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

kaw35

Hi - I've challenged our C/T branding, that it should be reduced from an E to a D having followed all the guidelines on these pages...I've just received notice from Gtr Manchester Council that they will not be changing our grade to a D nor do I have any right of reply or appeal - their word is final and thats that! Is this right is there nowehere left for me to go? My appeal was based on neighbours being in similar properties and being a grade D and, the valuation test which has us in 1991 £5k below the £88K cut off for band D. Any suggestions where I go from here?

lincroft1710

For a start it is the Valuation Office Agency (part of HMRC) who deal with CT bandings not GMC. If you had lived in your home for more than 6 months when you challenged the band you have no appeal rights. If the neighbouring properties are identical rather than similar, you could ask VOA why they are in D and you are an E.

apjilly

We bought our new-build house two years ago and since the council band was set, an opencast site has opened up very close to our home. We now have much more dust on our outside windows and windowsills and the opencast traffic leaves the surrounding roads dirty.

The same house builder built homes of exactly the same style as ours on the other side of our town, well away from the opencast. If we can confirm that the identical houses on the other side of town are in the same council tax band as us, despite us having to put up with the added cost, inconvience and less pleasant way of living than those houses, is it worth us requesting a review of our band? I'm sure the value will have gone down as a result of the opencast (although it's difficult to see how much drop in value is due to this and how much is because of the recession).

I know it could go up or down but I really doubt it would go up when the conditions are worse and the banding was set so recently.

Thank you. j

lincroft1710

Even if the presence of the open cast mine devalues your home, both it and the houses on the other side of town can in theory be correctly in the same band. Your house types could be at the top of the band's value range and the effect of the open cast on its value could merely put it at the bottom of the value range but still in same band.

To give a very extreme example : house in England in 1991 is valued at £300K, putting it into Band G (£160,001 to £320,000). Noxious chemical works opened next door knocks off a third of its value, so although now worth £200K will still be in Band G.

What you will have to find out is whereabouts in the band the pre opencast value of your house was. The difficult part is quantifying how much the value of your home has decreased since the open cast started operations.

The good news is that you can make a proposal in such circumstances (known as "material reduction") and this would entitle you to a hearing by the Valuation Tribunal. I would suggest that you speak to the Valuation Office Agency (E and W) or Assessor (Scot) first as they may already have other cases on this.

mumof21wcf

Well, I got a reply to my review and they are not going to alter by banding.
They are satisfied that the value of my property lies within the current band of E. They say the banding was based on evidence of actual sales and not the estimate using the house price indices. Has anyone been able to get information from the library showing house prices in their area in 1990/91 to use to lower their band? If so, what did you do?
They considered the similar properties I referred to that are in lower bands but feel they could be in error or changed on appeal. To alter the bandings of similar properties to make them consistent would merely compound that error. They will consider whether the bandings of any other properties in the area need to be increased. My property is the same as the two other properties but I used the word similar. Can I ask them to measure mine to assure it is in the correct band?
They say I cannot appeal but I can make a proposal that will be accepted as valid or if I wish to have anything clarified I can call and they have given me a name of a VOA officer handling my case.
Can I take this any further? One neighbour lives two doors down, same kind of house, lived there all of his life. He worked as a planning officer for the council. The other neighbour is next to my property on another road they don't have a gargage but it did have one in 1991. I explained that most houses on this street have extensions or a small room off of the kitchen but our properties do not. Any sugestions or should I just accept the outcome?

lincroft1710

You can ask VOA to remeasure your home.

I am confused by the sentence "They say I cannot appeal but I can make a proposal that will be accepted as valid". The words appeal and proposal in VOA speak mean the same thing. If you can make a valid proposal you should do so. You would then be given the actual sales evidence the VOA have used to band your home and have the opportunity to present your case to the independent Valuation Tribunal.

evilfi

We recently applied to the assessors office to have our council tax banding assessed again as slightly larger houses in our area were a lower banding. Unfortunately instead of putting ours down they realised they had made an error with theirs and put all their bandings up. Sorry!:(

avisk

I live in a 1970s development of flats, which are in three blocks, six flats to a block. Two of the blocks have direct views of the river, with no road in between. The other block has an oblique view of the river and a direct view of a road and other houses.

In 2008 the VOA came round and measured up some of the flats for a revaluation. As a result, the flats in the blocks with the direct view of the river were moved up to the next Council Tax Band while the other one remained the same.

Although this happened two years ago, it has only just come to light that the flats, identical in all respects other than the view, are in different bands.

As I am in one of the flats in the lower band, I am not too concerned about this, but I am curious to know if having a nice view is a valid reason for being in a higher band?

And if the owners of the other flats successfully challenge the difference, would it mean that their Council Tax would go down, or mine would go up?

lincroft1710

It all boils down to what the flats would have sold for in April 1991, the difference between the value of a riverview flat and a non riverview flat could put them in different bands, especially if non riverview flats' values are near the top of a band.

If VOA increased riverview flats' bands in 2008, it can't have "just come to light". Those flat occupiers would have had 6 months from date of band increase to make an appeal against the increase, they cannot appeal to have bands of non riverview flats increased.

They could only now query the band and it is doubtful the band would be reduced back down as there would have been compelling evidence to have increased it in the first place. A new occupier however can appeal the band within 6 months of first becoming occupier.

cecthesaddler

Is it still the case that if an appeal has been sucessful, you cannot claim interest?