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

lincroft1710

strathearn - as 1995 prices tended to be well below 1991 prices, your Band G is probably correct.

lincroft1710

philcooling - 1991 is the relevant year, not 1992. Also Nationwide price index is unreliable, tends to undervalue 1991 prices.

Greycow

Sorry, this may have already been asked but I haven't trawled through all 178pages of the thread...

Anyway, looking into this my neighbour is in Band C whilst everone else in the street is in Band D.

If I claim could I drop him in it rather than get my own CT lowered?

Thanks

lincroft1710

Greycow, it is a possibility.

sosimple

I bought my house 8th April 1993 for £51,000. It is in Band C (£52k to 68k) I have provided Voa with my solicitors letters stating the purchase price and they have just rejected my claim. What else can I do?

lincroft1710

sosimple - as 1993 prices were generally lower than 1991 (valuation date for Council Tax purposes) Band C is probably correct.

shoegaljax

I moved into a new build home in 2007, my band was set at F, as were a few others in the street with the same type house as mine and larger houses. all others were set at E, even though the houses cost the same. Ones built the year before that cost up to £20,000 more and larger homes were again Band E. I did the calculation on Nationwide which stated my house would have been approx £61,000 in 1991 - putting me well within Band E.

I contacted my local valuation board and they have stated I am at the right band but are now going to look at my neighbours homes to re-evaluate their bands - nightmare!! On looking into this, they will have to go back to houses built over 10 years ago, as most the same size as mine are Band E.

My problem is she is comparing my house to new builds in 1992 - I would like to challenge her on this and prove houses sold in 1991 similar to mine were valued in Band E but how can I find out 1991 house sale prices in my area??

lincroft1710

Shoegaljax - from the info you give re bands I presume you are in Scotland. As far as I am aware there is no actual 1991 sales information available to the general public. If you had been able to make a valid appeal the Assessor would give you details of relevant 1991 sales.

You may be able to access archived newspaper property ads, but they would only show the "offers over" price and not actual sale price.

leitmotif

Hi Lincroft, I don't suppose you know exactly where the VOA get their selling price figures from do you? I just spoke to the Land Registry and they say they don't hold information prior to January 1995, and even then this is rare. I presume this means they no longer hold it, but handed over data to the VOA en masse at some point in the past?

lincroft1710

leitmotif - when a house is sold solicitors have to complete a form (was a single sheet known as Stamps (LA) 451, but now multi page) which they send to Stamps Office and Land Registry who used to forward copy to VOA. Currently LR download details to VOA.