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

beingjdc

moneychemist wrote: »

I have recieved a council tax bill for £123

I went on the local council website and found out the yearly amount due is £940. Therefore i thought the amount due each month should be £94 (e.g. 940 divided by 10)???

Ive tried talking to them and i didnt follow what the woman was on about. She said that this is novembers bill and as i moved in on the 20th of september the bill was calculated from the 20th of sept to march 08 and therefore it was correct??

I really am lost as to how much i am meant to pay. Im going to go in to the council office later this afternoon and check in person but if any one can provide some info now it would be appreciated.

Many thanks

Yes. The financial year runs from April to April, so your bill for 07-08 will be just over six months' worth of £940 - call it £500. My guess is they are billing you that in four installments, Nov, Dec, Jan and Feb. Then you will pay nothing in March, and from April you will pay the 1/10th of the annual cost rate.

dafe

Hi everyone,
I have followed the details in Martins site to the letter . My local VOA have sent back a letter saying that my property was reviewed in 1997, however I thought that all bands have not been reviewed since 1991. and that it was in the correct band in 1997, indicating the value of the property was between £52001 to £68000 in 1991 prices
They have also sent a leaflet about 'can i appeal if I think my council tax banding is incorect'.

I have looked at the conditions that I may appeal, and I am not to sure if I have any grounds in them.
How can I CHECK TO SEE if their calculations are correct?

Any advice or information would be greatly received.

kind regards Darren

Zebedeee

Hi dafe

If you live in England then the bands do indeed date back to 1991. I wonder if someone living in your property in 1997 requested a review of the band back then (assuming you weren't living there at the time!)? I don't suppose it would do any harm to ring the VOA and ask them what happened in 1997. However, you could do your own research to support your case for a rebanding. Have you checked what your property was worth in 1991 by getting property prices from your local property newspaper archives? I found this to be the best evidence of all, as the house price indices are only a very rough guide and cannot really be used as solid evidence. You can also ask the VOA to provide you with their sales evidence from 1991 to justify the band they have placed your property in.

I'm guessing from what you say that you are outside of the statutory 6 months you have for an automatic appeal. Don't give up tho', as the VOA have a duty to maintain their lists accurately and if there are anomolies they have to adjust bands accordingly. This is where you need to do your homework and prove they have got you in the wrong band.

Hope that helps, and if you need any more advice there are lots of knowledgeable helpful folk on here!

Zebedeee

suzialwaysbroke

I had a tribunal hearing today re the validity of our appeal for having our tax band reduced. We have lived here for 19 years, so WAY out of time for this. The hearing was a complete waste of time as the 3 members sitting just stated that they are bound by legislation not to allow any appeals that fall outside the statutory 6 months from becoming a council tax payer. SO, my question is - what next? I had a letter from the valuation office saying that our property was considerably bigger than my semi-detached neighbour, which is not true. I think they have attributed some outbuildings at the back of the 2 cottages to us alone, but they are shared, probably 60:40 in our favour. It would appear to me that our valuation is based on an incorrect premise, but where do I go with it now??? Any one have any useful tips for me.
Thanks for reading,

Love Suzi. xx

martinranson

Thanks for the reply to my post earlier in the week, my moral is very much higher, but my motives are now very different.
The last couple of voa, houseprice and local planning office lunchtimes surfing sessions at work have yielded some interesting "Diversity" (the best word I can come up with) in the banding of other types of properties in our locality. It appears there has been a fair bit of rebanding around the patch for different reasons, which have given some houses a lower band, so assume a successful challenge, and others, which from their purchase price post 91 are obvious cases of over banding.
WIth this information to hand, i've decided that if i can't get my parents in a lower band due to lack/conflicting evidence, then I will petition the three streets around them with the information i have and take the VOA/Council to the cleaners by getting as many properties rebanded lower as I can, where there is an undisputable case. I have 6 definite so far !
Interestingly I remember seeing in a local paper following martin's program on tv that somebody involved their MP in the process, has anyone else tried this ?
My thoughts at present are that all in all, this is a serious case of financial discrimintation, are there not laws against this ? How can it rely on the owner pursuing the case, when the VOA knows that a neighbouring property was sold for the same value in the same year, but stays in the higher band due to no challenge being made ?
I bet in the current press frenzy this would be a hot potato?
Cheers all for now
Martin

pkempc

pkempc wrote: »

Have today received a letter from the Valuation Tribunal Service notifying us that we have been given a date of 27th November for our appeal hearing.

This hearing is only to decide if the decision to declare our initial appeal invalid was made correctly.

We applied online to reband from E to D back in February after hearing about the process from this website. The online application was rejected as being over the 6 month time limit after change of ownership. We then appealed this ruling in writing and gave a long list of reasons why we think we should be rebanded including - historical valuation using Nationwide/HBos data, nuisance from nearby pub car park/footpath & adjoining stream flooding the property.

This appeal was also rejected by the valuation officer because similar local properties are also band E ( but don't suffer the same problems as ours ) yet at the same time he passed the appeal to the Tribunal to rule on the invalidity question.

We think our reasons for rebanding are valid but we are worried that they wont get looked at because of the 6 month time limit rule.

When we bought the property I was serving in the forces and was frequently away on regular detachments - as long as all the bills got paid on time we were happy. Its only since returning to civvy street that I have had the time to sit down and review all our household income/expenditure using this excellent website for help.

We intend to attend the hearing in person & will report back on its verdict, tbc..............

After the hearing
As expected we weren't allowed to present the list of reasons for rebanding at this hearing - only why we didn't submit a claim within the notional six month period. We explained about being in the forces and being away so much & also the simple lack of clear information about how to contest your banding. It was only thanks to Martins ITV Tonight programme & this website that we found the info.

We said that your very 1st council tax bill on becoming the house owners should have printed in BIG RED LETTERS the fact that you have only got six months to appeal the banding & to read the leaflet on how to do it. Anyway we will hear the outcome in 3 weeks time.

One bit of good news - we are currently not living in the property due to flood damage & subsequent refurbishment works & the council have now granted us a class A exemption backdated to 20th July. Should mean no council tax for this year. It's the very least they could do as it was their stream and their total lack of maintenance that flooded our property.:mad:

CSL_2

I also have had one of these "Out of Time" Invalidity notices in August 2007.
Before hearing of Martin`s Website I was foolish enough to complete an Online Appeal Form on the VOA website. The Listing Officer had no other choice than to serve me with an Invalidity Notice. Have read lots and lots of Tribunal Decisions and associated material since. Have also read most of the VOAs Operations Manual and now have a better feel on how they operate.

Once I have obtained details of 4 similar houses to mine, then I will go back to them avoiding using the word "Proposal" and just requesting a review on the basis of some of the text in Martin`s film clip.

http://journals.aol.co.uk/clivesteuk/convincing-the-voa-listing-offic/


PS:- Spoke with local Estate Agent in SW4 late this evening and he said that I was an idiot to expect to find another One Bedroom semi in Clapham SW4 like mine. He mentioned that my house was a speculative build on a Land Fill site!! Added that my only chance of finding something similar would be in SE1 or SW17..........

CSL
Thursday 29th November 2007

pingua

Well have just had a letter back basically throwing the evidence I gave back in my face - lovely.
I listed the houses that had sold in the past 6 months and the value. Ours was in the middle of the values yet all other houses were a c - us being a d. (There are only about 6/7 houses on the list - small village)


They came back stating the measurements of all the house and as ours was the biggest this is the reason why. IS this correct?? Because ours is bigger we are a higher band ???

(Is that not effectively saying value does not matter but the size??)

Oh and if I want to sign the withdrawl form it would 'close the case' haha.

Zebedeee

pingua, that sounds absolutely typical! The only thing upon which your council tax is based is its value. Often size affects the value, but the bottom line is the value of the house in 1991, regardless of its size. The VOA like to make you think you are backing a loser, sometimes by means which don't seem to me to be entirely fair, and they would just love you to sign that rotten form! It would save them a whole load of work. Neighbours of mine were bullied into signing, having been told that they had no chance of winning. I wouldn't sign, carried on with my case and eventually won my tribunal.

Don't give up. They probably know you have a good case, but want to spare themselves the work.

Hope that helps!

Zebedeee

pingua

Thanks for that. So The hard bit is working out the value in 1991 with the extension.

Is there away of working out extension size against the value iyswim. The extension was done about 10?? years ago . But the atcual value it has put on compaired to other houses without the extension is only 10 grand in todays market. (Big extension but the house value just would not go any higher no matter how much of an extension was put on it.)

I am just not sure how to reply to them now and what 'evidence' to use next.

They don't make things easy do they!!