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

Lynn.A.

Thanks lincroft for your speedy reply.

There are no more houses CLOSE by to check on, there are 7 exactly the same design by me, 3 are band C, 1 is band B!!, 3 are D including mine, but they are FOUR bedrooms, mine is only a 3 bed.

The estate is quite big, I have checked on google earth and others of the same design are in band D, I can find 10, but google doesn't go inside unfortunately for the number of bedrooms!!!!! So I'm in limbo a bit, I feel like piggy in the middle.

Would the number of bedrooms make a difference to the banding?

They said my banding was 'based on evidence of actual sales of similar properties on or around April 1991'.

Is it possible to use actual 'for sale' prices in old press articles if they are still available?

Thanks again


If i can contact the previous owner who bought from new in 1989 for the purchase price would this help do you think?

System

Lynn

The problem is no resource goes back to 1991. Zoopla goes back to 1995 - it may be worth you do the following

- listing the properties and then trying to find past selling prices from Zoopla.

If you can find the ones in a lower band and then some comparable sales evidence such as the same year as your property, this may help.

In my case I found examples of flats selling for more than mine but in Band D and this worked, however mine was a newbuild, so this approach may not work for you.

It may be worth going to the search on valuation tribunals

http://info.valuation-tribunals.gov.uk/

This will allow you to search for decisions in your area.

Lynn.A.

Thanks HertsSaver

I have been on zoopla, but no properties close by to compare unfortunately, only 1 on other side of estate which sold for £77,000 in 1997(Band D). No one seems to move house here:rotfl:

Ive been searching all over to get sold prices but nothing.

Do you think the actual price paid for my house when it was built in 1989 would be of any interest if i could obtain it from the previous owner?

System

The problem is that Council Tax is based at values in 1991. If you could find all of the prices of the houses from 1989 and if yours was inline with the others in a lower band that may help.

Lynn.A.

I will attempt to find such info, but as Im sure you're aware, its like finding gold!!

I have however been on the tribunal link you suggested but nothing in my town, only a mere 41 decisions in the whole of Staffs! Not many of those were successful.

Thanks again for your advise, much appreciated

System

From my research very few tribubals are succesful. If anything it is more down to the fact that the person taking the appeal is in a very daunting place, but with proper research you can put forward a solid case to be decided.

lincroft1710

Lynn - if houses like yours were sold in 91 then VOA will have details. VOA tend to compare prices on overall house size (which they also have details of) rather than just number of beds. Check history of C band houses on VOA website, see if they have been reduced from D. You could check local newspaper archives to find out if any up for sale and what asking prices were.

frozenwater

hi i'm thinking about trying to reclaim my council tax i'm in a 1 bedroom flat that was built in a block of 10 in 2005 the other 8 flats are 2 bedroom yet we are all in council tax band c we tried to get this changed soon after we moved in but was denied at tribunal nobody came out to check the property and i often wondered if i tried as just myself if they would have dropped my 1 bed flat down as it doesnt seem fair that i should pay the same as someone with an extra bedroom plus the terraced houses in my street are all band b, does anyone know if i can try again or is it too late?

thankyou

lincroft1710

frozenwater - if you appealed against the band and it went to a Valuation Tribunal which decided the band was correct, then it isn't even worth writing to VOA (Eng/Wales) or Assessor (Scot) asking them to review your band. You will just receive the answer that your band was determined by VT as correct. You cannot make a further appeal.

Because there are only 8 CT bands, there will be a lot of different dwellings in same band. Your flat is probably towards the bottom end of Band C, whereas 2 beds are at top end.

System

THe only way round this I can see is if the other flat sells soon and your neighbour takes up the baton. Tribunal decisions are not legally binding, but I would imagine highly valued.

In my case thought the earlier tribunal at another property was not attended by the appealant and they offered little evidence, hence I was able to explain this in my case!