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

grace21

Brightonbuoy,
I can't believe how difficult this is proving to be.
Thanks for letting me know.
Keep in touch. If there's anything I can do please let me know.
Grace

francodevil

hi all, i was hoping some of you may help me.
the situation is we recently (sep '07) bought a house that was built in 2001, for £196000, with council tax band d. Now i have used martin's calculator and back in 1991 it would have been worth £58475, which puts it in band c. i have looked at all the neighbours (2 rows of 4xhouses) banding and that is at band d too. is it worth me going for the challenge, and if so, then what evidence have i got/do i say with regards this matter? all i think i ca say is that when our house was built it was incorrectly banded but i dont want to open a can of worms. your help would be greatly appreciated guys, thanks.

vivatifosi

Hi francodevil,

Was the £196k the price in 2001 or the price you paid last year? If its the former then your band sounds pretty reasonable.

First, if you fancy putting in an appeal, make sure you do it within the six months of your completion date as that will make your life a lot easier. Keep an eye to this, the clock is ticking!

In all likelihood your band will be hard to challenge as your neighbours houses are the same band, however as you would be appealing within six months you have a right to a second opinion from tribunal, which is very worthwhile in this type of circumstance.

I don't know where your house is, but house price searches can be misleading and aren't accepted by the VOA or tribunal. This is because they only offer indicative values for a region. Neighbouring towns, along with different types of property, have seen their prices behave differently over that time.

The best thing you can do (if you decide to take this further) is to find similar properties to yours that were on the market in early 1991 as a new build property. You can do this using the local papers archive at your local library. You need to make sure you compare new build to new build as second hand houses generally lose part of their value (new builds have incentives priced in that second hand prices don't, condition is also often better). Also have an open mind. Houses tend to be a bit higher density than they were in 1991. What would be a fair comparison in terms of what was available? Is there anything in the same area that sells for a similar price now that both would be second hand?

It may also be worth looking at the adverts for your home in 2001. Sometimes there are lots of incentives priced in which are listed in the sales blurb. These are supposed to be excluded from the price but the VOA likely won't have been informed of them. That may give you an extra few £000s to argue about and I'd certainly put them in your initial proposal if you find any. Look for carpets, furniture, fees paid, etc.

Good luck

francodevil

vivatifosi, Many thanks for your kind help. £196000 was the price i paid in sep 2007, the price this property actually sold for back when it was a new build in 2001 was £129000, and it was put straight into band D. i am only going by martins nationwide calculator, and thats why i was apprehensive about opening a can of worms when the chances are very slim. if i were to go ahead, i would just phone my local council tax people, i live in gosport, so the ct is covered under southampton voa, and i would probably just say can i have a check on my banding. if you have any pointers for me then that would be appreciated but to be honest, im only gonna be able to claim back a small amount anyway, but its the principle more than anything. once again i really appreciate your response earlier and thanks for your time.

littlepockets

Can someone help please....
I'm considering an appeal The Valuation office has given the area of my property being much higher than the surveyor stated when I bought the house.

Does anybody know how the area of a property is calculated.

The lady at the Valuation office said its "wall to wall" from outside but wouldn't this overstate the living space ?

The surveyor who measured internally came up with 15m2 less than the valuation office

strangeglue

I live in a house, converted into 10 studio flats. 8 of the studio flats are in Band A, and I'm in Band B. I cited this when submitting my initial claim, but they've rejected it without any good reason that I can see. Basically just telling me the banding is correct.

Is there a stronger argument to be used?

martinbucks

I have done the checks on the website for checking my council tax banding and the first one showed that all properties similar to mine in my street are in band E. But on the second step it showed that my house was worth approx £82,000 in 1991 and band E then was £88,000 to £120,000! Does anyone think I have a good case to challenge my banding?

vivatifosi

Hi francodevil,

If you look at the average house price increase for Gosport on the Halifax town search (see http://www.hbosplc.com/economy/HistoricalDataSpreadsheet.asp, then click on house price data by post town), the percentage change would put you bang on the cusp between C and D (a smidge under £68k)

I would be tempted to appeal (nothing ventured nothing gained), but you don't look that far out of line, so if everyone else is the same band, it may be a tough fight to win.

You would still need to provide evidence of relevant house prices from 1991 in order to take the appeal further.

vivatifosi

Hi littlepockets,

Yep, that is how they do it. I don't know why, but I would imagine that it would be easier to gather data for buildings that you are measuring from the outside rather than asking for entry to someone's house.

I found this somewhat long definition on the VOA's website which showed some typical properties:

Floor Areas
For all those types of houses described above, the floor area shown is the reduced covered area, which is the area of the ground and first floors based on external measurements. For the flat described above, the floor area shown is the effective
floor area, which is the floor area of the living rooms, bedrooms, kitchen and bathroom/wc and excludes the hallway area.

vivatifosi

strangeglue wrote: »

I live in a house, converted into 10 studio flats. 8 of the studio flats are in Band A, and I'm in Band B. I cited this when submitting my initial claim, but they've rejected it without any good reason that I can see. Basically just telling me the banding is correct.

Is there a stronger argument to be used?

Hi strangeglue,

Two different tactics depending on how you want to play it.

1. Ask the VOA to substantiate their comments.

It may be the case that your flat sold for more when the conversions were first done. You can ask the VOA for information under the Freedom of Information Act. They may not give you exact prices (depends on when the conversions happened as they are very wary of giving out pre-2000 prices) so I would propose you also ask them what the difference was between the most expensive of the Band A flats and yours without telling you which flat it is. You should be able to get the initial price paid for your flat from your deeds.

If it is clear that there wasn't a difference, or very much of one, then I would be inclined to push the matter further. However, beware, they may put your neighbour's band up.

2. Gather local knowledge

The other thing you could do is go to the library and look to see whether the prices for the conversions were given in the local paper at the time of conversion. Or ask your neighbours what they paid if they are the original tenants and friendly. Then you'll be able to judge whether there's a difference.

Finally, look up the price of similar properties as at early 1991 at the library. That's a really good indicator.