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

Maisie

carefulK wrote: »

:beer: Thank you Maisie for your reply.

I am quite good friends with the lady that lives in my old house so I will have a chat with her about rebanding my old property. I'm sure she's not going to object to my suggestions if she is going to save money.

Thanks again for your help. This site is great I feel I have been so naive for many years until I looked on here.

love from
CK x :T

carefulK. This is a friendly thread and someone will help you . Your question has been asked many times before and you need to get get plenty of evidence if you think the other house was incorrectly banded. Don't go on the calculators alone. Voa won't accept them.
Compare the banding to nearby identical houses and look in the library for archived newspaper records for house sales in 1991 or ask the builders for house prices then.
If you help this lady you could both benefit.

Have a look back on the posts though. Most of the answers are there.

Good luck. Maisie

saverram

Hi There,

I have moved to a block of apartments couple of months ago. The apartment are new built and we are renting at the moment. we live in a single bedroom flat, and the cT is band E. The market rate for the flat is around 145000. As we live in wales (in wales the property valuation was done in 2005). If i back date the property value for around 8-9% per year i get less than 123000 which will be in Band D. Can i appeal to the Council to reband the Council Tax.

How can i defend my self saying that the apatment is in Band D as per 2005 valuation. when i spoke over the phone they said as the apartment was not there in 2005 we cant value the propert. Could some one guide me in the correct direction.

And if they are any one in such situatuin what have you done.

thnaks in advance
Saverram

Maisie

saverram wrote: »

Hi There,

I have moved to a block of apartments couple of months ago. The apartment are new built and we are renting at the moment. we live in a single bedroom flat, and the cT is band E. The market rate for the flat is around 145000. As we live in wales (in wales the property valuation was done in 2005). If i back date the property value for around 8-9% per year i get less than 123000 which will be in Band D. Can i appeal to the Council to reband the Council Tax.

How can i defend my self saying that the apatment is in Band D as per 2005 valuation. when i spoke over the phone they said as the apartment was not there in 2005 we cant value the propert. Could some one guide me in the correct direction.

And if they are any one in such situatuin what have you done.

thnaks in advance
Saverram

Saverram are all the apartments on band E? You'll have to check on https://www.voa.gov.uk site to see what the others are before you can think of a review. I don't think you'll get a true valuation by backdating. You'll have to find a similar apartment that was there in 1991 and compare bandings/prices.

If they're newbuilt ask the builder if he sold/built any others in 1991 and check yours against it.

Band E does sound high for a one bed flat but I don't know how the Welsh banding works.

Also if you're going to ask for a review by voa you should do it within 6 months of moving into the new property as they'll reject it after that time and it will be a long long process.

good luck. Maisie

guppy

Hello Saverram,

The fact the flat didn't exist in 2003 doesn't make too much difference. Its a lot easier than valuing it at 1991!

The easiest option would be to find out the prices the flats were selling for when they were originally banded and then use the Nationwide House Price Index www.nationwide.co.uk/hpi or Land Registry Index http://www.landreg.gov.uk/houseprices/ to adjust it to 2003.

Sales prices are available on www.nethouseprices.com

Indexing isn't that reliable, but its not too bad over a couple of years. The more clear cut the results the better.

A better way, which the VOA (and any other valuer will use) is to look for similar flats where you live, maybe using Rightmove, and then find out what they were selling for at 2003. Obviously to be comparable these will have to be quite new too at 2003. Using a 1960s towerblock probably won't wash with the VOA.

As others have said (can't remember which post) there may be scope to reduce prices where developers have offered incentives that aren't part of the property, e.g. "free" carpets, stamp duty paid, cashback etc. etc. Proving the existence of those deals might be hard though.

Good luck.

pipw

Hi All

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Having requested a revaluation and adjustment some 4 months ago i have today recieved a letter indicating that the valuation and banding are correct and i have no right to appeal against the decision!!

The VOA have said that the valuation of my house in 1991 is within the Band D range but my calculations using the Nationwide site clearly indicate that my house value in 1991 would have been in the middle of the Band C price range. There are also similar sized properties on the estate in Band C. (Not the same street)

Note: the house was actually built around 1998 and so it is an estimated value as it did not exist but i have followed the procedures on this site and come up with what i believe is a justified case.

Is the statement on my letter about not having the right to appeal correct or not?

Thanks in advance of any help!!

Pip

tangerine39

Well just joined this forum, wether I have grounds for a claim, what if your neighbour has a bigger house than you ie, extra bedrooms , garage etc and they are in the same banding, any thoughts anyone ?

saverram

guppy wrote: »

Hello Saverram,

The fact the flat didn't exist in 2003 doesn't make too much difference. Its a lot easier than valuing it at 1991!

The easiest option would be to find out the prices the flats were selling for when they were originally banded and then use the Nationwide House Price Index www.nationwide.co.uk/hpi or Land Registry Index http://www.landreg.gov.uk/houseprices/ to adjust it to 2003.

Sales prices are available on www.nethouseprices.com

Indexing isn't that reliable, but its not too bad over a couple of years. The more clear cut the results the better.

A better way, which the VOA (and any other valuer will use) is to look for similar flats where you live, maybe using Rightmove, and then find out what they were selling for at 2003. Obviously to be comparable these will have to be quite new too at 2003. Using a 1960s towerblock probably won't wash with the VOA.

As others have said (can't remember which post) there may be scope to reduce prices where developers have offered incentives that aren't part of the property, e.g. "free" carpets, stamp duty paid, cashback etc. etc. Proving the existence of those deals might be hard though.

Good luck.

Thansk for your reply. Are the council banding as pe April 2003 or April 2005??? All the similar flats in the apartment looks like to be in same band as mine. As we are renting the property we dont have the above said incentives.

guppy

saverram wrote: »

Thansk for your reply. Are the council banding as pe April 2003 or April 2005??? All the similar flats in the apartment looks like to be in same band as mine. As we are renting the property we dont have the above said incentives.

In Wales the property is banded based on its value at April 2003, so you need to look at prices of flats at that date. Sometimes developers include incentives to purchasers, such as carpets, or "stamp duty paid". This can artificially inflate the price you see on the internet...I'm probably overcomplicating things though!

The physical features of the property and the area surrounding is considered as it was at April 2005...or when the property was built if that was later.

Good luck

suecoo1966

Any advice I'd be very grateful, I've followed Martin's advice and used Nationwides House Price Calculator which calculates my 3 bed end of terrace built in 2000 from 176995 in Q1 2007 to £56185 in Q1 1991.It sold originally in Q4 2000 for £104,995. I've also used a HBOSplc calculator which calculates the value at around sixty thousand in 1991. My house is currently in Band D and I've argued that it should be in Band C. Every point I've made to the VOA they've argued that its invalid. When I've made comparison's to properties that are in my local area of similar type that existed in 1991 he argued that as my house is a reasonably new build it increases its value because its made from materials that save money of energy etc. I thought banding was calculated on value alone?
I even compared it to my previous property (2 minute drive away) that was a 3 bed semi, in Band B revalued to band C when i moved due to improvements. Its now a 3 bed with an annexe with ensuite and still only a band C!
I've even made a comparison to a 3 bed linked detached property on my estate built 1999 thats Band D too and last sold for £200,000 in 2004 arguing that this property is correctly banded but mine isn't.
I'm also living in a designated deprived area,surely that effects value?
The VOA told me that I couldn't use property not in the same location even though the list of property they sent me to show house price trends in my area included a house round the corner to my previous property.
I've included a floor plan in my evidence to produce any other advice would be greatly appreciated!!

suecoo1966

:mad: forgot to mention that the VOA also argued that the Nationwide house price calculator was not reliable evidence!