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

Need-2-sort-my-money-out

Guppy ,

Thank u very much for taking the time to reply to my post , I was wondering if I would get any help !

In answer to your question - Yes all the houses on our estate are the same , we are a private estate that almost all the houses are owned by housing association .

Thanks for claifying my best approach to the banding , Im going to write a letter on monday & hope I get somewhere - I have spoken to my neighbour also & she is most interested in my findings !
If the VOA say the band is right , do I take it thats the end of the road , I mean , what can I say to that !?
what would be the next step ??

Really appreciate your help

Regards :T

guppy

Need-2-sort-my-money-out wrote: »

If the VOA say the band is right , do I take it thats the end of the road , I mean , what can I say to that !?
what would be the next step ??

Hiya,

Certainly not the end of the road if they say the banding is correct But its not straight forward, I'd cross that bridge when you come to it if necessary. There are some people here that have suceeded and others that haven't been so lucky. Have a look back on this thread and you will see.

If they don't reduce your band, first of all work out if and why you think it is wrong. Then phone up and ask them to justify their decision. If you're not convinced, you're going to have to find some solid evidence to force them to change their mind. Not an easy task There are many different avenues people have tried on this thread, the best way is solid evidence of 1991 sale prices in your area. These aren't publically available, asking prices from newspaper archives seem the most popular approach.

Essentially there's no quick and easy way to do it and no "official" process...I know that's a bit vague, best way is to look back at others' posts. There's loads of them unfortunately, but that's still the easy bit!

Good luck

jayneben

hiya brought my house in 1996 paid £41000 back then
Checked out the website and found that although i live in a block of 6 identical terraced houses i am the only one payin a band B all the others pay a Band A ??
Appealed via my local VOA office and have recieved a letter refusing to lower my banding as they feel i am in the right band and also stating " i regret that there is no rights of appeal against this decision"

have i got rights to demand an appeal or is that it ???
really dont understand how only 1 house in an identical block can be higher ??
anyone any ideas or advice
x

guppy

Hi jayneben,

There's no formal right of appeal but there's nothing to stop you getting on the phone and reminding the VOA they have a duty to ensure bandings are fair and consistent. See my post above too.

Good luck

tdk

Maisie wrote: »

Hi tdk.
Welcome to this thread.
Yours is a frequent question if you look back at the previous posts and afraid the answer is No you cannot claim for houses you no longer live in.

However if you can persuade the present occupiers to make a claim against the banding and if it's successful you should get your share of any rebate due.

Good luck. Maisie

Thanks for prompt response Maisie, could not find any similar questions like mine in previous threads, but if you are saying that when the VOA revise the banding for a property they do so back too 1991 then that means I will benefit from a rebate providing the current occupiers lodge the appeal?, that if correct is good news as I know the current occupiers, so we should both benefit! Please advise of the process if and when the band is changed with current occupier. Many thanks again.

Maisie

tdk wrote: »

Thanks for prompt response Maisie, could not find any similar questions like mine in previous threads, but if you are saying that when the VOA revise the banding for a property they do so back too 1991 then that means I will benefit from a rebate providing the current occupiers lodge the appeal?, that if correct is good news as I know the current occupiers, so we should both benefit! Please advise of the process if and when the band is changed with current occupier. Many thanks again.

tdk. If the present occupiers are successful in their claim you should be advised by voa/council of any refund due to you. However there are always hiccups in the system and if you don't hear anything contact the council as they make the refund. You can always check if the banding has been changed https://www.voa.gov.uk .

If they are just starting the process and have been in the house longer than 6 months the voa will put all kinds of obstacles in their way before they will consider a review. Most notably the '6 month rule'.

We'll help with that if it comes to it. Or look back at the previous posts it has been covered many times.

Good luck. Maisie

delboy1164

hi all
please could someone help me out

i brought my house in oct 1991 for £27,000 ( i still have the original receipt from my solicitor) but my house is in band B
they have refused to change my banding to band A so far

i have contacted the valuation office and they said sorry is over the 6 month period to claim so i appealed.

i have a notice of hearing for this wednesday 3rd october to appeal against the council tax invalidity notice

i cannot think of any reason to appeaal to this but will they take note of the receipt from my solicitor for the original purchase price or they not there to hear about that?

or am i just wasting my time now

or is there any thing else i can threaten them with (eg contacting local MP or some other court etc etc

please any help would be gratly appriecated :money:

vivatifosi

delboy,

The VOA still has a duty to maintain an accurate list. Most people don't have such excellent primary evidence. It should be hard to argue against. Unfortunately the invalidity tribunal will not help you on this front though as its remit is very narrow.

I would say that I want to delay the invalidity tribunal in order for new evidence to be submitted, and give a copy of the receipt to the VOA. If you have a receipt for this, their own records should also back it up.

If however you have bought a council house, and received say a 60% discount (not an unlikely scenario in 1991) then my understanding is that it is the house's "open market" not discounted value that is important. In that type of circumstance, it may be the case that the VOA has a valid case.

jubileee

I wonder if anyone can help me. Following, Martin's article, I contacted the VOA asking the listings officer to review my council tax band. I was subsequently advised by the listings officer that he believes my house is in the correct council tax band (D). An appeal has been registered with the Valuation Tribunal Service and I am awaiting the date of this. However, on looking at previous decisions the VTS have made, it would appear that the VOA will attend armed with information about similar properties in terms of size and bedrooms and their selling prices in 1991/2.
I live in an area where there are some prestigious homes not too far from me, some of which are a similar size and with the same number of bedrooms which would fetch far more than my house would in today's market and I expect that those houses may have sold for around £80,000 in 1991 or 1992. However, I bought my house for £75750 in July 2000 so feel that, in 1991, it would have fetched less than £68,000.

The main problems I have is that and my house was not actually built until 1996 and I can only get house prices from 2000 onwards. Does anyone know if there's a way to get anything from an earlier date than this. I have obtained house price data for years from 1991 to 2006 at post town level from Halifax but do not think this will be sufficient as it does not take house size or number of bedrooms into account.
If anyone has any idea where I can obtain other information to support my case, ideally where I can obtain information that the VOA is likely to present at the appeal hearing, I'd be grateful if you could PM me or post on here.
Thanks in anticipation

Zebedeee

Hi Jubileee
I have been in exactly the same boat myself. I found that the library had copies of local newspaper's property pages on microfiche and I was able to gather data for houses simillar to mine (size, area, etc.) which sold in 1991. The tribunal were satisfied with this data, as it corresponds exactly to the time period in question, more so than some of the data the VOA came up with from subsequent years. In fact, some of the house prices the VOA were using was from 1998/1999!

Also, the VOA has to let you know about all the houses they will be using as evidence, including their selling prices, size, etc in advance of the tribunal. You also have to let them know what evidence you will be using. This can be a maximum of 10 properties. If you are lucky, presenting this evidence to the VOA in advance of a tribunal might make them think they won't win if your evidence is strong and they may come to an agreement with you beforehand.

All the best,

Zebedee