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

Confuzzed

hi im just starting to look in to if im in the wrong banding, im on band D at the moment, but as ive been doing some reseach it turn's out the propery was listed as a band A back in 91 or 93, how has my banding changed over the yrs ?? any ideas ?

any advice will be great as im completely clueless as to how to claim, why it changed, how to change it !

Thanks in advance

Daisy_Bell

Would advise reading all the threads Tangerine. I'm in the same boat myself. Most of the houses in our road are four bedroom, two garage, through halls, large gardens, etc. whereas the remaining ones like mine, are three beds, one garage, no through hall (lobby) small gardens etc., yet all are in Band 'D'. I have been in contact with the VOA since February; I've been to the 'Invalidality' tribunal because of the 'Six Months' ruling and am currently awaiting the outcome. I know I will have lost because these tribunals have no choice but to find in favour of the VOA in this situation. However, as the VOA have a duty to maintain accurate Council Tax records, they say they will 'Look Into' the banding on my house. However, as finding in my favour would mean altering the bands of all the other three bed homes in this area, I do not hold out much hope. My only comfort is that I have added my 'Four Pennerth' to the debate on this whole 'Hit or Miss' ridiculous and grossly unfair method of local taxation! After reading all the Posts, you'll have to make up yoour own mind whether it's worth pursuing your claim. Good luck!

Maisie

tangerine39 wrote: »

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 ?

tangerine39. A lot of my neighbours have much bigger houses . 4 bed with garages and same band as our small one.. Voa say they are correct. Some other bigger houses are band C and we're band D.
How that can be right heaven knows?. However after 6/7 months I still haven't been able to convince the voa we're in the wrong band.

You'll have to find plenty of evidence to support your appeal if you're making one and a good start is by reading some of the posts on here. The regular posters seem to have covered most situations (although there's always some new query popping up) and there's much good information if you read back.

HTH Maisie

Maisie

Confuzzed wrote: »

hi im just starting to look in to if im in the wrong banding, im on band D at the moment, but as ive been doing some reseach it turn's out the propery was listed as a band A back in 91 or 93, how has my banding changed over the yrs ?? any ideas ?

any advice will be great as im completely clueless as to how to claim, why it changed, how to change it !

Thanks in advance

Confuzzed Has the property been extended or material improvements made since 1991/93? If so that's probably why the band has changed.
Have you lived there since 1991/93? Usually the band is only changed when the house is sold after being extended.
Also check the neighbour's banding. Has yours been changed to bring it into line with other similar houses? That can happen too.

You'll have to do some more research and post the info on here and someone will help you.

Good luck. Maisie

Confuzzed

massie....

thanks for your reply no improvements/extensions can be made to the property as it's a ground floor flat, no ive only been living here since 2000.

whats the best way i can go about getting the information to chanellenge the branding, as it's a tiny 2bed flat and have no idea why it would be on band D.

can you challenge the branding on a council owned property ??

Maisie

Confuzzed wrote: »

massie....

thanks for your reply no improvements/extensions can be made to the property as it's a ground floor flat, no ive only been living here since 2000.

whats the best way i can go about getting the information to chanellenge the branding, as it's a tiny 2bed flat and have no idea why it would be on band D.

can you challenge the branding on a council owned property ??

Confuzzed.
You can challenge the banding if you're paying the council tax. Whether it's council owned or other.
Are the other flats the same ie band D? Look on the https://www.voa.gov.uk site and check them.
Have you looked at the history of the flat on the voa site. It will tell you when it was rebanded etc. Did something happen to your flat then? Did the flat acquire a garden or something like that?
Was the banding on the other flats changed then?

You'll have to find out a bit more about it before you can ask for a review.
Main thing is have all the other flats been put on D?. If they have and if you're friendly with a neighbour who's been there a while ask them if they know why.
You could phone the voa or write to them and ask why. The address for your voa will be on their site.

Post again if you're still unsure what to do.

HTH Maisie

Camdenite

Hi all, I've got a question regarding garages and parking to the rear of our rented property.

Our property is currently banded as F for a 3 bedroomed (four residents, but a living room has always been used as a bedroom) maisonette. All indications seem to show that we are incorrectly banded as the property would have to currently be in the region of £650K to qualify under the £160K threshold of 1991. I believe it to be currently worth £525,000 approx..

It has proved impossible to compare with any neighbours on recent sales due to the unique nature of our property. It is a raised maisonette between two victorian terraces with a driveway underneath leading to the garages/car-parking.

Would this parking be assumed to be ours even though we do not lease any of the garages from the landlord and share access to the hard-standing area communally with neighbours at one of the two adjoining Victorian terraces.

This is the only consideration that is stopping me asking for an assesment and so any input would be greatfully received.

rchrisp

martins article on this has just caught my eye, however i dont have time to read through 79 pages!

just a quick question really. how does this work if you live in a flat? my flat is the same band as the semi's on the rest of the street, seemingly because its a semi converted into two flats, yet both flats have to pay the full amount of council tax.

is there anything i can do about this?

guppy

Regarding the above two posts, the council tax is based solely on the market value of the property. Anything affecting the amount somone might have been prepared to pay (at 1991) should be taken in to account e.g. the parking situation.

If a flat there is worth significantly less than a house, it should be in a lower band. More basic info is at www.voa.gov.uk If you're short of time, best thing to do is just phone up and ask for your band to be checked. If you disagree with the outcome you might need to do some more research and try again.

Good luck.

busiscoming2

Hi I have a date for tribunal on 7th August, Two of my neighbours (same house type) have both been told they are not being rebanded (we are in the same band), they didnt get sent to tribunal, but I have this tribunal coming up and cannot see how they would then re band my property alone. Can anyone shed any light on this for me as im rather confused!