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

lincroft1710

murmeltier - if either the band is increased or the annexe has its own band, neither will be backdated.

jaxs

I've been toying with the idea of looking at my CT banding for a while but I'm not sure if I have a case or not.

We purchased our house back in July 1993 for £58,500 and were put in band D. At that time, I remember thinking we were in the wrong band as the band table showed the following

C: £52,001 - £68,000 / £68,001 - £88,000

The houses on my road are a mixture of 2 and 3 bedrooms and the people before us extended our house to 3 bedrooms with a garage sometime back in the early 80’s. Its hard to find one on the road to compare ours to as not many have a garage with rooms above. From what I can see, the ones that do have a garage all seem to be in band C.

I’ve just checked the 1991 value on the Nationwide site and it shows as £48,516 and I used a 2007 valuation of my house that I got when we remortgaged. If the 1991 valuation is correct, we should actually be in band B (£40,001 – £52,000)!!

I would appreciate any comments or advice please as to whether it would be worth trying for this.

Thank you

lincroft1710

In the area I dealt with when working at VOA, sales evidence showed prices dropped by 20% between 1991 and 1993, so your 7/93 purchase at £58,500 would easily show £68K+ at 4/91. I don't believe values in Essex would be much different.

The further away you are from 1991, the more inaccurate the HPI is likely to be, so I am not sure why you used a 2007 "valuation", when you had a 1993 sale price. HPIs are notoriously inaccurate anyway. The correct method of valuation for CT is to look at sales of comparable dwellings in the vicinity which took place around 4/91.

It is a pity you didn't appeal soon after you bought the house if you thought it was wrong.

At the end of the day it's up to you. You can quote your 93 sale price and other houses in Band C (which may be too low), but don't bother with 2007 valuation.

jaxs

I don't know why I used the 2007 valuation instead of the purchase price either ... I was obviously having a blonde moment (I am blonde so I can get away with saying that!!)

I probably should have spoken up at the time about the banding ... but for one reason or another, I didn't!

Anyway, I just redid the Nationwide check using the '93 price and in '91 it would have been £66,979 (Greater London) - much more in line with your price Lincroft.

As it still comes into the lower band (just), I suppose I could just try and see - I've got nothing to lose!

Thanks

guppy

murmeltier wrote: »

lincroft1710 - thanks for clarifying.

We'll try and have their visit postponed (they have suggested this Friday but did mention that if this is inconvenient we should let them know to arrange an alternative time) so we can get the pipeworks removed before they come ... hopefully they don't see this as obstructing them.

Out of interest, will they be able to change the banding retrospectively for the annex? I.e. charge for previous years?

Just ask them to come in two or three weeks time because its more convenient for you.

No one has ever been fined under the legislation quoted above, and as long as you don't point blank refuse a visit, they will wait for you rather than estimate as described above. Good luck

lincroft1710

guppy - you may be right but how do you know nobody has ever been fined.

reehsetin

I'm really confused whether to ask for a re-valuation or not,
Our house is one of three band E's on the street, all of the others are C's or D's
Our house was re-valued in 1996 (co-incidently the other band E's and one D on the street have all been re-evaluated since 1991) does this mean we're likely paying the correct rate and everyone elses is too low?
the house price site doesn't show what our house sold for when the previous owners bought it but checking the house for £250,000 paid this year we show up as correct for the 1991 value band E.

lincroft1710

Was the band increased or reduced to E in 96?

reehsetin

lincroft1710 wrote: »

Was the band increased or reduced to E in 96?

we were apparently a band C in 1993 so we increased in 1996
there was a conservatory and porch built but think that was within the last 10 years so that can't be the reason

lincroft1710

reehsetin - I would ask VOA (by phone is preferable at this stage) why band was increased from C to E in 96. It may have been based on incorrect info. Don't forget if it's less than 6 months since you bought house you have a right to appeal your band if you're not satisfied with their answer.