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

lincroft1710

Tribunal decision is legally binding insofar as if a Tribunal determines a lower band for appeal dwelling, then the Valuation List must be altered to reflect this decision.

New_Saver09

Are there any template letters to use when writing to my Local Listing Officer?

scooter56

Hi everybody, this is my first post although I have been using the site for ages.
I have followed the advice here on council tax rebanding and have today received my "get lost we are not going to reband you letter"! I am probably being very thick but simply cannot understand how this works. I bought my house in December 1992 as a new build and the price paid was within band D valuation. When Council tax arrived in 1993 the E banding was given which I queried at the time and was told that it was all new and queries would be sorted over time. Well as a busy working wife and mum it did get forgotten (Yes I know I should have chased it!) and then of course I saw the reclaim info on here and decided to have anothe go. What I need explaining to me in words of one syllable is how the banding was E when the cost was in band D and that in 1991 when valuations were set there was no house here or anything locally to compare it with.
I would really appreciate some advice or opinions as I feel more ripped off than before I started the process

lincroft1710

scooter56 - because of falling house prices at the time, Apr 91 prices were lower than Dec 92. In my area the difference was over 15%, so a £90K house in Apr 91 would have fallen to around £76K by Dec 92.

scooter56

Thank you for that. I do get that bit but my house was not built and nor was there anything similar to it in the area at the time. It is a end of terrace town house and most of them around here are detached which I believe are usually in a higher band. My sister paid the same for her house in the same week and successfully got her council tax rebanded to a D and hers was a detached house in a rather nice area - different billing council though! I have found that a 4 bed detached house at the end of our road is a D - I just can't see how they arrived at my banding

lincroft1710

scooter - what did you pay for your house?

scooter56

I paid £83,500

lincroft1710

scooter - that price would suggest that Band E may be correct. Are the other houses in your terrace also E, or are they smaller than yours. I would ring up VOA and ask why the 4 bed det house is only in D - it could be in wrong band, or may be extended and VOA unaware.

The only way you could persuade VOA to revisit your case would be to try to find nearby similar houses to yours in lower bands.

murmeltier

Hi,

I wonder whether someone can help

We received a letter from the VOA today saying they want to visit our property because someone else (not us) in our road "have compared their semi-detached house to yours and have drawn to our attention the apparent discrepancies in the band. I understand that your property is a semi-detached house like theirs but may also benefit form an Upper Annex and Lower Annex"

As far as we know, these extensions existed well before 1991, other neighbours have had similar extensions as well and checking the VOA website shows we're in the same band as all the neighbours with extensions, so I'm not sure what exactly they want to check.

My questions are:
Could this visit result in a negative impact for our banding, i.e. could they decide to change our banding resulting in a higher council tax for us?
Am I legally obliged to let them enter my house or could I just tell them that I'm refusing entry?

Thanks for your help.

nanny1111

can anyone help me with this i live in scotland queried my band c and received a letter that stated i was outwith the 6 months time limit but if i could show them proof that it was wrong i could appeal within 1 month,which i have done that was 6 weeks ago and havent heard anything more from them,can i take this to mean that i have been refused or does it take this long to deal with a thing like this,any answers would be gratefully appreciated.