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

vivatifosi

lynnechapman wrote: »

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

Hi Lynne,

Definitely worth checking into, BUT only if you have made the improvements since Council Tax was introduced. I would send the VOA the 1988 price info and ask them how they reached your banding, reminding them of their duty to maintain an accurate list.

In terms of the improvements that you have undertaken, if these have been done since Council Tax was introduced, these will not be included in the valuation until you choose to move on and the house is revalued for the next person. So, all down to when you did the work.

sondheimsoc

vivatifosi wrote: »

Hi Lynne,

Definitely worth checking into, BUT only if you have made the improvements since Council Tax was introduced. I would send the VOA the 1988 price info and ask them how they reached your banding, reminding them of their duty to maintain an accurate list.

In terms of the improvements that you have undertaken, if these have been done since Council Tax was introduced, these will not be included in the valuation until you choose to move on and the house is revalued for the next person. So, all down to when you did the work.

Many thanks for responding. We did all the improvements more recently than 1991, so it might be worth having a go.
Lynne

aimo

in my close all the houses are the same, however mine is detached whereas the majority are semi detached, but the houses are all the size size, layout etc. i'm paying band c council tax but the rest are on band b. i worked out the 1991 valuation to be £52,306, only a few hundred pounds over the top figure for a band b rating. however, i added a single story extension to my house last year, so i'm not sure whether or not to go ahead and see if i can get my council tax reduced, i'm a bit worried that it will backfire!!! any advice appreciated!

sondheimsoc

vivatifosi wrote: »

Hi Lynne,

Definitely worth checking into, BUT only if you have made the improvements since Council Tax was introduced. I would send the VOA the 1988 price info and ask them how they reached your banding, reminding them of their duty to maintain an accurate list.

In terms of the improvements that you have undertaken, if these have been done since Council Tax was introduced, these will not be included in the valuation until you choose to move on and the house is revalued for the next person. So, all down to when you did the work.

I've just spoken to the planning department and it appears I got my dates wrong.
In 1988 we had planning permission to build a new detached garage and a 5th bedroom (on an existing flat roof at the back of the house)
In 1990 we had permission to convert the original integral garage into a study.
The rest of the improvements were post 1991.
So perhaps I should leave well enough alone?
Lynne

Zebedeee

lynnechapman wrote: »

So perhaps I should leave well enough alone?
Lynne

Give it careful thought, lynnechapman. It would be awful to see you go up a band to F!:eek:

Zebedeee

aimo wrote: »

in my close all the houses are the same, however mine is detached whereas the majority are semi detached, but the houses are all the size size, layout etc. i'm paying band c council tax but the rest are on band b. i worked out the 1991 valuation to be £52,306, only a few hundred pounds over the top figure for a band b rating. however, i added a single story extension to my house last year, so i'm not sure whether or not to go ahead and see if i can get my council tax reduced, i'm a bit worried that it will backfire!!! any advice appreciated!

aimo, your recent extension will not make any difference to your band. The valuation calculators only give rough estimates of value so really you could do with some selling prices from 1991. See if you can find out what houses like yours (ie. same size, detached) sold for in 1991 as that is much firmer evidence upon which to base any appeal.

Hope that helps!

Zebedeee

DavidMM_2

My original appeal against my Council tax band was rejected when it was first introduced when evidence of so called "similarS properties nearby were sold at prices in Band F. They rejected my point that I lived in a typical north London suburb which consisted of 50 semidetached & one detached house. Some of the semi detached houses have 4 bedrooms with their own drive and are all in band F. The detached house is in band F. The remaining semis are 3 bedrooms and shared drives. With the exception of myself & the three other semis to my left all the 3 bedroom semis are in Band E. So 4 of us in 3 bedroom semis are in Band F. The neighbour across the common drive to us has a house in band E which externally is exactly the same as us with pre 1991 rear extension and attic extension. At appeal, this fact was discounted although they admitted that they were "unaware" of my neighbours rear extension. needless to say my neighbour thinks it is hugely funny that the 2 pensioners in my house are paying loads more Council tax than the 4 working adults in his house.

Am I correct in thinking that a request for reassessment now is likely to be unsuccessful because of the previous history?

Two houses in band F have recently changed ownership & are up for reassesment but no one can tell me when this is likely to be done. Both have had post 1991 extensions & are now exactly like my semi. I await with with much interest to see the outcome of any reassesment

derekshields

Hi

I bought a house 5 years ago in band B like the others in my street. about 6 months later it was re banded to a C because the previous owners had an extension built. Apparantly, this extension doesn't affect the owners at the time BUT does the new owners (me) when they sell it on. Is this legal or do I have a case ?

Zebedeee

derekshields, that is quite correct - the band cannot be raised due to an extension to the property while it remains with the owners who built the extension, but this is then taken into account once the property is sold. The reasoning behind this, I believe, is so as to not prevent people from improving the houseing stock, as they will not personally be penalised by a rise in their Council Tax.

I hope that all makes sense, but I don't see that at this point you have a case.

Zebedeee

wige

Ok, so my house is band D and so are my neighbours, which I guess fails the Neighbour Check in attempting to reband my house to C.

The valuation check shows my house should be a band C, so I pass this part of the test.

Using the criteria to establish the strength of my case based on the above, one would say it's 'Poor'.

However, doing a valuation check on all the other terraced houses on my street (sales prices since 2004 recalculated to 1991 Q2 values) shows that the whole street should fall within band C too.

Hence the indication that not only I, but all my neighbours should be rebanded, I guess.

Calculations show that on average my neighbours' houses would have been worth £64,677 in 1991, i.e. below the band C upper limit of £68,000. Mine would have been £67,719 given what I paid for it last year but it is the only house with a rear dining room extension, for which I've worked out I've paid £8k above the street's average house price for.

So would anyone say it's worth going for, despite 'failing' the Neighbour Check?

This is bearing in mind that I'm so close to the lower limit of my current band and therefore not really at risk of being rebanded upwards, and since all my neighbours seem to be misbanded even more than me anyway.

Also, I'm just past the 6 month deadline, so to avoid it being treated as an 'appeal' do I just write to the VOA claiming that the listing is wrong?

I'll probably attach a nice little valuation spreadsheet of my neighbourhood for them too...