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

lincroft1710

mrbrown wrote: »

I'ld like to appeal against my tax band, but Im nervous that if I appeal then there's a chance the neighbour's band will go up! How probable is this? The neighbours are in the same band, but they have done a few renovations.

Unless the renovations were carried out before 1 Apr 1993 (Eng and Scot) or 1 Apr 2005 (Wales) or by previous occupier, CT band cannot currently be increased on account of improvements to a dwelling.

mrginge

Evening all,

have been investigating our council tax banding and am thinking about challenging it. Any thoughts on likely success appreciated...

our house - in a block of 10 2bed terraces, Band B. at 91 prices we are at about 39k, just under the 40k band A banding.

All the houses in our terrace are band B, all identical.

However.... the other side of the road is all ex council, 20 either 3 or 4 bed semis or detatched. All of these are band A.

I find it ridiculous that we are higher band than these significantly larger houses but can see a strong argument that it's the other houses who are wrong so if i appeal our band, could i actually end up costing them 20years of underpayments? While that would be quite funny i don;t really want my car setting on fire by a gang of angry neighbours....

lincroft1710

mrginge wrote: »

but can see a strong argument that it's the other houses who are wrong so if i appeal our band, could i actually end up costing them 20years of underpayments?

Council Tax band increases aren't backdated, so the council house occupiers would only pay on the increased band from the date the band was increased. It is quite probable that the council houses have been banded in line with those on large council estates - hence the low band.

As house price websites are inaccurate the Band B may actually be correct, but there is no harm in asking for a review.

andymb

Is there any way of finding out what CT bills were in years gone by. Trying to work out what refund might be due?

lucia85

lucia85 wrote: »

I have asked for a second review so fingers crossesd as it this has to be done in my local voa.

Will keep everyone updated on this

Well still waiting for the resluts of my second review! anyone know what can be done if i still get no joy from them?

andymb

lucia85 wrote: »

Well still waiting for the resluts of my second review! anyone know what can be done if i still get no joy from them?

Appeal again. Iv just had mine reduced from a d to a c after my third letter. We had to list all the work carried out to bring our property up to date, if you can back it up with pics and receipts

lucia85

andymb wrote: »

Appeal again. Iv just had mine reduced from a d to a c after my third letter. We had to list all the work carried out to bring our property up to date, if you can back it up with pics and receipts

Ok i really need some help now, im going round and round here, i provided all the information from Nationwide and other relevent website that showed that in 1991 houses in my street sold for £30k but was put in band B, I challenged this and was turned down so asked for a second review, this has come back saying no a house sold in 1990 for £48k i cant see any sale for that amount in that year..i thought when banding took place in 1991 they looked at price for 1991 not 1990 so they have refused that it should be a A.
Where have you all looked for you house price sales in 1991 as my local VOA are saying they wont use any of these site as evidence so not sure what to do next as it clearly states it should be band A!

vivatifosi

Lucia, they won't accept the house price reband data because it is too generic. Your best bet would be getting house adverts for your area from the archives of the local papers, or by speaking to neighbours who have lived locally for a long time and may be able to give you (or tell you from whom to get) the appropriate evidence. In terms of looking through the papers, asking prices and selling prices aren't the same, but it was very unusual in 1991 for a house to sell for more than the asking price. I used a lot of evidence from local papers in my case and it helped enormously. The more actual data from the time you can get with relevant comparables, the better, but it isn't always easy to get.

sillerha

Hi there I have just joined and am hoping someone can answer my query.

A house that I owned for nearly four years (moved out when sold in 2008) was dropped a band in 2009. I paid council tax at band E for that duration and now it is band D.

Can I lodge a claim for the difference for the time I lived there???

lincroft1710

sillerha wrote: »

Can I lodge a claim for the difference for the time I lived there???

Provided that the band reduction was backdated to include the period you were in occupation, the answer is yes.