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

lincroft1710

BigNige - as there is virtually £32K between top and bottom of Band E it is quite possible to have very different properties in this band. Nationwide and other house price indices are notoriously inaccurate, often by 10 - 15%. If you can search local newspaper archives for 1991 asking prices of similar flats to your GF's, you may get some ammunition for your case.

merlin1961

Hi all

Can anyone help please.

I have a friend who is Band C and she has a 2 bed flat.
My 3 bed house just up the road is also Band C which doesn't make sense to me.I have looked on the VOA site but her flat doesn't appear there and neither does any house/flat in the road.Could this be because they were built after 1991?

In which case how can i find out the official bandings for her road?

Also how do they decide bandings for properties built after 1991.

I'm sure these answers may already appear somewhere but 150 pages is a lot to read.

Cheers for any help.

Rolandtheroadie

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/council-tax-bands-change#1991

milliesdad_2

We have appealed our tax band and have a hearing on 24th April. The VOA has said that the general house pricing index is not a true guide and is thus not a valid argument. Has anybody experienced this before OR is it just the VOA calling our bluff.

His evidence is based on 2 streets, one of which is in Swindon, some 40 miles away from where we are, which is a large town whereas we are rural. The other is a quite select village about 15 miles away !!!

He also has provided evidence where several houses have remained in our band that are similar in square footage, etc. and are in our locality. My argument will be that just becasue they have remained in that banding doesn't mean the banding is right - it just means the people in those houses haven't appealed against the banding !

ANy advice would be welcomed !

lincroft1710

milliesdad - I'm ex VOA and dealt with literally 1000s of Council Tax appeals and band reduction requests. The VOA has details of virtually every property sale in the country, so if you had sales for the same house several years apart it was great fun seeing just how inaccurate both Halifax and Nationwide guides were - average 10 - 15%.

By the term "remained in the same band" did VOA in fact mean the band had been appealed and either taxpayer had withdrawn appeal or tribunal hearing had determined band correct.

I personally would never, never have used comparable properties 15 miles away, let alone 40!!!! Unless of course the appeal dwelling was so different and unusual - but I don't think this applies in your case. Or perhaps nearest village is 15 miles away - and I don't think Wiltshire is quite that rural.

I would ask VOA for some comparables within 5 mile radius of your home.

ant_purley

hi, before I moved to this house about 2 years ago it had a huge rear garden of around 150 feet.In common with the 6 houses to my right these were sold for conversion to flats which now overlook our rear garden,leaving us with around 50 feet each.All the properties are of a similar size to ours ,or even bigger,but are in band E when we are in band F.I dont know when or if their bands were changed.What are our chances of a rebanding as the lady at the VOA was not hopeful and actually quite unhelpful.
I have just looked at the nationwide house price index and it says my house would have been worth 102000 in 1991.Is this worth mentionong in my letter.?Thanks for any replies.

lincroft1710

If the lady at VOA you spoke to, was the person who would be dealing with your request and you told her everything you intend putting in a letter, then I am not very optimistic. As I have posted many times, house price indices are inaccurate and VOA have details of virtually every property sale in country, so not worth mentioning.

If you go to VOA website www.voa.gov.co. and follow links to Council Tax, you can check neighbours' bands and their histories.

Now if these flats were built after 1 April 1993 (England and Scotland) or 1 April 2005 (Wales), the 6 month time limit does not apply as you can appeal on grounds of "material reduction due to physical change in locality" and have right of hearing by Valuation Tribunal. Doesn't guarantee reduction but in this case VOA's decision wouldn't be final one.

ant_purley

lincroft1710 wrote: »

Now if these flats were built after 1 April 1993 (England and Scotland) or 1 April 2005 (Wales), the 6 month time limit does not apply as you can appeal on grounds of "material reduction due to physical change in locality" and have right of hearing by Valuation Tribunal. Doesn't guarantee reduction but in this case VOA's decision wouldn't be final one.

The flats were only built about 1 year ago.Sorry for not making it clear.The land I mentioned had already been fenced off from our house which we bought from the developers.would I be more succesful going doen the 'material reduction' route or could I use this and the lower bands of my neighbours as factors. On the VOA site it shows that they had band F in 1991 but this was changed in a couple of them in 1993.
Thanks again.

lincroft1710

Material reduction is primary route, as you can make valid appeal, backed up with neighbours' lower bands. A weapon in each hand is far better than just one in one hand.

julians_2

I've just had my property re-branded (down two grades!). MSE says I might be able to backdate a claim now since I moved in. In my case this was 25 years ago.

Do people think I could backdate my claim to 1991 when the system was introduced?