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

vivatifosi

Hi athens04,

This thread is essentially about council tax rebanding, rather than single person discounts. If you go into the main cutting tax thread and post there, you should get an answer. Before you do that, you may want to do a search of the forum, as I'm pretty sure I've seen this question answered before. Good luck..

[Deleted User]

lincroft1710 wrote: »

flexiblefish - yes it's easy to make appeal, it can be done online by googling Scottish Assessors Association website and following Council Tax links. If you can find other similar 2 bed semis in Band C nearby, that will help your case enormously.

Thanks for that infor. none of the other houses in the close or of same structure near by are below Band D. But all these houses were built after 1991. How can you make a challenge based on neighbours if no one else has ever challanged the original banding post-1991? Is it possible to be the trend setter, or is this a minefield?

I think I will still put in the re-evaluation forms and hope for the best.

[Deleted User]

Just had a quick look. Would it be worth getting land registry deeds? would that help at all?

The property was built in 1994. Unlikely that I will find an accurate value for 1991 from that. I can't even go to the library and look through old papers and find sale prices for 91 as the estate was not built then.

what a pickle.

[Deleted User]

flexiblefish wrote: »

Just had a quick look. Would it be worth getting land registry deeds? would that help at all?

The property was built in 1994. Unlikely that I will find an accurate value for 1991 from that. I can't even go to the library and look through old papers and find sale prices for 91 as the estate was not built then.

what a pickle.

Just found a HBOS calculator, and its possibly not worth it. using the sale prices from 08, 04 and 03 I get values in Band D, D and C - really shows how in accurate these things are. possibly not worth doing.

Ill just have to give the local authority £1609.92. pa.

sabelt_2

Just started the council tax banding query.

On my estate the 4 houses that are the same as mine are all the same band as me - E. However all "smaller" houses or those that are now just as big as mine due to extentions, are D.

Im not impressed in paying more than next door but also when ive done the 1991 valuation calculation ( using an exact property sale price) we should be in band D.

what should i do

thanks in advance and if i am in the wrong place - whoops!!

lincroft1710

flexiblefish - bearing in mind it's a modern house and I accept Aberdeen is large, so perhaps not near you, but somewhere in the city there must have been other modern (say 1960s on) 2 beds on sale in 91. I have heard that Scottish prices (unlike English) increased between 91 and 94, so it's worth finding out how much house originally sold for. £1609 pa sounds an awful lot for a 2 bed.

Assessor will eventually provide evidence to support band (unless he intends to reduce band), but it may be worth contacting him and asking in which streets were the sales which led him to band your home D.

[Deleted User]

lincroft1710 wrote: »

flexiblefish - bearing in mind it's a modern house and I accept Aberdeen is large, so perhaps not near you, but somewhere in the city there must have been other modern (say 1960s on) 2 beds on sale in 91. I have heard that Scottish prices (unlike English) increased between 91 and 94, so it's worth finding out how much house originally sold for. £1609 pa sounds an awful lot for a 2 bed.

Assessor will eventually provide evidence to support band (unless he intends to reduce band), but it may be worth contacting him and asking in which streets were the sales which led him to band your home D.

OK well i wont give up hope just yet then. Ill have a search.

yup £1609 is high because sewerage and water is built in to that, for some reason Scotland builds this in to council tax bills, so you have no way of regulating your water and sewerage use. The acctual authority charge is £1230.39 and they help Scottish water out by "collecting" the rest, ~£380 for water. In my last few places in England water came to about £150 pa. So this is another reason I wanted a re-Banding as it would cut my water costs by about another £50.

I will certainly follow up and looking for a wider search radius. Thanks lincroft

mr_jetlag

Hi everyone,

Just received a letter from the VOA advising me that my band has been reduced from E to D retrospectively from 1993.
:beer:
Can anyone point me to a link / database which shows the different bands and council tax levels for Southwark? Had a little search on the forums and couldn't find any.

Thanks in advance!

ChrisCC_3

This is my first post on this subject, but I've been lurking & taking tips for a while now!

First challenge from me to VOA (Wandsworth) was in Feb '07, our property is identical to 55 terraced ones in street (but banded at Band G, every other similar property is Band F). There are 32 houses on Band G (but predominantly semi's or detached). The houses were built in blocks of 5's in 1885 (same plans) hence I know they are identical.

VOA wrote back saying valuation was correct. I then asked for a review, in July 08 (had a baby in between & didn't have time to chase!) Finally today I spoke to the listings officer who is due to visit our property this Friday.

I would love some tips & hints on what they're looking for at this visit:
they say they want to check what alterations were made to the property before we moved in (2004), but I understood that valuations were made based on 1991 sales prices in areas, and square footage of property at that time. Neither of which they will be able to tell from a visit.

Is this just a way of fobbing us off, or are there specifics in addition to the reasons I've already supplied that we should be in a lower band, that I should cover off during this visit?

Listings Officer said on the 'phone that in his opinion based on info I supplied, there is no reason why we should be in a different band - although how much weight that provides is anyone's guess!

We had a previous visit following the '07 letter, but I had a 4 week old & wasn't prepared, I could be in a similar position this time (baby 2 due any time now!), but husband will be here as back up.

Really apreciate any hints, tips, advice, as I don't want this to go on for much longer!

Thanks!

lincroft1710

ChrisCC - VOA will have details from when your home was last inspected and thus should be able to tell what, if any, alterations have taken place since. If you have made any alts since your purchase you should point these out to VOA as they cannot be reflected in your current band. Such inspections are routine, VOA do not want to reduce band if in fact it is correct and your home has extensions they were unaware of.

CT bands are based on what property would have sold for as at 1 Apr 1991, if it had existed at that date in its physical state either (1) as at 1 Apr 1993 or (2) as at date of last sale if this is later. So any alterations, extensions etc carried out before you bought the property can be reflected in the band.

LO's opinion is certainly in your favour and as it's his/her decision, very important!