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

mike433

Sorry if I keep replying to my own post but is there anyone qualified, RICS or valuer that can give me an idea of what the difference an average qualit extension would have made to the value of a 2 up 2 down in a terrace in comparison the same house without the extension. Being a long narrow extension of 25 sq meters, the VOA are comparing my property to a double fronted house a couple of doors down.

CSL_2

Dear Mike 433,

Apologies for possibly stating the obvious. Might be a good idea to contact your local Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB). They often have good contacts with friendly Surveyors, Architects and Chartered Land Officers, and people able to execute competent RICS measurements - Professionals who might be able to help with advice and suggestions who will not rip you off.

Worth a try..............what do you think??

CSL
Wednesday 5th December 2007

mike433

Hi CSL,

I have done a lot of research on this! It initially started when I clicked on the button that said appeal on the VOA website a long time ago. Even though it was an "invalid appeal", the responses I had were so annoying and patronising that I delved deeper. The deeper I delved the more of a case I thought I had.
Basically the Listing Officer is like a politician. They will never admit an error. It is in the manual that they must be very careful and be sure before admitting an error.
Also in the manual they must be courteous but must not indicate that a taxpayer has grounds for appeal. That is probably why so many replies are wishywashy.
Basically I am at the stage now where if I can provide evidence of a sale of a comparable around 1991 I might have a chance.
I spent some time at the library trying to find the property pages of the local paper but after about 40 minutes of newspaper whizzing past my eyes I started to sweat and feel sick....they have almost ground me into submission.

CSL_2

Don`t give up now!!! Any minute, someone new will come on this website with fresh and informative info which will provide a gateway through this hell. Might be a good idea if you sat down tomorrow and made a brief resumee of everything that you have gone through (make it about 250 to 350 words only) or readers will get bored and switch off) Send me a private message and I will edit it as best I can.

Just think - you cannot give up now..................you are so close to success even if you do not think so...............ende gut alles gut!!!

CSL
Wednesday 5th December 2007

mike433

Not giving up just yet....I sent an email yesterday asking them loads of tricky questions...I am waiting for the reply.

CSL_2

Mike433,

While you are waiting for a respsonse from your local VOA. Would be grateful if you would look at my Post of 5th December 2007 - Bellway.............

Have you got any ideas on this..............I think that I need to get it to a wider audience. If only I knew of a few people living in ONE BEDROOM Semi-detached houses...............


CSL
Friday 7th December 2007

guppy

CSL wrote: »

If only I knew of a few people living in ONE BEDROOM Semi-detached houses...

If I were you, I'd write quoting the Freedom of Information Act.

Say you'd like to know how many 1 bed semis there are within a certain postcode area, and how many are in each band. I see no reason why they could refuse to provide this

ruthe_3

Hi - have just had band changed from band E to band D - so a success. But was horrified when the evaluator came around to find out that he originally thought it was my neighbour who was in too low a band - and that the result of my request for a review might be the increasing of their council tax. I felt awful. Fortunately that didn't turn out to be the case - but just to be aware....

beingjdc

As I immerse myself in the Kafkaesque world of Council Tax Valuation Tribunals, my mood swings from "Well of course I'm right" to "Ah nobody will ever believe me".

As I said at the time, a month ago I suggested that Band F was an inappropriate banding for a 2-bed flat in South Bermondsey, albeit quite a nice one. My appeal has yet to be acknowledged or commented upon by the Valuation Office.

In the meantime, we have to pay the tax. I have haggled Southwark down to paying the arrears at £300 a month rather than their initial suggestion of £567.

I have been to the excellent Local History Library in Borough, to look at asking prices from 1991 when bandings were done. Bearing in mind that to be in Band F our flat would have had to have been worth more than £120,000 at this time, I therefore find it remarkable that for an asking price of £95,000 we could have bought a 4-bed, 3-bath flat by the river in Rotherhithe. Or for £69,995 a 3-bed maisonette on Keetons Road. Or for £83,000 a 3-bed terrace with garden round the corner on Blue Anchor Lane.

Still, no matter. The Valuation Tribunals, as Mike433 has discovered, concern themselves almost solely with evidence from flats actually sold (because of course in 1991 properties were often selling for way above the asking price. No, wait, the other thing, below, that's the one). A recent tribunal in Bermondsey accepted the comparison of a flat off Jamaica Road, by the tube, with a similarly sized flat in Shad Thames, SE1. Rather like comparing Dulwich Village with Peckham - they may be geographically proximate, but so are the Spare Room and Narnia.

To add to the confusion, public records of prices achieved only go back to 2000. So the information on which they base their decision is available to the listings officer, but not to the person doing the appeal. I am hoping that the 'formal appeal process' will force them to make a disclosure of all their records, not just the ones which support their case, but I fear that in effect, they can cherry-pick the ones that support their case and there's no way of challenging that. I have asked my letting agent to make a Freedom of Information request. I think it's still worth asking even if we don't get, in order to be able to make the point at the tribunal that we asked and were turned down, as sometimes they are scathing about asking price evidence.

Today I went to check the flat number of a Band C flat in Marden Square nearby (a council block, but that shouldn't make more than one band of difference!), which is over 100 square metres internally, plus a garden on the outside, and is in Band C. It is currently rented to students and subdivided internally into six small bedrooms.

Our flat, for the record, is 77 square metres. An identically laid out flat seven doors down which is slightly over 80m2 is in Band D, so I think that's where we'd be most likely to end up if sanity prevailed. I asked for C, since there's no point going in with a high 'offer'.

For anyone like me who can't visualise any of this, a square metre is just over ten square feet.

CSL_2

The whole thing with Bandings is in some areas just a joke.

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


In June 1995 a private developer built Flats 1 to 9 at ###/SW4 6LU opposite me. They are a mixture of 45m2 and 57m2 one and two bedroom appartments respectively and are all in Lambeth`s Band B..............

The One (44m2) and two Bedroom (58.06m2) flats behind my property in the Clapham Road SW9 were built by Bellway Homes at the same time as my house in 1987. All of these One and Two Bedroom Flats from numbers 1 to 8 are all in Band C .....


CSL
Saturday 8th December 2007