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

lincroft1710

happymoocow wrote: »

Could anyone please advise if I am still able to submit a challenge?

You can ask for a band review at any time, but if the VOA say no, there is no right of appeal against their decision. Your request should be supported by evidence and reasons you believe the band is too high. Any alterations carried out by the current owner of a dwelling after 1 Apr 1993 should not be reflected in the band.

50Twuncle

happymoocow wrote: »

When I've looked at the claiming criteria on the VOA I don't meet any of their requirements, for example my challenge will be made more than 6 months after I purchased the house (more like 6 years!).

H

I put in a claim 2 months ago to be moved from band C to band B, the value of my property in 1991 being in the mid band B.

I was rejected on grounds of time (they told me that I needed to claim within 6 months of moving in - I have been here for almost 12 years) - Is this a valid reason for rejecting my claim ?

lincroft1710

21Twinkle wrote: »

I put in a claim 2 months ago to be moved from band C to band B, the value of my property in 1991 being in the mid band B.

I was rejected on grounds of time (they told me that I needed to claim within 6 months of moving in - I have been here for almost 12 years) - Is this a valid reason for rejecting my claim ?

If you submitted an online or paper proposal form, then it would have been correctly rejected as it was made out of time.

You can ask the VOA to review your band at any time but you should provide good reasons or evidence to support your request for a lower band.

HighlandMike

Have I done something wrong? I went through the process to determine if my house was in the wrong band and sure enough I felt I had a good case.
I filled out the council's form "Council Tax Proposal to Alter the Valuation List" only to be told by the "Assessor" (I am in Scotland) that the proposal was invalid due to the fact that I have been the Council Tax payer for more than 6 months and that reassessment can only be considered within 6 months of me taking over the property.
Has anyone else had this problem or is it only my council that has this rule?
HighlandMike

lincroft1710

Although your proposal is invalid, the Assessor should still check that your band is correct, but if he says it is, you have no right of appeal to a tribunal. The six month limit applies in all 3 countries of GB..

angus1

Hi, I'm desparately trying to cut my household costs and was looking through mse and saw this about council tax banding. I've done Martin's pre checks and yes, more or less identical next door houses are in the lower band than me and the value of the house in 1991 would comfortably fit into the lower band.

I just need to check though, does this still work the same way on new houses, for example I bought this house as a new build in 1998 so does it go on the price that I bought the house for then or what it would been if built and bought in 1991?

Also I am confused from reading through many of the comments on here that they have been rejected because it is more than 6 months since they took over the property. Does that mean I can't claim because I have been in the house for 13 years.

I am in Scotland. Thank you very much

lincroft1710

You can ask the Assessor to review the band on your home as it is not in line with its neighbours. There is no right of appeal to a tribunal if he says band's OK.

Whatever the age of the dwelling, it's the 1991 value which applies in England and Scotland.

slipons

I just wanted to report my experiences with a recent appeal.

I recently moved into a 2005 build property that is listed as band G (purchased in Aug 2010 for £342,500 & £315,750 in June 2005). property size 202 m2, Plot size 242 m2. The nationwide indices check for this sale and the original sale put an indicated valuation of around £110K for a 1991 sale. This would put the property into band E. As this set off alarm bells i proceeded with an appeal to the VOA stating my belief that the property should be in Band E/F. This was rejected by the VOA with a standard "they are satisfied blah blah".

Disappointed by this i applied for a VT citing the following evidence;

• All band G properties sold in my village on the year of sales (2005 & 2010) sold for in excess of £400K
• I cited many examples of Band F properties that had sold for significantly more than realised for my property
• Refrerenced the Nationwide house price indices that would have had to be 50% inaccurate for the property to realise band G (minimum £160K in 1991)
• Referenced other (built in circa 2005, but different configuration) properties in my nearby area that had sold for significantly more than my property and had appeals to the VOA / VT confirmed as band F
• Newspaper extracts from 1991 showing that similar configuration properties were selling for circa £110-£120K, (£160K that puts my property into band G would have bought me a similar size property to mine but with the added benefit of overlooking open fields, multi acre plots & a swimming pool.

Of course the VOA listing officer using the benefit of having 1991 data that is not available to the public evidenced multiple properties of similar property size in band G.

In the VT as well as making the above points i challenged the VOA listing officers property comparitors stating that they were all located on significantly larger plotsizes (i provided google maps evidence to back this up).

I have received the decision and have predictably lost the case. The VT were satifified that all the VOA listing officer hand picked comparitor properties were "somewhat superior" yet stated that because "i was aware of the small plotsize prior to completion of purchase and the actual price achieved reflects what i was prepared to pay on that basis" somehow the fact all the listing officers comparatives were more desirable seems to have been discounted.

The nationwide calaculator, comparisons to my village band G and band F sales and 1991 newspaper cuttings were all discounted using standard template responses. My comparitives to the recent build properties nearby that were band F despite achieveing much higher sale prices was not even mentioned in the decision.

I am left with the impression that the VOA and VT are set up so as not to give honest tax paying citizens a fair crack of the whip and have developed a method of using template responses and using 1991 data not available to the general public; as a way of not allowing anyone to challenge them. it is only reading the valuable comments of LINCROFT1710 on here that i have any hope that these are not corrupt organisations colluding with the under pressure council's that need all the income they can get.

I am now left with an option of taking this to the high court and risking £000's of court fees. I have heard you can commission a low cost (cice £150) for your case to be reviewed to establish if their is "case to be answered" in court

aside from my case i am going to lobby for a much fairer system than the current VT that sets out a much fairer playing field by ensuring all 1991 sales data is available to the general public & house price index's are established and referenceable.

lincroft1710

I'll save you £150 straightaway. You can only take a case to High Court on a point of law, your case concerned valuation only. A VT can decide which evidence it thinks is more relevant, a higher court cannot overrule VT's judgement of evidence in valuation cases.

Evidence such as house price indices is perfectly acceptable at a VT. However as they are calculations based on prices spread over a wide area, they are not such good evidence as actual sale prices and thus VT will tend to give more credence to actual 1991 sale prices. It has been proved on many occasions that HPIs are inaccurate and usually only good as a rough guideline. It may be that local prices didn't rise as much between 1991 and 2005 or 2010 as the average.

Had your home been in the areas I dealt with, I would have said a Band G on size, but not on 2005 or 2010 prices. But unfortunately it is 1991 prices which rule.

Details of any 1991 sales should have been sent to you at least 2 weeks prior to the hearing and you had the opportunity to ask for more 1991 sales had you wished. Only Parliament can agree to general release of 1991 sales details.

I've seen plenty of VT decisions where the VT has gone against all logic and decided in favour of the taxpayer. Also cases where a VT has basically overturned a decision by a previous VT on an identical house type literally a few metres away.

If you wanted to achieve something useful you would do better by lobbying for a CT Revaluation which Wales had in 2005 and England was going to have in 2007.

slipons

Thanks for your honest reply. Although i think there is an unwritten rule throughout the VT to completely disregard the indices. I agree they can be misleading and inaccurate but in my case a calculated Q2 1991 value of £109.5K against the £160K band G minimum is significant delta that should be well outside error margin tolerances. The VT just disregarded it in the standard manner. I would advise everyone not to even attempt to use the indices at tribunal, so the members have to focus on other evidence.

Respecting your honest attitude to taxpayer fairness, i do find it concerning that you potentially would have also banded at G in the VOA. Yes the property is large, but surely the most pertanent factor is the price achieved for the property? Can you offer any transparancy on the method you would have taken when banding a new build property?

I did not realise you could ask for 1991 evidence prior to the tribunal, what would have happened if i had asked for records of all 1991 sales in my village for properties in band F and G with full details of plot sizes?

I have a perception the listing officer looked for hand picked examples that bolstered the case of a banding G to take to the VT, is it common practice for listing officers to overlook evidence that could work against their case?

I am very aggreived i have not method of this been looked at by an independant court, i am absolutely convinced that by property would barely achieved a sale price in band F should it have been for sale in 1991. All i can do now is work on how the council can provide me value for my £2,600 annual CT bill!