial value to your property.

You could try to find what an acre of land would have been worth on its own in 1991, according to the defra it was around £1,800.
http://statistics.defra.gov.uk/esg/publications/auk/2000/chapter7.pdf

Next you need to show that you property and your neighbours were at least £2,00 under the band C treshold in 1991, so look for very similar properties in the area that sold around 1991.