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

exvoperson

Dear All

I was wondering if anyone has tried to obtain information from the VOA under section 28 of the local government finance act 1992 which states

(1) A person may require a listing officer to give him access to such information as will enable him to establish what is the state of a list, or has been its state at any time since it came into force, if—
(a) the officer is maintaining the list; and
(b) the list is in force or has been in force at any time in the preceding five years.

The VOA tell me this is a right to view the list only, has anyone had any experience on this matter. Thanks

exvoperson

Olives

Hi All.
I moved three 3years ago. My last two previos addresses were on the same steet and the same side of the road. On the VOA site about 5 houses on the same side of the road identicle to my previous two houses are in the lower band. I spoke to the VOA and as I apparently no longer have a registered interest in the properties i cant do anything other than write to new owners. Does any body else think that this would be a bit cheeky. I mean I know they will be getting something out of it but I think i may be getting more and they have to do all the work.

vivatifosi

Hi exvoperson,

I have requested to see the data and also had to go in to view the information. I had no idea what law this was under. I was told that I was only allowed to make notes, not photocopy anything and the Listing Officer sat in the whole time to make sure that I didn't see anything that I shouldn't. I was told that in that office I was only the second person to make a request to visit the LO since 1993 (somewhat concerning - no wonder its so hard to win a case). When I went to Tribunal I was surprised that some of the info was quoted in the case decision notes and therefore became part of the public domain anyway.

I'm concerned that while you do have a right to view the list, the VO tries to offset this with their arcane knowledge of other laws that Joe Public doesn't stand a chance against. This is why I'm so interested where you get on this.

You are probably aware of these, but I find the Parliamentary Ombudsman and Information Commissioner's rulings helpful in this area. I also feel that the ICO would be where to push if you want to take this further, given how much he's making MPs squirm at the moment over expenses!

Here's a couple of weblinks:

https://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/decisionnotices/2006/decision_notice_fs50090387.pdf

http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/decisionnotices/2008/fs_50137528.pdf

http://www.ombudsman.org.uk/improving_services/selected_cases/AOI/aoi9910/8915-a39.html

Good luck. I'm from a property background too (albeit commercial) and if I can't get my head round much of this stuff then I don't see how anyone else who doesn't work for the VOA can!

Aitch7

Aitch7 wrote: »

thanks for the reply - it saved me from making a fool of myself on the phone tomorrow - however, could you explain why it isn't that simple? surely as the house is divided into 4 then the price of the flats is a quarter of the house?

I dont' know how I would find out the value based on similar flats as I think they have been rented out for a very long time.

Also do you have any idea of why the basement flat is band C when the rest of us are band D?

Thanks again,
Aitch7

Hi,

Does anyone know what I should do next.

Briefly - my flat is band D as are 3 of the other flats in this house but the flat below me is band C - all the flats are the same size as we each have 1 floor of the house.

I did all the checks at the various websites that Martin suggested and found that the house next door was sold last year for £498,000 - this gives it a value of £157,000 in 1991.

I asked if I could then divide the price into 4 but Zebedee said its not that simple (see above) he advised me to try and look at similar flats nearby and make a case based on their prices but I can't do that because there are no similar flats nearby.

This street has hugely different properties and the only ones similar to mine are in the 2 houses on either side which have always been flats and yet were recently sold as whole houses i.e. at £498,000 and £463,000 in the last year so there's no price for their flats to make a comparison.

How do I work out what my flat is worth if its not a quarter of the cost of the house? I don't know what to do - but still feel that band D is too high.

I thought that the websites Martin mentioned would give me a strong case but it just seems like flats are an exception to the rule unless you can find a similar flat nearby.

Any advice anyone?
thanks
Aitch7

pjg_2

I bought a house in Leicestershire in Sept 2005 that cost me £184000, from average recent sales these now value at about £210000-£220000.
Im in Group 'E'.
The house was a new build in May 2002 and sold at £137,950.
There are 2 styles of 4 bed houses on the estate, ours in group E, the others in group D, although resale is approx the same.

My question is should I claim, based on the fact that if the house had been here Q2 1991 it would have been worth only approx £66000, border line C/D...?!?!?! Im worried because my valuation was done later it my be more accurate...please help, dont want to mess this up.

PJG

p.s. just got demand in today for £1747.41...Jesus!!!!!

spf_1967

I have just been advised by my old neighbour that they have had their band reduced from a D to a C, i was in an identical property for 7 years and moved out last November, can i claim or challenge the banding on the property even though i've moved?? thanks

simdon

I have been on the voa website to check neighbours bandings and those in the next road over. Many of which are deleted. What does this mean?? Does it mean they are currently going through an appeal, or just the local council are rebanding them?

I have done the check for the value of my house in 1991, which would put us in band 'C' not 'D' as we are currently.
Is it worth an appeal?

:easter: :think: Thanx.

Sassca

Hello - I'm sure you get hundreds of people asking the same question, but I'm wondering if you can help me! My council tax is band D, as are the other flats in the block I live in. However, I've checked the 1991 valuation and this shows I "should" be in Band C by quite a big margin. I've lived in my flat for 8 years, so would appreciate any advice on whether to try and claim this back or not?

Thanks in advance.

Olives

spf_1967 wrote: »

I have just been advised by my old neighbour that they have had their band reduced from a D to a C, i was in an identical property for 7 years and moved out last November, can i claim or challenge the banding on the property even though i've moved?? thanks

I have the same problem. According to the VOA we can only encourage the new residents to put forward a complaint. I was hoping somebody on here would be able to help with any other way

vivatifosi

Hi spf and Olives,

The VOA is absolutely right. You need to persuade the new people to appeal. However there are particularly good reasons that they should do so. If they are paying band D tax but may be able to pay band C on appeal, that's about an 11% difference. Between band E and D its 22% - big amounts of money. You need to get the figures involved across to the new residents, because if they don't challenge, that's a substantial amount more that they will have to find, every single year.

I appealed. I got about £300 back. The previous residents got £2000 back for my hard work, so make sure you sharpen your powers of persuasion!