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

guppy

Cathkins wrote: »

Have just been rebanded from F to E (Thanks Martin) in February effective from 1st April 1993 Greenwich council records only go back to 2000/01 years so all ok from then to present, phoned and they said write in and the missing 7 years will be manually calculated, did that and have been told today that we must prove we paid council tax from 93 to 2000 with bank statements or receipts, or they will not pay out. HELP! am really very upset it's my money and I keep all statments for 5years and then shred/destroy.I phoned VOA office got halfway through sentence and she just said you're in Greenwich then, there is nothing they can do but are incredulous and have had other calls the same. I would be really grateful for any comments or advice. Thanks:mad:

Hi Cathkins

Hope you have made some progress with this now.

The council's admission that they have disposed of the records is outrageous given that the Council Tax system in England has not changed since 1993 and people are still getting rebanded on a daily basis.

I would have thought that disposing of what are effectively still live records must be considered maladministration resulting in injustice.

If you don't get anywhere, try reading this http://www.adrnow.org.uk/maladministration which gives advice on where to go next.

Good luck

krustychops

Hi Guys

Please excuse me if i have not posted correctly i am new to the site so i am learning.

Can anyone help.

I moved into my new home in December and in February i recieved a council tax bill for December 2009 up until March 2010. It was for rather a large amount so at the time when i recieved it in Feb i rang up and paid off £100. They told me that they will send out another updated bill asap. On Friday i recieved my new updated bill minus the £100 stating that if i must pay this within 7 days. In the meantime i have also recieved my bill from March through to next year again of course extremely large.
Can anyone tell me if it will be possible to pay off my bill from Dec to Mar in installments ???as i am unable to afford the full amount and not to mention my first installment of my new bill is to be paid by the 1st April.
At this moment i am getting quite worried about this.

Thanks in advance for your reply
K

monstermoo

firstly check if you are entitled to any discounts ie are you the sole occupier or live with someon who may be exempt.

See if you can change your payment date for the bill starting 1/4/10. It may be that you can change the p/date to the end of the month.

Also ask them if you can pay over 12 mths and not 10 for your new bill. Some allow this if you pay by DD, but that is up to the Council as legally you are entitled to 10 payments only.

Paying the dec-march bill via instalments is up to the Council. You will have to ask them, some do and some are not as willing. As the bill should be paid by 31/3/10.

Northants_Simon

I have a tribunal hearing tomorrow for my council tax appeal.

My house was built in 1996 and sold new in December 1996 for £79,995. It's a 4 bed detached. It was band D for council tax. In October last year I received a letter out of the blue from the VOA telling me my house was now a band E.

I have seen the sales evidence from the VOA, they have two houses on my estate which are bigger than mine, they have double garages instead of my single garage and an extra reception room. The other houses on the list aren't in my town, but in neighbouring areas.

My argument has been that A) a house worth £79995 in late 1996 was probably only worth 4% more in 1991 as prices had largely recovered by mid to late 1997. My neighbours have 4 bed houses, which although not the same style as mine, still have the same rooms and the rooms are a similar size, yet they are still band D.

On point B, the VOA say the outside measurements for the other houses in band D are slightly smaller and that is why they are D.

My question is, how much importance is put on house size, do they just work out the value based on square metres? Will the tribunal take into account the actual price paid for my house when new in Dec 1996, or just accept that all houses of a certain size are going to be band E?

rdm2007

krustychops wrote: »

Hi Guys

Please excuse me if i have not posted correctly i am new to the site so i am learning.

Can anyone help.

I moved into my new home in December and in February i recieved a council tax bill for December 2009 up until March 2010. It was for rather a large amount so at the time when i recieved it in Feb i rang up and paid off £100. They told me that they will send out another updated bill asap. On Friday i recieved my new updated bill minus the £100 stating that if i must pay this within 7 days. In the meantime i have also recieved my bill from March through to next year again of course extremely large.
Can anyone tell me if it will be possible to pay off my bill from Dec to Mar in installments ???as i am unable to afford the full amount and not to mention my first installment of my new bill is to be paid by the 1st April.
At this moment i am getting quite worried about this.

Thanks in advance for your reply
K

Speak to your local council they will probably allow you to pay by installments although they will be separate from the current year.

rdm2007

Northants_Simon wrote: »

I have a tribunal hearing tomorrow for my council tax appeal.

My house was built in 1996 and sold new in December 1996 for £79,995. It's a 4 bed detached. It was band D for council tax. In October last year I received a letter out of the blue from the VOA telling me my house was now a band E.

I have seen the sales evidence from the VOA, they have two houses on my estate which are bigger than mine, they have double garages instead of my single garage and an extra reception room. The other houses on the list aren't in my town, but in neighbouring areas.

My argument has been that A) a house worth £79995 in late 1996 was probably only worth 4% more in 1991 as prices had largely recovered by mid to late 1997. My neighbours have 4 bed houses, which although not the same style as mine, still have the same rooms and the rooms are a similar size, yet they are still band D.

On point B, the VOA say the outside measurements for the other houses in band D are slightly smaller and that is why they are D.

My question is, how much importance is put on house size, do they just work out the value based on square metres? Will the tribunal take into account the actual price paid for my house when new in Dec 1996, or just accept that all houses of a certain size are going to be band E?

Size and number of bedrooms/bathrooms do carry more weight than most other factors i.e if your neighbours house was twice the size of yours but only had 2 bedrooms would you be happy that they were in a lower band simply because of the number of rooms, I know that i wouldn't. In this case size would carry more weight than number of rooms.

The purchase price can not always be relied upon to reflect the valuation for tax purposes as the properties "condition" will affect its value to purchase but will not affect its value for tax, although this will not affect you as it was a new house but were you given a reduction in price as an incentive to buy these are the the things that alter the PURCHASE price but not its VALUE FOR TAX.

Sorry if that is negative just trying to understand why different band.

lincroft1710

Simon - the size of the house is very important as if for example you have a house of 120 sq m, VOA will look at what similar size houses sold for in 91.

The Tribunal will look at all the evidence put before them and judge its relevance. In Bedfordshire prices didn't return to 1991 levels until 1997/8, and Northants seemed to be behind, so the 1996 sale price is probably lower than 1991 value.

It is unusual for VOA to increase a band unless there is a very good reason.

JMAPUK

Hi hope someone can tell me what i can do, here is the short story !!!!

My house was banded group F i looked at the banding for houses opposite and next door to me (were originally the same size as mine, but have now got extentions on) they are on an E banding so made some enquires and the VOA has said that i have been banded wrong and they are going to lower it to band E.
Now i have phoned the Council to enquire about the 6 six of over payment has has been accumulating, they gave me a rough estimate of how much we would be getting back approx £2300, i then said to the lady on the phone HERE comes the biggy!!!
When would we be receiving this money? she said that we wouldn't it would be taken off of this years council tax :mad:.

My question is, it was there erorr that we were banded wrong we have paid that money and that money is ours, do the council have the right just to take it off of this years bill, or can we argue that we should be untitled to ask for this money back, i really would like to know where i stand on this because in the present climate i need the money that is owed

Thanks All

lincroft1710

JMAPUK - it wasn't the council's error you were incorrectly banded, it was VOA's error. Councils can credit overpayments against current bill. You should write to council and ask if they will send you a cheque for overpayment rather than offset it.

cepheus

I am trying to work out if my friends house is over-banded, however it is bit unusual and no similar houses have been sold like it in the town. Technically is is a 4 bed semi, but the area is quite large about 140 m2 with the entire grounds covering 1000 m2. It is rated a G, and the adjoining house is not surprisingly rated the same.

Obviously the size and grounds pushes it up a bit, but the age is probably more than 100 years and there is no garage just a useless broken down car porch which could easily be disbanded. The place is a mess with the roof falling in, and would take a fortune to repair, but I know that doesn't make much difference.

The most expensive semi in the town (modern with garage, but probably much smaller) recently went for 300k which is 103k in 1991 terms. On this basis my friends house should be two bands lower. Most semis go for around 220k.

Any idea how to value this, for council tax purposes, or to put it another way how does one adjust for size of house, grounds, garage and age?