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

guppy

Hi Face,

First of all I'd wait for their letter and see what it says, you can then attack any of their arguments that doesn't make sense.

Generally if its just one house that is different in a street then this won't be enough to persuade the VOA to reduce your's, unless they can clearly see your house was valued below the relevant amount at 1991. If reducing your house means they will have to reduce the whole street, you will need rock solid evidence that your house is overvalued. They may say that the Band B house was reduced in error.

Have you tried the house price calculator yet to see what figure it comes up with for 1991? The VOA won't accept this alone but it might give you a rough idea how wrong or right your band is.

Good luck and if you need more help there is plenty here both in the old posts and from other people that have been through the process. I think Zebedeee is still about and probably others

trops

As there are alot of posts, I have tried to skim through them to find an answer to my problem.

I have a tribunal hearing in September regarding my Parents tax band.

Basically I believe they should be an 'A' band, because they paid £16,950.00 in 1984, but according to the calculator in 1991 it still wouldn't have been near the £40,000 threshold.
I have sent lots of information to the VOA giving all of my reasons as to why I think it should be band A and not band B.
To date they have written a letter and stated that he gave the reason that my claim wasn't valid because it was out of the time limit (6 month I presume), he also asked me to carefully consider withdrawing my application to the tribunal.

So, my query is this....I have exhausted all of my reasons for the claim being valid, what more can I say to them? Is there a way of getting around the 'time limit' as they call it?
Any advice would be greatly received.
Thanks in advance

frivolous_fay

Hello,

Moved into my new house this month and I've been looking at streamlining our outgoings to compensate for the new mortgage!

Have attempted to find the value of my property in 1991, however, I get this result on the nationwide site:

House Price Calculator

To find out how the value of your property has changed please use the calculator below (this is updated shortly after the end of each quarter - March, June, September and December): Please note that the Nationwide House Price Calculator is intended to illustrate general movement in prices only. The calculator is based on the Nationwide House Price Index. Results are based on movements in prices in the regions of the UK rather than in specific towns and cities. The data is based on movements in the price of a typical property in the region, and cannot take account of differences in quality of fittings, decoration etc. For an accurate valuation of your property we would always recommend you consult a local estate agent or surveyor.
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Sorry, we are unable to run a query for the date you requested.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Please try selecting a different date.[/FONT]

Any ideas? The surveyor thought the house was built in the 80s, so surely that's not the problem? Where do I go from here?

nimjacole

I wonder if anyone can help. I have just used the online calculations to determine whether our property has been placed in the wrong band. However, when I check what the other properties were placed it I noticed that our neighbour, unfortunately all the houses down our road have been placed in different bands and its difficult to determine whether ours is correct as there is nothing to go by. However, what I did notice is that the house next to us is listed as a "mais" and have been placed in band C (this being a 5 bedroom with adjoining annex!! I hasten to add). I ran a check on the proeprty but all is says that this is a "mais" property which it clearly isnt. My house is a 3 bed house considerable smaller being placed in band D! and was priced less than theirs in 1991. What can I do? I have checked and note that our property is actually in the right band but clearly something is wrong.

someotherdude

Hi,

My Council Tax was re-banded from C to B early in 2006 (before I'd discovered MSE!) and I recall receiving a letter from the council revising my payments down. I thought it a bit odd at the time as I didn't ask for it to be re-banded but I didn't query it as all I could see was my payments going down!

My query is whether I can re-claim overpayments made from the date of occupation (middle 2004) to the time it was re-banded and, if so,who is best to contact do you think - VOA or the council?

Much obliged for any thoughts or comments

Maisie

someotherdude wrote: »

Hi,

My Council Tax was re-banded from C to B early in 2006 (before I'd discovered MSE!) and I recall receiving a letter from the council revising my payments down. I thought it a bit odd at the time as I didn't ask for it to be re-banded but I didn't query it as all I could see was my payments going down!

My query is whether I can re-claim overpayments made from the date of occupation (middle 2004) to the time it was re-banded and, if so,who is best to contact do you think - VOA or the council?

Much obliged for any thoughts or comments

Hi

As the council take the payments you apply to them for the back years.
Some posters find the council pay up without a problem. Others have great difficulty in getting the back payments as you will see if you look at some of the earlier posts.

You must have been one of the fortunate people where someone in the street/area has applied for a council tax rebanding and yours was lowered accordingly.

If you look at https://www.voa.gov.uk you might be able to find out who applied.

HTH. Maisie

Maisie

frivolous_fay wrote: »

Hello,

Moved into my new house this month and I've been looking at streamlining our outgoings to compensate for the new mortgage!

Have attempted to find the value of my property in 1991, however, I get this result on the nationwide site:

House Price Calculator

To find out how the value of your property has changed please use the calculator below (this is updated shortly after the end of each quarter - March, June, September and December): Please note that the Nationwide House Price Calculator is intended to illustrate general movement in prices only. The calculator is based on the Nationwide House Price Index. Results are based on movements in prices in the regions of the UK rather than in specific towns and cities. The data is based on movements in the price of a typical property in the region, and cannot take account of differences in quality of fittings, decoration etc. For an accurate valuation of your property we would always recommend you consult a local estate agent or surveyor.
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Sorry, we are unable to run a query for the date you requested.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Please try selecting a different date.[/FONT]

Any ideas? The surveyor thought the house was built in the 80s, so surely that's not the problem? Where do I go from here?

Frivolous Fay. I haven't looked at the calculator site this morning but perhaps it was having problems. Try again.

Generally we have all been getting a rough idea of prices from there but it is not accurate enough for voa and you will have to find out what other similar houses are banded at if you're going to proceed.

Look at https://www.voa.gov.uk and that will tell you the bandings of others in your road.

HTH. Maisie

guppy

Fay,

If you are putting in 2007 Q3 they won't have analysed prices this up to date yet. Just use Q2 and knock a few grand off the price you put in. As Maisie says, its only a rough indicator anyway.

Good luck

guppy

nimjacole wrote: »

However, what I did notice is that the house next to us is listed as a "mais" and have been placed in band C (this being a 5 bedroom with adjoining annex!! I hasten to add). I ran a check on the proeprty but all is says that this is a "mais" property which it clearly isnt. My house is a 3 bed house considerable smaller being placed in band D! and was priced less than theirs in 1991. What can I do? I have checked and note that our property is actually in the right band but clearly something is wrong.

Self-contained annexes usually have a Council Tax band of their own, so the neighbour's property may be assessed in two halves. One band for the annexe, another for rest of the house. Assuming you're not banded too low, you've nothing to lose by querying your banding

Good luck

caris

Hi

Finally received our letter from VOA today saying they will not change our banding, after reading all of the letter and their reasons for not changing our band, I noticed that they have put our property has being a "normal" construction (their wording), but it is not it is of a "woolaway" construction the same as all the houses below ours. I telephoned the lady and pointed out that our home was a "woolaway" construction and she started to argue with me over the phone, I said that we had been told on a few occassions that it was a "woolaway" construction, and had even been told by a surveyor when we tried to buy or home under the "right to buy" that it was not mortgageable due to the construction, her response was that she will have to come out and inspect the property herself. She was very obnoxious on the telephone and was adamant that her view on our properties build was correct, she is now calling out to us next Monday to see for herself, in a way I am dreeding her coming after her attitude on the phone, but it will be lovely to see her face when she realises that she has made a mistake, and that she will have to change our banding to be the same has all the other "woolaway" houses in our road. So heres hoping that my next posting on this matter will be to report a success.

caris