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

Chriscjc2002

Morning all!

Could really do with some help and guidance,

Iv just purchased a 2 1/2 year old 2 bedroom flat in the Colchester area and having just had my council tax confirmed as a band D I was a bit shocked! and with the high maintenence charges accociated with a flat for the refuse disposal, estate roads, lighting etc this is going to be a huge sum of money from the budget!

Having checked on the VOA website the flats in my block range from a B to a D, and there isnt much size difference between them. These flats, like a lot in the area were priced superficially very high, and due to this encurred very high council tax brackets when they were first sold. I have since found out these inital selling prices were what the builder claimed and not necessarily what they were worth. Hence i have just brought the flat for 50% of its intial price just under 3 years after it was built, and the price is still dropping. Considering houses come up as a lower band, which occupy more space etc -I cant help but think this is criminal?

On the presumption if a house price goes up dramatically, tax goes up - what if the price dramatically drops like in my case?

Do any of you think I have a case here??

Many Thanks

Chris

edinburgh12

Hi All.I need some advice.My son bought a house and extended it.extention work was still going on when we all moved in the house,work completed a month later.after couple of month he gifted this house to me and my wife while we were living in it.i felt band is wrong as all other houses are lower band in street.assersor came and told us because of extention took place before its changed hand and I will count it from tranfer date.My argue is property not been sold there is no money involved not even stamp duty was paid.it is with in family we were living in it when extention took place.I never saw any where in assesors web property changed hand its only tell you after extention when house is sold next.we also paid some money towards extention.please advice me if there is any thing to argue or I just give up.thanks

angel13

Hi all

I have just sent off my letter asking for banding to be looked into - used martins pages for all my research.

We are in a house banded as an E - standard small 3 bed. I only realised that it was excessively high as we moved back in 5 months ago after renting something else for 6 months. The other house at the time was worth #50,000 more and 4 double beds and double the size of this and was only a D. I then did all the research - this cul de sac was only built in 2001 so all new houses. 3 houses next to me are identical - i know this for sure as I planned to rent one of them when we had to leave here (very long story seeing as we are now back again!) All of them are D's and one of them has built an extension on the back. I then checked the valuation section - this house was on the market whilst we werent here which has proven to be good as I know exactly what it was worth on set dates even though it was overpriced and didnt sell - using this technique and the reversal thing it shows that our band should actually be a C.

I now have all my fingers crossed that they agree as we are financially struggling as our rent and council tax are more than my partners salary and I was made redundant last year whilst off sick having surgery. Hopefully this will be the start of things improving for us

vivatifosi

Hi angel13,

Just want to check, have you given the VOA all of the values from 2001 rather than working them back using one of the House price algorithms (eg the Halifax House Price calc)?

You need to ensure that you give the VOA actual house prices rather than estimated. If you haven't already done so, get the original sales price for the house and pass this on to the VOA, the reversal price engines don't help you as 1. they are generalised and 2. new house prices didn't behave the same way as existing house prices and so don't trend the same way. You can get the original house prices from a number of sites. Just google "free house prices" and take your pick. You may also want to back up your pricing evidence with other evidence - eg to show that the houses are on similar sized plots (google earth) and that yours has not been extended.

It sounds to me like you have a good chance of getting a reband to a D but not to a C.

Suzkin

I'm in Southampton (1 bed house), a bit like my neighbours, onlt they have two double upstairs bedrooms and my second bedroom is effectively a big bathroom (with a small utility room downstairs, where my neighbour has a bot bathroom).

Anyway, I bought my housein July 1997 for £44,500. My neighbour property was sold AT THE SAME TIME for £51,000.

I've just seen HBOS calculator, and I THINK back in 1991 my property would have been in Band A (and Band B, as is currently). My calculations:

Q3 1997 72,675

Suzkin

I'm in Southampton (1 bed house), a bit like my neighbours, only they have two double upstairs bedrooms and my second bedroom is effectively a big bathroom (with a small utility room downstairs, where my neighbour has a big bathroom).

Anyway, I bought my house in July 1997 for £44,500. My neighbours property was sold AT THE SAME TIME for £51,000.

I've just seen HBOS calculator, and from this data I've made a calculation based on property prices in the South East Region.

I THINK back in 1991 my property would have been in Band A (and NOT Band B, as is currently). My calculations:

Q3 1997 £72,675 I bought my house for £44,500
Q3 1991 £61,163 My house would have sold for £37,451

£37,451 is band A, whilst £44,500 is band B

Q: Is this methodology correct? I wrote to the Valuation Office once before (without knowing these figures), and was told that my house is very similar in build to my neighbours - but it isn't quite, due to the bathroom/utility scenario, hence the difference in sale price!

My neighbours have: Downstairs - front room, kitchen, bathroom (size to have 1700mm bath)
Upstairs - 2 double bedrooms (used as bedrooms)

I have: Downstairs - front room, kitchen, small utility room (smaller than their bathroom)
Upstairs - 2 double rooms: I a bedroom, 1 a bathroom.

Any advice, really welcome - Should I re-challenge the Council?

angel13

hi vivati

for now i have just sent them a standard enquiry and not any details as to why I think it is incorrect.

lincroft1710

Chrisjc2002 - Council Tax bands are based on values of dwellings as at 1 Apr 1991. If dwelling built after that date, then band will reflect its value had it been in existence at 1 Apr 91.

Since year 2000 approx, apartments (as developers prefer to call them now) were often initially sold at inflated prices in an attempt to give development some exclusivity. Resales and comparison with other similar developments have often resulted in band reductions, as VOA realised these initial prices were OTT (I'm ex VOA). If you bought in last 6 months, make an appeal via VOA website or fill in paper form, if not, contact VOA and ask them to review band.

lincroft1710

Suzkin - from memory (I'm ex VOA and also bought in 1998), 1997 prices were about same as 1991. In area I worked, 1 bed homes took longer to reach 1991 levels, about a year after 3 bed houses.

From experience HBOS calculator is unreliable and far too widespread. The South East is a vast area and prices in S'hmptn probably didn't mirror those in say Dorking or Isle of Sheppey.

vivatifosi

HBOS also publish info by town/by year. It's still subject to the usual caveats about being aggregate (all housing types together: new/existing, flats/houses, good/bad areas), but does show how prices change from town to town. May be useful as another check on a particular area, though as it is aggregate I know the VOA don't like it.

Can be viewed here: https://www.hbosplc.com/economy/includes/posttownhistoric_data.xls