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

vivatifosi

HelenaP wrote: »

No I don't believe you can claim now you have moved. However, I understand from a friend of mine that if the now occupants make a claim and get the band dropped you should get a rebate. So talk nicely to whoever moved in!

Hi Thready,

HelenaP is spot on with her advice.

Give the new owner all of your evidence which is very strong. If they win a rebate you should get one too, probably all the way back to when CT was introduced in 1993. If you've moved out of the area you may need to provide your old council with a forwarding address. What's that sound? Oh yes, KER-CHING!!!

Just one caveat though, if you bought your house from the council, it is the open market value that counts, not the discounted price, which could push you back into C.

Good luck!!!

peps2000

Hi There,

I need some advice after doing the "Neighbours Check" the Council Tax Valuation List shows all houses on my street are in band E. However half the houses are 4 bed semis, with the other half (mine included), 3 bed terraces. My house also has an extension on the back, which was built before we moved in 2 years ago.

After doing the Valuation Check, it shows my property should also be in Band D (I'm currently E), the value was £84,364 and the D band is £68,001 - £88,000. Do I have a case?

Thanks for reading!

vivatifosi

Hi peps2000,

Yours is not an easy case to win. Everyone in a similar house is in the same band and yours is potentially worth more.

You need to unpack a couple of issues here. Firstly, how big is the extension? If it hasn't added much to the value of the house then you may have a case along with your neighbours. Where I live we've managed to get houses through to a lower band alongside others on appeal but they have small conservatories, not major add-ons.

However, if your neighbours are all in the same band as you and your house is worth far more as a result of the extension, then you probably have much less of a case than they do.

You say everyone is in the same band, irrespective of house type. But are there other adjacent streets with the same house types and different bands? Again, if all of the bands are the same you have less chance of a successful appeal.

If your house was built prior to 1991, you need to try and find a value for a similar house at the time that the Council Tax was set. You can do that by visiting the library and going through the local newspapers for the house prices (generally on microfilm). You then need to work out how much an extended house would have gone for at the time, or what additional value your extension would have added at 1991 prices.

Unfortunately the house price calculators just give averages, and as yours isn't much under the £88k threshold local variations could account for all of this.

Hope this is useful

vivatifosi

Good news!!!

Quick update on the CT rebanding where I live. We've won our third reband in a row with no failed appeals as yet. Thankfully this one didn't go to tribunal as it was for a house valued below our previous tribunal successes. Many more waiting in the wings... Will let you know when I have any more news.

peps2000

Thanks for replying vivatifosi, just to clarify a few points:

My house is a 3 bed terrace
The extension is the size of a small double bedroom (contains a sofabed, PC and desk)
Many of the other houses in the street have also built extensions or conservatories.
Ours is the only street with this house type, although I'll take a look at the other street's bands.

vivatifosi

Hi peps2000,

One other point. Check the "effective from" date against your band on the VOA website. If it gives a date around when you moved in, this will mean that the house was in a lower band prior to your moving in and was rebanded then. If all the other houses have been extended, they may well have been put up a band when extended too. You can then contact the VOA and ask them why the band was put up and what evidence they used to reband you.

JanetS_3

Vivatifosi, is it the 1991 price or the 1993 price that the VOA are going with? I am sure I have a letter from the VOA somewhere (got to find it!) stating that it is the 1993 price and not the 1991 price.

In their letter to me, they state...."there was a large drop in the housing market in the early 1990s in fact house prices dropped from the tail end of 1989 until 1994 when the market stagnated and did not see a rise until 1995, this is borne out of the evidence I hold [they state later in their letter that that are "unable to divulge details of these properties as sales pre 1 April 2000 are currently considered confidential information....makes a disclosure of confidential third party information an actionable offence unless there is a particular statutory authority to do so"] This evidence also shows that house prices were falling around 1% per month therefore a property that sold for £64,000 in December 1991 would have sold for more than £68,000 on 01 April."

I think this is bull and I think they believe that I wont carry it further as I have no "hard" evidence, well, I am off to the library on Saturday to see if I can find the evidence of the two houses that were both sold in 1991 (although I am not quite sure when).

Thanks for giving me the motivation to start this action again. I will keep you all posted of my findings and what happens when I confront the VOA again.

Janet

beingjdc

UK Average House Price (Nationwide BS)

Q1 1991 54,547
Q2 1991 55,418
Q3 1991 54,903
Q4 1991 53,635

sondheimsoc

Hi
I have just done the checks and found the following:
our house is currently in Band E
All the houses round about me are slightly different in style etc but broadly similar in space.I live on a very mixed (and 2 mile long) road - opposite me are ex-council houses

My immediate neighbours are in Band:
E
D (huge as had a 2 bed flat added a few years ago)
US - E
F
F
D

We bought the house in 1988 for £68,000 and the value check made it £84,961 in 1991, which should have put it in Band D at the time.
Since we moved in we have built a 5th bedroom, created an en suite, converted the garage into a study, built a new garage and extended both the living room and kitchen.
I'm wondering it's worth applying or might we do more harm than good?
Thanks for any advice.
Lynne
Nottingham

vivatifosi

Hi JanetS,

Regarding the VOA's letter, have a read of the Information Commissioner's decision on this at:

[SIZE=-1]www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/decisionnotices/2006/decision_notice_fs50090387.pdf


You may want to send them a copy and tell them that you would like them to write to the owners, per this previous decision, asking them if they are willing to disclose their info.

Regarding the price, the common date from which all house prices in England are taken is the 1st April 1991, which is termed the "antecedent valuation date". 1993 is the year in which council tax was introduced and hence the date in which the Council Tax decision would be effective from.
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