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

lincroft1710

milliesdad - just read 15 Herbleaze decision - interesting!! £270K in 10/07 and Band F confirmed. My former neighbour sold for £227K in 12/07 and in Band D, and this would have been lower half D in 91, prob £75K max, and size about 105 sq metres. I do think you have an uphill struggle, but you may be able to persuade Tribunal that your part of development is so inferior in location compared with 15 Herbleaze that it warrants lower band.

EDIT

Forgot to add that if similar houses in Staverton Marina sold at same time as yours for more money then that is useful evidence.

Gaia_Angel

Rebanding Scotland!

Posted a long long time ago regarding our house which I think is wrongly banded. To cut a long story short our house is in a band above all identical semi-detached houses in our street. Seems clear cut but unfortunately our local authority (south ayrshire) seem to be sticking hard to the 6 months to appeal line. The most annoying thing is that they have continually failed to provide a valid reason why our house is in a higher band. After many letters (and lost letters funny how important letters go amiss !) we have eventually been granted a tribunal. Yeh! However it appears we are only allowed to appeal against the fact that we made our first claim for rebanding within the 6 month time frame. They state that we will not be allowed to discuss the banding to the panel at all! We openly admit that we were outwith this time frame from letter one so the entire hearing seems to be just a farce and waste of time in going. Anyway the fighter in me is quite happy to waste their time GGGRRR!!

Situation to me seems totally unfair - why should some local authorties not impost the 6 month rule while others do? Surely it should be the same regardless of where you live? Anyway writting for any help/advice/facts/figures to go armed with. Normally I would have done the research online myself however my little girl has just got out of hospital and after a week in hospital with her I don't have the energy. Hearing next week. So calling on help from anyone who knows the ins and outs of the scottish system or some hard facts on specific cases where people have been granted rebates outwith the 6 month period. Thanks for any help.

lincroft1710

Gaia Angel - by wasting their time, you are doing yourself no favours. Time assessor will spend on preparing/taking case could be spent actually investigating your band. Contact assessor and say you accept your appeal is out of time and thus invalid, would they please investigate band.

When I was working for VOA (English/Welsh equivalent of assessor) obvious invalid appeals were very annoying, the time spent preparing/taking case could have been spent on someone else's valid appeal, or even band of invalid appeal case. Consequently when invalid appeal dismissed by Tribunal, taxpayer's request for rebanding would drop back to bottom of pile.

Gaia_Angel

lincroft1710 wrote: »

Gaia Angel - by wasting their time, you are doing yourself no favours. Time assessor will spend on preparing/taking case could be spent actually investigating your band. Contact assessor and say you accept your appeal is out of time and thus invalid, would they please investigate band.

This I can totally understand but we have asked and asked them to investigate invalid banding but it would appear that the only avenue open to us is to appeal against whether our appeal is invalid or not. I think every other door is shut to us? Only when our appeal is granted as valid will they consider looking at the banding. As our appeal is outwith the 6 months I think our only course is to provide cases where people have been rebanded outwith the 6 month. That said I will phone them tomorrow to discuss other avenues open.

WelshConan

lincroft1710 wrote: »

WelshConan - when you say "provisionally", what exactly do you mean as Valuation Office Agency who deal with banding of dwellings don't usually issue "provisional" bands. If you want to appeal go to VOA website, follow links to CT Wales and online appeal forms. Nationwide and other house price calculators are not recognised by VOA so just say neighbouring identical house (quote full address) is in Band B.

On my Council Tax Demand is says 'Your property is in band: c prov'. So I assumed they have given me a provisional banding.

Cheers

lincroft1710

Gaia - your appeal cannot be determined as valid if it is out of time. Band reduction can be made by assessor at any time if he considers it justified, even if request made outside 6 months time limit, but it does not set precedent for appeal made out of time to become valid.

lincroft1710

WelshConan - I suggest you check on VOA website to see if your house is there, as I believe the "provisional" band is a council guesstimate and at present your house has not yet been banded. If this is the case then you cannot appeal against the band as there is no band!

Council's action is not uncommon, but whether the bill is enforceable in law I don't know, but in any case you will owe CT from Dec 08. If official band is B, then any overpayment would be refunded/credited to your account.

WelshConan

lincroft1710 wrote: »

WelshConan - I suggest you check on VOA website to see if your house is there, as I believe the "provisional" band is a council guesstimate and at present your house has not yet been banded. If this is the case then you cannot appeal against the band as there is no band!

Council's action is not uncommon, but whether the bill is enforceable in law I don't know, but in any case you will owe CT from Dec 08. If official band is B, then any overpayment would be refunded/credited to your account.

Cheers lincroft - that makes sense as I could not find my house on the VOA website.

kaneno1

I have been fighting my CT banding for some months now and have received numerous standard letters stating that I am outwith the six months and they are satisfied that my banding is correct.

I have a " Hearing of Appeal" on 29/4 and the letter makes a point of stating that the purpose of the hearing is to discuss the refusal to accept my proposal to alter the banding and no other purpose. I know I have a strong case for a rebanding as mine is the only property in the street in my band and one of only 9 out of 169 identical properties in the immediate area, with no improvements to my property which would warrant this.

My question is, has anyone who appealed outside the six months came up with an argument to get them past the initial hearing so that they might put their argument regarding banding.

thanks

Gary

lincroft1710

kaneno1 - having dealt with CT appeal cases for 12 yrs (I'm ex VOA) I've never come across an out of time appeal which a Tribunal ruled valid. The six month rule is absolute, it is basic rule in Council Tax and set down in law. It wouldn't matter if you lived a semi derelict caravan which was in Band H and clearly incorrect, it would still not make an out of time appeal valid. Obviously in such a case the VOA (England/Wales) or Assessor (Scotland) would be asked by the Tribunal to correct the band if he hadn't already done so.

The only possible circumstances where a Tribunal might give taxpayer benefit of doubt would be if a proposal was received one day outside the 6 months, yet it could be shown it was posted 1st class, two or three days prior to receipt.