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

Zebedeee

Hi brigittecampbell. Have you spoken to the VOA and asked them how they have come to their conclusions? It all sounds very strange and if I were you I would like to know the reasoning that has gone on behind this. Give them a ring or write to them and ask them to justify themselves. It may be that you should be a lower band - obviously somebody thought so!

brigittecampbell

I certainly intend to follow their "complaints procedure" as they so kindly included a small leaflet with this recent letter!

Problems_2

Hi again folks - many thanks for the further replies...

Well, yesterday I travelled approx. 20 miles to the local Valuation office, and handed over a large envelope, in which was a 4 page letter, and approx. 14 pages of "comparisons" etc. We sent aerial images of 14 different houses in our village, outling in marker pen, all the total "areas" of each house, and gave details as accurately as possible, as to how many bedrooms, etc., each property had and outlined roughly what size plot each house was situated in.

We emphasied that each of these 14 properties were NOT subject to a Section 106 Local Occupancy agreement, and that in almost every instance, each property was much LARGER than ours... Most of the properties we listed are "luxurious" properties - come of them being "Executive style", etc.

Several properties at least were in only Band E, despite them being much larger houses than ours, and most of them had huge gardens, etc. with enough room to park several cars in the driveways...

The rest were Band F's - the same as ours, despite these other properties being substantially larger, and luxurious, etc... Three of the properties have HUGE gardens - one approx. 1 acre, one approx. 2 acres, and a third having 3 to 4 ACRES of adjoining gardens and adjacent paddock.

We are now waiting on "tender-hooks" ... the woman who is apparently dealing with our review, is apparently away all of this week, and is not due to be back at work until Monday 10/11/2008.

IF we are successful though and receive a 14 year refund - can we also request "interest" on each of the yearly difference between a band E and a Band F ?

Also, if they do reduce our banding down to E, how long will we have to wait for the refund please?

many thanks for all your help & kind regards.

Problems

lincroft1710

Council will not pay interest on any refunds. The reason may be that Council Tax law makes no provision for such payment, but I could be wrong on this point. When a council is informed of a band reduction, it is usually only a few weeks before refund issued.

CIS

Council will not pay interest on any refunds. The reason may be that Council Tax law makes no provision for such payment, but I could be wrong on this point. When a council is informed of a band reduction, it is usually only a few weeks before refund issued.

Your right - legislation does not allow for any interest. Some people have apparently had luck with getting some paid by the VO.

lincroft1710

VOA are very reluctant to pay any interest and when I worked there, policy was only to pay interest where VOA had neglected to reduce band of identical house in same street where others had been reduced or had wilfully not reduced a band which should have been reduced (very, very rare).

campari

Hi, found this thread and trying to put together a request - am I right in sending to it the Valuation Officer for my area?
My house was derelict in 1991 - so how do I estimate the value - it was bought at auction then refurbished then valued for sale in 1996 but the value in 1991 or 1993 was still as a derelict house??? - also all my neighbours are on lower bands so not happy as Ive been summonsed by the council re tax arrears! been paying too much for eleven years by the look of it!! hmmmmmm

Zebedeee

Hi campari,

Your property should be valued according to its sale value in 1991 if it were in a good liveable condition. So, although yours was derelict then, you have to assume for the sake of valuation that it should be valued comparably with simillar houses in a simillar location in a good state of repair. See if you can find houses of a simillar worth to yours now and check to see how they compare. That will give you a good indication of how to proceed.

Hope that helps!

Zebedeee

allgar73

Hi there, first time on the site, and have to say great tips on here - well done. Anyway, my parents have been disputing their council tax band for past year to no avail - they live in a street of 15 ex council houses, 14 have been on band A council tax since 1993, theirs has been on band B since then. Lanarkshire joint evaluation board won't even look at this as its after 6 months. What can they do??????

Thanks for reading and hope someone can give some advise

Zebedeee

Hi there allgar73 and welcome to moneysavingexpert! As you say, there is some great advice on this board - we do our best to be of service!

Firstly, is your parents' house exactly the same as the others in the street? If it is on a larger plot or had had any extensions by 1991 that could explain the difference. If it is exactly the same as the others then the VOA need to be giving you a jolly good explanation of why the tax band is different! Although they like to put you off if you are outside of the six month limit they are obliged (the Council Tax manual says so) to maintain their listings fair and accurate without anomolies.

In addition, another way round this is to go off the back of a challenge to the band of a property in a simillar location to your parents' house. If you search the listings you might be able to find a simillar property in a different street who have had their band changed and then you can appeal on the back of that, withing six months.

It might also be worth writing to their local MP. They might be able to chase something up.

Let us know how they get on.

Zebedeee