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

lincroft1710

pipadeepip - are you sure it was 2004 when band changed and not 1 Apr 2005 as Wales (unlike England) had a Council Tax Revaluation and every dwelling in the principality had new band based on 2003 value. Band ranges were also changed.

DougS_2

We took photos of similar homes, looked up their Council Tax band, explained how they were similar and justified why we should be put in a lower band in comparison.
The situation seemed to be that several of the houses had been extended and not been sold since the "2nd gear" bandings were done.

System

Well it is my tribunal tomorow. I have drawn up what I feel is a very thorough and fair case which has highlighted a number of inconsistent decisions.

Will post more on my experiece later.

lincroft1710

DougS - so it seems your examples are underbanded rather than you being overbanded. Unfortunately a lot of houses have been extended and have either not been sold or VOA are not aware of extensions.

DougS_2

We have always been band D and the other houses are similar (i.e. detached etc) but as you say have always been lower band (C)

Regardless of the fact that VOA don't know about their extensions, they were originally banded lower than ours and since further alterations the banding structure is even more distorted.

Whatever the technical arguments, we are left with the annoying fact that the banding situation is a complete mess which we have no way of altering.

The impression given on this site is that it is almost a foregone conclusion that if you present a good case, you should get a reduction and I think VOA are just hardening up their responses based on a poor initial assessment which they are sticking to.

Thanks for your comments but this will be my last post on this disappointing outcome.

System

You also have to factor the whole appeal process is very long winded. I have been working on my case for some 6 months and in my development, many neighbours appealed to the VOA, but when the original decision was upheld, the prospect of a tribunal daunted them.

Having been through this process, I am still stunned that the first appeal is heard by the same listing office who set the band.

Once my outcome is known I will post more of my experiences on here.

fortunecookie_2

Hello everyone,

I have just had a letter from the council stating that they are prepared to reduce our council tax to a band 'E'.

I dont know what to do next...

It says the reduction is in effect from April 2003 (we have lived here since 2006) and the reduction will be "done " on the next update schedule.

Anyone know what this schedule is? Is it the statement thingy you get each year with all the payments on? If so, we have only just had ours....seems silly for us to carry on overpaying for best part of another year.

I would really like the overpaid money back in my account.
Does anyone know what is the best way forward with this?

Thanks for the advice so far, I have only got this far because of people on here.

x

lincroft1710

fortunecookie - the letter will have come from the Valuation Office Agency, they are part of HMRC and deal with Council Tax banding. The update schedule is a list of dwellings whose bands need altering. This is usually only done once a month, it is a computer operation and new band will appear on VOA website and council will also be informed.

Depending on amount of money to be refunded, council will either adjust current year's payments or send refund cheque. This may take a few weeks, depending when update is carried out.

lincroft1710

DougS - without knowing the sales evidence on which VOA arrived at original banding, or what details they have about all houses, we will never know what their reasoning.

Former colleagues have recently told me that they are taking a hard line on enquiries, especially where taxpayer offers little or no evidence that band is wrong, they don't have time to do anything other than most cursory investigation - MSE has generated far more work than they can cope with.

System

In theory does this mean that there will be more tribunals, less time for VO to prepare, so more chance of presenting a better case?