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

getsct

plippo wrote: »

Ive been approached by firm of consultants in Bury to process council tax appeal - anyone dealt with such a party?

Gut feel is that too many firms in this sector going bust so best to leave alone............

The company is dalton and dalton they having been hitting certain areas recently. They are a legal firm, but we do know they are using tactics stating they are working on behalf of VOA or Councils. This is inaccurate they also charge upto £200 in admin fees. In most cases the properties they approach are firmly in there respective bands. If you feel your banding is wrong then you can approach the VOA for a band review at any time. One point to remember that there is no guarantee that your banding is incorrect of course. The VOA will check this for you to see if a review is required, in some cases if yours is not lowered neighbouring properties might be increased if found to be incorrect as part of a review.

The_Bookman

lincroft1710 wrote: »

It will be from the start of Council Tax, 1 Apr 1993 (Eng and Scot) or in Wales, 1 Apr 2005, the date of their CT revaluation.

Ok, and thank you.........but.........we had some renovations done which required planning permission about 5 years ago. I've now discovered we are one of only 3 houses on our side of the street in Band F rather than Band E, and I'm wondering, in the absence of any date, and because I can't remember if the Council did or didn't.......did they change the banding then. Thoughts?

CIS

did they change the banding then.

It shouldn't have been changed if there hasn't been a sale or trasfer of ownership since the extension was built. The VOA website should show the effective date of the current band if it has been changed.

The_Bookman

CIS wrote: »

It shouldn't have been changed if there hasn't been a sale or trasfer of ownership since the extension was built. The VOA website should show the effective date of the current band if it has been changed.

Thank you again. There hasn't. It seems at least 50% of houses don't have a date on the VOA website, and those that do show the 1993 date. Which leaves me wondering why my house is Band F, whereas next door, and next door but one, which are identical houses, are Band E. Interesting,

lincroft1710

The_Bookman wrote: »

Thank you again. There hasn't. It seems at least 50% of houses don't have a date on the VOA website, and those that do show the 1993 date. Which leaves me wondering why my house is Band F, whereas next door, and next door but one, which are identical houses, are Band E. Interesting,

If a 1 Apr 1993 effective date is shown, it indicates there has been a band reduction.

GreatGoose

Four years ago - armed with all the evidence(on advice from this site) I tried to get my BIrmingham Council Band reduced to the same as identical houses in my street. We live in reasonably sized semis that have a fair amount of land. My appeal was rejected. I have now watched the reasonably size semis, doubling and tripling the number of bedrooms and occupancy, changing hands etc and still their council rates are less/same than mine. It just shows how shoddy the rating system is. They have 12 or more people living in a property - we are only 2. They are flattening their gardens to pile on extra cars - as they need to have one each. They are parking on all the grass verges spoiling the road. They must be using far more of the sewerage systems than me as well as the infrastructure - yet they pay less rates. I think if the council changed its rules to re-rate properties within two years of extensions then they would not be so broke as they are now. There are only a handful out of 40 properties in my road that are still 3 bedroomed yet we all pay the same rates

lincroft1710

GreatGoose - councils do not deal with Council Tax banding (the rates system ceased in 1990), the Valuation Office Agency (part of HMRC) deals with this. The number of people living in a property will only affect the amount of Council Tax payable if there are less than 2 adult occupiers.

Council Tax law can only be changed by parliament, as they make the laws not local councils.

In England and Wales payment for water and sewerage services have no connection with Council Tax. It is either a flat rate based on the now extinct Rateable Value, or by actual consumption measured by a water meter.

chalky22

Hi

I've read the guidance but would greatly appreciate any views on the chances of success before I decide to ask for a revaluation, please.

We've been in our house for a lot longer than 6 months. On looking through the deeds, which we only came into possession of very recently, we noticed that the previous owners of the property themselves bought it in July/August 1991, at a price within the Council Tax Band that is lower than the Band the property was valued at in that year (although not by much). This is evidenced on the Land Registry documentation clearly dated at that time.

We've checked our neighbours' properties and all are valued in the same Band as ours. We don't know whether any other transactions occurred with these properties around that time.

Are the Land Registry papers good enough reason to submit a claim?

Many thanks.

GreatGoose

Hi Lincroft1710, yes I understand that but I am making the point that the valuation office are supposed to revisit the rateable value when sizeable extensions are built as they potentially put houses into another band bracket. By not having a policy of revisiting the number of occupants in a house when it is extended dramatically they are putting another problem in its place. i.e The numbers in our area have grown four fold putting pressure on schools, rubbish collections, roads and hospitals. It seems sensible to me that the rating value should reflect the occupancy especially when occupancy goes above 6 adults and 6 kids who are collectively using more facilities but paying the same amount as a couple or a family with two or three children and a property half the size. Todays announcement that Birmingham City Council are to make £600m savings by cutting services which are front-line(as the other services went previously) does not solve the problems. Putting yet more people on the dole who can claim council tax benefit does not solve the problems. If people can afford huge extensions to their property then I would expect a £100 annual levy on that would add up to a fair amount. It would be equal to about an extra £100k per annum in this area looking at the constant building work.

CIS

By not having a policy of revisiting the number of occupants in a house when it is extended dramatically they are putting another problem in its place.

Valuation legislation has no consideration of the number of occupiers, that would need to be done through council tax legislation and that won't happen. The reason it won't happen is that it's nigh on impossible to keep track of how many occupiers are living in a property and keep those records up to date.