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

darkwall

Hi,

I've searched through loads of the pages on this post but can't seem to find the answer to this question.

We have just got confirmation that our house will be re banded from a C to a B with an effective date of April 1993 - we only moved in back in Aug 2007 so who will get the cash for the 15 years of over-payments?

Any chance it might be us?

Thanks

CIS

You will only get the amount apportioned since august 2007 the rest will be paid to the previous occupants.

ponsfog

I recently applied and had mine rejected on the basis that it was, "out of time". I was going back to May 2005, which is when I moved in.

I received a form to fill in for them to review my current banding, but I do not think I am going to get a refund going back 3 years.

What can I do? I can not see that the list of appeal options applies to me. I have used the valuation to prove it was wrongly banded and my next door neighbour, with an identical house, is in the band below.

What can I do?

GP

vivatifosi

exvoperson wrote: »

Sorry Zebedeee to correct you but I read it that the VOA man said it was unfair that the bands were different for what appears to be 2 indentical properties. it could be that the other house is wrongly banded and should be increased.

If indentical the VOA has a duty to either increase one or reduce the other!!!!!

Hi exvoperson,

While you are right that the VOA should increase one or reduce the other, both Zebedeee and I know from first hand experience that this doesn't always happen. I've won two tribunals where I live and had another house rebanded on appeal, (I write up all of the appeals for the homeowners on my estate as a director of the res assoc and having won my tribunal to start with), and I can tell you from bitter experience that although I live in an identical house to many of my neighbours we have a terrible time getting the VOA to reband. I have come to the belief that while there are many pragmatic Listing Officers who go to great lengths to ensure accuracy of the list, there are others, who - no matter how much evidence you present them, and how many tribunals you win - dig their heels in.

And don't get us started on Maisie, who started this thread years ago and in spite of evidence showing the same house type banded lower, and with primary evidence showing the price in 1991 for that house type being in the lower band, still can't get her house rebanded.

Sorry to vent, but the VOA really does hold all the cards on revaluation and often makes it unjustifiably unfair if you don't know all of the rules and how to apply them exactly. For example, I know of one person who made an appeal off the back of a tribunal in a valid time window and because they didn't mention that appeal in their first contact with the VOA it was declared an invalid appeal, even though the VOA was given the detail in their following correspondence. The VOA knows it can withdraw an invalidity tribunal but it dug its heels in. Its just crazy. And don't get me started on how the VOA hides behind "confidentiality" legislation despite rulings by the Information Commissioner and Parliamentary Ombudsman in terms of what they can and cannot disclose.

That's it. Thank you for reading. Vent over.

windy488

I live in a detached house and we are in Band D. Not long after we moved in (1996) I asked for reassessment. The Council Officer paid us a visit and made a cursory inspection then sat down and told us that we could lodge an appeal at our expense but that we were highly unlikely to succeed because all the houses on the estate(approx 100) were already assessed as Band D and that if our banding was to change then it would open the floodgates and all residents could potentially claim, and there was no way the Council would allow that to happen. Too much loss of revenue obviously. Our house falls well within Band C based on 1991 values, costing 64,000 in '96.
My question is, does anyone think that a concerted effort by local residents would bring results - based purely on the 1991 valuations, or is the success of a mass appeal doomed to fail because of the considerable cost to the Council should they accept our case?
Any comments gratefully received.
Thanks

mclifton

£2400 REBAIT WYCHAVON NEW BAND F OLD BAND G:j

vivatifosi

Hi windy,

Firstly it isn't about the council accepting your case, its about the VOA the council only charges you the money, they don't set the house values.

I have to be honest here, I think that given the other houses are all banded the same you are on a hiding to nothing. Your best option would be to wait until a new person moved into the estate and to try and get them to appeal within the six month time window as IMHO this is something you would have to take to tribunal with fresh and novel information, you will never, ever get the VOA to reband you (if you do I will eat my hat - its a nice black felt one).

Now, the problem with new houses is that they generally sell for more that second hand ones and the house price calculators fail to reflect this. In that respect, you could say that there is a built in prejudice for anyone buying a second-hand house that has been built since 1991, because their banding isn't like for like and they won't have had the benefit of the house as new. However, that's the reality we live with.

What you would need to do is see if you can find a similar estate to yours that was built five years earlier and compare the houses and their respective prices. You should also make sure that you take account of the value of your house at the time of initial sale (1996) and make sure it excludes all incentives such as carpets, curtains, white goods (built in doesn't count as counts as part of fabric of building) etc and any fees that were included in the price (eg solicitors fees paid - it will have a value). Also, if your garage is in a block then that should not have been included in the price.

Now, back to the £64,000 in 1996. You are correct that the price paid for your house in 1996 was within the band C threshold, however it is generally accepted that house prices fell from 1991 onwards. Now how much they fell, and when they started to recover, varies from area to area and from property type to property type. However, the VOA will argue that for the time your house was built the market was still below 1991 levels - after all - that's what your figures show. So what you would need to do is show that this wasn't the case where you live. To do that, the best thing you can do is build a comprehensive case using property listings for similar properties from your local paper housing ads sections. These can be found in the archive of your local library. You should also ask the VOA under the Freedom of Information Act how the banding for your house was arrived at.

All in all, I don't think your case will be an easy one. In fact I think it is near impossible. But I would still try because I like the challenge!

gatita

As I haven't heard anything at all from the V.O. online, (even an acknowledgement of received claim) I decided to telephone the local office. I was told that they would look into it but that I shouldn't expect to hear from them for 2 months! :rolleyes: He Ho.........patience!

admsroy

CSL wrote: »

Dear admsroy,

Keep soldiering on. It will come right soon.

I expect that I will also have a long battle ahead.

http://journals.aol.co.uk/clivesteuk


CSL
6th February 2008

I have now had a final notice from the Ombudsman that they are certain i am in the correct banding, so I have contacted them and told them that I will, from April be paying Band C instead of D tax, come what may. admsroy.

arm1970

Hi folks first time poster so please be gentle with me

It looks like we tick all the boxes in the checks to see if we're eligible for a refund however there one small problem. I'm absolutely hopeless at writing letters of this sort and I looking for some kind soul to either point me in the right direction or pass any templates onto myself to amend so I can get a nice little cheque back from the local council. I'm based near Glasgow if that's any help.


Cheers