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

Orinoco80

Hi all, this is my first post here so be gentle.
I challenged my council tax banding just over a year ago and have meant to have posted this long ago but I was turned down. The reason seemed to be under the heading "Banding Differences - Modernisation"
What I find difficult to comprehend is that I live in a center terraced house where all in all there are 39 houses 19 of which are band B and 20 band C. Mine is in the middle of the road (band C) with 2 band B's either side......How can this be fair?

cathodetube

I think that everything is being turned down now due to the council funding cutbacks. Hard to prove, but it's my theory.

CIS

I think that everything is being turned down now due to the council funding cutbacks. Hard to prove, but it's my theory.

The council have no say in the matter - the VOA is financially separate from the council (the VOA will do what they want irrespective of the councils).

cathodetube

Like I said, hard to prove, but I think there are machinations going on behind the scenes.

lincroft1710

cathodetube wrote: »

Like I said, hard to prove, but I think there are machinations going on behind the scenes.

Hard to prove because it is simply not true! If a few bands are reduced, council just adds a few pounds on to amount payable per band or close the odd library.

grbh

Folks, a bit of advice please - and apologies for the length of the post!

My wife and I bought an extended 4 bed semi in West Sussex in July 2012. Two of the bedrooms were quite small so we knocked them through to make one big bedroom, effectively reducing our house from a 4 bedder to a 3. We paid nearly £290,000 for it and having had 2 independent estate agents value it, they said it would be worth about £270,000. We are a band E, every other house in the street bar one is band D, including the one we are attached to who have gone up into their loft and extended out the back, giving them more square footage than we have.
The new value put us back in band D, so I contacted the VOA to challenge it. They initially turned it down, but when I lodged intent to appeal, they sent someone round. He agreed with the estate agents valuation, but the fly in the ointment for us is that the house sold for £85,000 in April 1995 as a 4 bed. That valuation put it in band E by £2475!
I've done loads of research into it and found at least 10 properties that are bigger than ours, sold for more money around the time we bought ours and yet they are paying over £600 a year less than us, including two about 50 yards from us!
My argument around the inflated price for our house in 1995 will be that it was the only 4 bed semi sold in our village in the whole of 1995, so it could command a premium then, hence the £85,000 price. The only other comparable property was a 3 bed detached which sold for £95,000, is bigger than ours and, yes, you guessed it, a band D!
I'm just wondering, having read all the law relating to the appeals process whether we will be wasting our time due to the selling price in 1995?

lincroft1710

grbh wrote: »

We are a band E, every other house in the street bar one is band D, including the one we are attached to who have gone up into their loft and extended out the back, giving them more square footage than we have.

If the extensions were carried out by current owner after 1 Apr 1993, they can't be reflected in CT band.

The new value put us back in band D, so I contacted the VOA to challenge it. They initially turned it down, but when I lodged intent to appeal, they sent someone round. He agreed with the estate agents valuation, but the fly in the ointment for us is that the house sold for £85,000 in April 1995 as a 4 bed. That valuation put it in band E by £2475!

VOA don't usually comment on current prices!

I'm just wondering, having read all the law relating to the appeals process whether we will be wasting our time due to the selling price in 1995?

Just take it to Tribunal and let them decide.

grbh

Thank for the reply Lincroft. The extension was built in 1985, so unfortunately that bit doesn't help. It did surprise me somewhat when the Valuations Officer came round, agreed with the two estate agent letters I showed him and actually said that we were a very borderline case. My only worry is that I will get to the tribunal, set out what I think are quite sound, rational reasons as to why we should be re-banded and they will go solely on the details of the 1995 sale.

Bit of a toss of a coin by the sound of things.

lincroft1710

grbh wrote: »

Bit of a toss of a coin by the sound of things.

As are many tribunals where there is no good 1991 sales evidence. Tribunals don't always reach the expected decision and there is currently a thread on another board where the taxpayer is seriously unhappy with their decision.

Many of my former VOA colleagues and I have all had tribunal decisions go against us when we were supremely confident of winning. Conversely there has been the occasional decision in our favour which we expected to lose.

Ivy_Bank

We've just bought a flat for £125,000 which is in band C. Using Martin's calculator it would appear that it should be in band B, so I took a look at my council website. According to the information there (I can't post a link, but search "Scarborough Borough Council Valuation bands and charges" and you'll get straight to it) the flat should be in band F! There is no mention on their page of 1991 valuations, so anyone looking at the table provided is going to think they've got off lightly. Is this deliberately misleading, or am I missing something?

Can the VOA base a revaluation on a recent property sale price, or would they just say that we underpaid for the flat? I've looked at the neighbouring flat sales, but there have been very few, and I'm finding it difficult to work out which have one, two or three bedrooms. Ours is only two beds, but also has a garage. Is the valuation based solely on the sale price in 1991, or does floor area/amenities come into it, too?