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

Sponge

When a council revalues a property after an appeal, do they simply perform a drive-by valuation? Or do they enter the property and do a more thorough job?

I'm considering an appeal, but worried about the fact I've boarded out my loft and turned it into a storage area (not a room, no one using it, just empty boxes and bags of clothes) and they'll use this as a reason to increase the value of my house.

Or need I not worry?

yellowbelly-tummy

Here is my experiance.
In 1991 the house was placed in Band E.
My late father-in-law appealed.
The valuation officer visited, and inspected,
the result a rebanding to D.
TODAY, my wife Attorney for her Mother(92) in same
house gets info that this house is NOW Band E,
Phone call to the Valuation Office reviewing valuations
results in "you can appeal" within 6 months.
Speaking to the next door neighbourghers they have
been happily paying Band E. But the road has many types
of house, and this house is one of the bigger ones.
Yet in 1991 a Valuation Officer said after a inspection it was
Band D. As Attorney with authority to deal with my mother-
in-laws affairs, any suggestions would be appreaciated.

lincroft1710

Sponge wrote: »

Or need I not worry?

Boarding out a loft will have no effect on the band. So you need not worry.

toothfairy1977

Hi, I currently rent from my local council and my street is a mixture of 2 bed 3 link terraces. I have always wondered how it came in at a Band B as houses in the street were being sold at under £35K in 1999! I know the calculator is only a rough guide (I went into the manual search as Wales not included due to the noted more recent Welsh Assembly re-evaluation or check) however house was coming up as apx £28K in 1991. Are the council likely to have waited until the prices began to rise in 2002-2004 before reassessing? Just to check (and hoping I'm not being thick-lol!) the band shouldnt jump due to the usual rises in property prices over the last 20 years should it? Some neighbours do own the houses and one or too have done modest improvements but this is very limited/cosmetic rather than structural and houses are still basic 2 bed houses in a sheltered housing area!!

toothfairy1977

lincroft1710 wrote: »

Bearing in mind the house price indices are inaccurate and also price relativities in 1991 are not necessarily the same as today, Band B may be correct.

Although the reasons are not strong, they should be sufficient for the VOA to check your band.

this is my argument - especially as mine IS in a council estate - LOL

lincroft1710

toothfairy1977 wrote: »

Hi, I currently rent from my local council and my street is a mixture of 2 bed 3 link terraces. I have always wondered how it came in at a Band B as houses in the street were being sold at under £35K in 1999! I know the calculator is only a rough guide (I went into the manual search as Wales not included due to the noted more recent Welsh Assembly re-evaluation or check) however house was coming up as apx £28K in 1991. Are the council likely to have waited until the prices began to rise in 2002-2004 before reassessing? Just to check (and hoping I'm not being thick-lol!) the band shouldnt jump due to the usual rises in property prices over the last 20 years should it? Some neighbours do own the houses and one or too have done modest improvements but this is very limited/cosmetic rather than structural and houses are still basic 2 bed houses in a sheltered housing area!!

Welsh CT is based on house prices as at Apr 2003. The 2005 Welsh CT Revaluation has nothing to do with the council it was instigated by the English government to see how feasible an English Reval would be.

sandraroffey

re: my previous post yesterday at 9.23 am (does that make it easier to find??) can anyone tell me if losing two thirds of your garden and having a humungous built within a metre of your property, is grounds for a rebanding?? they have flatly refused her, but mostly on the fact that the new house is already in a higher band; but the new house is completely different and bigger. and also on the grounds that the council 'doesnt do' rebanding.

competitionscafe

This guy is not very popular with his neighbours after trying to get rebanded and getting put into a higher band (along with more than 40 of his neighbours). http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/edinburgh/Neighbours-get-bigger-bills-after.6546742.jp

lincroft1710

sandraroffey wrote: »

my daughter phoned her valuation office last week. and she was flatly refused. here is the story. her house is a different, higher band to the house next door, on one side of her. the houses WERE exactly the same. however, just before she bought this house, the whole of the side garden, which is huge, had been sold off as a building plot.(not by her but by the developer who bought it before she did). so it is now the same as next door in relation to the actual house, but the garden is two thirds smaller.

now, the reasons they gave over the phone for refusing, are that Arun district council never rebands and is refusing everyone. plus, the new house that has been built on the plot that was her garden (before she bought the house)and which is within a metre of her property, is, apparently a Band A so hers will not be rebanded at all, mainly because the new house is a Band A. i think hers is a band B but the house the other side is a band C.

just spoken to my daughter and she says that she and the old neighbour are both band c. she was applying for the rebanding on the basis that 2 thirds of the garden has now gone. but they sasy no. especially as the new, huge, detached place on the other side of her, is a band A, the most expensive band in the universe.

the new house that is a band A is a completely different house all together so how can they say that?? its a big detached property, whereas hers is a reglar size, ex council house, semi detached. if what they are saying is correct, then surely the owner of the new detached house could go to the council and ask for a lower banding on the basis that their neighbours is a band B?????

any help here please.

1. District councils do not allocate bands, that is the job of the Valuation Office Agency.
2. Band H is the highest band not Band A.
3. It is doubtful if the value of the large garden was ever taken into account when the banding was originally applied.

Dependent on the date your daughter moved into her home she may be able to put in appeal.

sheeps68

My flat wasn't built in 1991! I have previously challenged it and got a blank no but it still doesnt seem correct that I am in band C for a 1 bed flat. Cost £85,000 in 2001 Anyone any experience of challenging a property that wasn't built in 2001? I live in an outer London Borough.