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

meghanrose

thanks autismmum, our son is also autistic, unfortunately the house isn't big enough for him to have a room to himself, although we'd love that. under the terms of the tenancy we cant apply for an extension to be built to provide him with that space, even though it would make his life and ours easier, as it has to meet the criteria of being beneficial to the next person. it could be argued that an extension would benefit the next person in, but the argument the county council will use is, what if the person is a single person, what would they do with 4 bedrooms? therefore permission would be refused, same with a conservatory and anything else we tried. catch 22 really.:mad:

Yaffle_II

guppy wrote: »

IFinally, as others have mentioned (exvoperson for one) the Freedom of Information Act is a very powerful tool which you can use to get access to VO records (though not sale prices, unfortunately).

Yes they do give you sale prices!
Just to let you know I rang the VOA last week and spoke to the West Midlands customer services manager who was very helpful. She was in Stoke strangely enough , whereas my local VOA is Wolvehampton and they are a waste of time and rude! I requested sales info for similar properties in my postcode between 1990 & 1992. She sent me a letter this week and it only detailed 2 properties, one was 2 streets away (and not in my postcode!) in a more desirable road that went for £43k in May 1991 and the other was in my road that sold for £42k in June 1991. The first one can easily be discounted but the second one is more of a problem. She says Wolverhampton VOA gave her the info and the property in my road was also in my postcode (my road is split into 2 postcodes, properties in my half usually sell for 10-15% less due to location). However I found an advert in a local property pages for that time that appears to be the house in question (April 1991 asking price £45) and the house is clearly in the other half of my road and thus in a different postcode! I cant find any more sales for my road anywhere near this period so it must be that one. The kind VOA lady also sent me full details of my house code too.
I have also just found out from a neighbour that someone in a similar house around the corner (but different postcode) have appealed this year and had their banding reduced. Can anyone telll me please how do you attack the VOA using this as a weapon?

Yaffle_II

Damn! Just spoke to the lady in question and it was last June she won her appeal so more than 6 months ago, never mind. One other question if someone has the answer please. The VOA seem to be sticking to their idea that, although my house code is the same as the other 25 band A's I'm in band B becuase my house must have had double glazing or gas central heating where others didn't. Our house did have double glazing, although many others did too, but the heating system was the original one installed when the houses were built in the 1940's. How do the VOA know which houses had double glazing and more modern central heating systems in 1991? Did the people who valued the houses make additional notes on these things as improvements like double glazing etc are not represented in the house code (only major improvements like garages,extensions etc are) although heating is represented in the code by a simple yes or no answer. Did the VOA send out forms for house owners to fill details of their homes in prior to the introduction of the tax?

maemaesmummy

Have been advised that my banding (they feel) is correct.. and I am unable to appeal...

Is there anywhere I can go from here?

vivatifosi

gingercop wrote: »

I have just been looking through some official documents as I am in the process of informing everyone of a name change due to my recent marriage. I have just found documentation regarding my current property.

I am the second owner of the property & there has been no building work by previous owner [or myself since] which would have increased banding when I purchsed it 2004

Documents I have found [with my land registry documents] say property was purchased in September 1996 for £67, 950 as a new build. So not sure how my banding can have been set at D [property would have needed to be worth £68,001 - £88,000 in 1991, 5 years before it was built]. I have used the Nationwide calculator which puts value of property in 1991 at £62,000.

Three similar properties in road [all 3 bedroom detached houses] are also in same band.

Has anyone had experience of getting their property rebanded in similar circumstances?

Hi Gingercop,

I've been to tribunal with regard to house prices in 1994 and 1995. In our case we have been able to force the VOA to concede that prices for our new house were not dissimilar to those in 1991. My gut feel is that you should be able to show the same for where you are (though you won't have an automatic right to go to tribunal). There are four things I would do:

1. Check whether there were any new estates similar to yours on the market in early 1991 (through the local papers). Try and find houses of a similar size and type (eg end of terrace). We were able to find houses that were the same, yet more expensive in 1991, even though the VOA's assertion was that our house would have been £20k above the band's threshold.

2. While you're checking, keep in mind any houses that you have near you that there are a lot of. Try and find house price benchmarks for these, both in early 1991 and in the part of 1996 that your house was for sale. This will also give you a measure as to how the local market moved.

3. Speak to your neighbours and find out what incentives were included in the value of your house as the VOA regs mean that these should be stripped out. To give you an idea, for my 3 bed house in 1994, I managed to get pricing showing: carpeting £1500, vinyl flooring to kitchen £90, washing machine £450, garage in a block £3000. ALL of these can be taken off the price, but you can't take off the price of garages that are within the plot of the house or any built in appliances. If there are any service costs (eg part exchange price discounted against your old house rather than new, free solicitors fees paid, free survey fees, highlight these too), also, some houses offer furniture packages, so make sure you include these. I didn't get this, but my neighbour did and his took another £2k off the price!

4. Put this evidence to the VOA and ask for a reband. Also ask them to send you evidence as to how your band was arrived at. You can use the Freedom of Information Act as outlined in previous posts (close to the end of this thread).

Don't however focus on the house price engines, these only work on averages and will not give accurate data. The VOA won't take these into account. Its much better to use real, tangible evidence. It shows you know what you're doing too!

Good luck!

vivatifosi

Congratulations winnanan,

That's great news! Enjoy the big, fat cheque when it comes!

Carrie.F

I'm Band F and all the other properties in the road are band D or E,
We are a new build 1993, in a street of 1950s detached houses of similar or larger size. We failed the price test by a £1000, so fall in the correct band. We made a banding enquiry based on the neighborhood banding.
We recieved our letter saying we were unsuccessful just before Christmas.
Today my neighbor recieved a letter stating her Council Tax was being reassessed, I've just checked the VOA site and ALL the properties bar 3 on the street have an 'i' icon stating the banding is under review :eek:

I going to have to move!

givememymoneyback

HI

We bought our house in June 2002 for £82k and couple of months later a house 2 doors up was bought for £84k, I have checked on the net, other house is a band lower than us, and other half of our semi is band lower, I have e-mailed asking for review.

Just wondered as we have added conservatory and stairs into roof (not converted, can't afford to finish) do we stand much chance, we remortgaged last year house valued at £150k but in 1991 would have been £45k so still in Band B.

Also do they always come round to have a look or is it done via letter/phone?

Hope you can give me your opinions either way.

Thanks

Zebedeee

givememymoneyback, your extensions will not make any difference to your banding as it is the value of the house in 1991 which counts.

The chances are that you will get a standard letter telling you that you have been in the property over 6 months so they will not review your band. You will need to gather evidence that these properties actually came into the band B values in 1991 rather than using the calculator as evidence. If you can do this, eg. sales ads from your local paper from 1991, then it's worth putting all your evidence down in a letter and batting it back to the VOA. You need some solid evidence on your side so as not to simply result in the neighbours being put up a band!

Hope that helps!

Zebedeee

jch_2

After receiving a letter from the VOA telling me I am unable to lodge an appeal because I was out off time. I wrote back asking them to tell me how using the Freedom of Information Act the banding for our property was arrived at and why there hasn't been a re-banding following the tribunal of other similar properties in the street. Today I received a letter from the VOA, they have booked a visit to my address to take pictures of the front and rear of the property. They do not need access to the address only the rear via side gate.!!!! They will then look at whether I am in the correct banding. Is this normal ? and what are the chances of a re-banding ?