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

vivatifosi

hi jch,

Do you know when the tribunal was? If it was in the past six months I would write back to the VOA and make a new appeal off of the back of it. You can look up tribunals on the Valuation Tribunal Service (VTS's website). These should give you some information as to what grounds the other house won on.

Unfortunately if you are declared invalid it does reduce your rights as you can't appeal to a third party. However, you can go back to the VOA and say that it has the duty to maintain an accurate list. You can ask using the Freedom of Information Act how the banding for your house was arrived at and why there hasn't been a rebanding following the tribunal on the neighbouring house. Hopefully that will stick another cat among the pidgeons!

Grantham1

There is NO statutory right to pay interest. Any council that has done so is either misinterpreting or ignorant of the law - or just paying it because it considers it right to do so..............but the is NO LEGAL REQUIREMENT FOR INTEREST TO BE PAID.

vivatifosi

Hi Grantham1,

I think that the people who are trying to get interest are doing so with the VOA as opposed to the local council. I didn't try and get interest on mine as I went to tribunal and it was for a short period of time, but I'm pretty sure I've read this at some point in the past on this thread.

dereknice

Hi All
I have a small problem , I have discovered in our small (12) bungalow housing association estate 1 bungalow is in tax band A all others are in tax band B Including ours 1 of the properties is 3 bed detached + attached garage(also Band where no body else has a garage all other's are semi detached and no garage and all identical 2 bedroom. THE PROBLEM if I ask for a revaluation on the grounds that the identicial property is in band A am I likely to get that property revalued upwards also appealing that the above mentioned 3 bed with garage is the same as us will that get upvalued as well.
All of our fellow residents are elderly or disabled and I would not want to cause distress or financial problems, any advice here please
regards
Derek Nice

Zebedeee

dereknice, you will have to tread very carefully and be sure of your facts with this one. Do you know why the one bungalow is in band A? If you look on the VOA website it will tell you when the bands came into force. If they are all the same date it would suggest that either there is some reason why that one is a lower band (eg. it looks the same from the front but is actually smaller, or has some other disadvantage, perhaps lack of parking) or if it is a later date than the others you will be able to see if this is a result of a tribunal. If it is the latter you might be able to find details of the tribunal on the VTS website which could help you.

Let us know how you get on with that and I'm sure one or other of us on here will be able to help you with where to go next.

Hope that helps!

Zebedeee

destiny_star2006

wots the website that u need to go on to find out what band etc your neighbours are in

vivatifosi

destiny-star2006

Here it is:

http://www.voa.gov.uk/council_tax/index.htm

destiny_star2006

says no propertys can be found when i enter my details is the site down or something

karene1970

Can anyboy help I am in Band C same as my neighbours but I have a second floor flat 3 bedrooms, my parents however live 2 minutes from me in a three bed house but have the SAME band. Is it worth getting it assessed? I am unsure..... ANY advice would be great :-) Thank you Karen

vivatifosi

Hi karene,

Council tax bands are relatively wide and it is entirely possible that your flat would fall into the bottom of band C and your parents at the top. When I lived in my one bed house it was band C as was my Mum in Law's three bed. It sucked!

You have to ignore your parents' house and look at your property and those that are similar and look for differences in those bands. Are there similar properties to yours that are in band B? That's one half of the equation. The other half is to find out how much your property was worth in 1991. Check one of the house price engines for this (see Martin's main article) and see where you come out. If you do find out that your home falls below the band C threshold then look for evidence from 1991 as to how much your property would have cost then. If you score a success on each of these points (and at least the first two) then its time to go to the VOA and ask for a reband.