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

laff_2

MSE_Archna wrote: »

This thread is here to discuss the

can some one help how i do i find why the banding on my neigbours house is a band a when the rest of the road is band b have tryed to mine reduced but was told was right but could not be told why neigbours was a

lincroft1710

If you are in Eng/Wales you need to contact the Valuation Office Agency, in Scotland, the Assessor. No one else can tell you, so if you have already spoken to them, you should put your request in writing. It may be that for some reason the Band A is wrong and there is no indication why this happened.

elliedee33

Original post back in July

elliedee33 12-07-2010, 11:20 PM

Please Help,
I have followed advice from this website to check my council tax banding and found that I am practically the only home owner in my street with a band B all others and larger properties are band A. I then sent a proposal to the Lands Valuation Assessor (Scotland) to inform them that I thought that my B banding had been made in error and that all other similar properties were an A. I now have a letter from them saying that my proposal was out of time and invalid. However, they informed that I have the right to appeal in writing (within 4 weeks, not very long!) and that I should include "reasons in support of the appeal".

This is where I would much appreciate some advice as I am not sure what I should write.
The thing is, my house is an ex council house in which I have been a council tax payer in since about 1994, I bought it at a discounted price in 2002 and so I don't know where I would get the proper valuation of the house as it was in 1991 when the houses would have been valued for banding purposes. Am I right in thinking that a 1991 valuation could be used as evidence?
thanks in advance x

REPLY

lincroft1710 12-07-2010, 11:57 PM

elliedee - if you became the Council Taxpayer of your house in 1994, there is little point in you appealing as your proposal is clearly invalid as it was made well outside the 6 month time limit.
However Assessor should still review your band but if he says band is correct you cannot appeal his decision to a Tribunal. There is no website which gives 1991 house prices and being a council house, it would be difficult to find non discounted sales of similar properties. House price indices may give you a guide, but they are not 100% accurate.

Elliedee33 NEW POST

It has taken the Renfrewshire Valuation Joint Board from July 2010 until now to re-evaluate my property and all the understudy (who looked about 18) did was take a sketch of the inside of my house which took all of 2 minutes and 2 days later I received a letter saying that my band would not be changed. No explanation was given for the reason why. Should I contact them and ask for a reason at least?

Thanks in advance again

lincroft1710

elliedee33 wrote: »

No explanation was given for the reason why. Should I contact them and ask for a reason at least?

Yes, but be prepared for a generalised reply.

elliedee33

thanks lincroft, i

is there anything else i can do to get the band changed as i really cannot see why other larger properties in my street can be a lower band than mine.

lincroft1710

elliedee33 wrote: »

thanks lincroft, i

is there anything else i can do to get the band changed as i really cannot see why other larger properties in my street can be a lower band than mine.

You could ask your MSP to write to Assessor on your behalf and see if they get a more positive response. BUT I did find that (I'm ex VOA) if you told an MP you had investigated the band and it was correct, they wouldn't pursue the matter any further. So although it's worth a try, no guarantee of a result.

There is always the possibility that the bands of the larger houses are wrong.

elliedee33

p.s i forgot to say in my original post that my house is a 4 in a block first floor flat and the 3 other flats are all A and mine is a B. my flat cannot be structurally bigger than the other flats, in fact one of the flats has been transformed into a 4 bed and all the others including mine are 3 beds. surely there has been a mistake with my banding, don't you think?

lincroft1710

elliedee33 wrote: »

my flat cannot be structurally bigger than the other flats, in fact one of the flats has been transformed into a 4 bed and all the others including mine are 3 beds. surely there has been a mistake with my banding, don't you think?

There is certainly a mistake but we don't know if your band is too high, or the other bands are too low (which I suspect may be the case as Assessor is reluctant to reduce your band).

Another possibility is because Band B is low in Scotland (over £27K, whereas England Band B is over £40K) so the Assessor may be thinking that because there are 3 bedrooms, the property must have sold for more than £27K.

If the 4 bed was created by repartitioning 2 bedrooms into 3 or dividing a large bedroom, then it won't make that much difference to the value.

babyblade

Thank You Martin, with your help I won, the council said I could not appeal against there decision they said I was in band E & that was that, I knew I was right & should be in band D, I did appeal again & won.

Local Borough Council: Sevenoaks
Council Tax Band Before:E
Council Tax Band After:D
Amount refunded:£1313
Annual saving going forward:£345.23

elliedee33

i explained the situation to the valuation board and after they looked into it they called back to say that they are going to change my band and refund back until i was the tax payer :j yeeha!!!!!:T