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

Not_Watson

Hi All,

Sorry for hijacking this post...

Back in 2011, I contacted our local VOA (Taunton Deane) as our house is in band E and the identical house next-door (semi) is in band D. I received a letter back stating that they considered next door to be in too low a band and would re-assess.

Over the next 4 odd years I've been too busy to do anything more about it.

I looked into this again recently and found that in our road, the only other E banded houses are much bigger or detached (not semi-detached, like ours).

I rang the VOA and spoke to a helpful lady who sounded as if she was agreeing with me that our band was too high - she even said she didn't know why nothing had been done after the previous correspondence. She said they would look into it and it would "grind through their system" (direct quote) and they would write to us.

That was almost a month ago, so I rang today and a man rang me back.....

He started talking about all the smaller houses in our road possibly being in too low a band and said they should all really be re-assessed.....

I put it to him that the *identical* house next door (which was banded in 1993 at the same time as ours) should be in the same band as our house (please note, that I didn't mention dropping a band initially !). I said that even if they re-band next door up from D to E, we have been treated unfairly since we moved in (Feb 2008) and that we should receive a refund of the unfair charge.

I asked him if he could give me a reason why the houses were banded differently and he could not give me one. He is going to send us all paperwork relevant to our house. He did say that in 1997 the legislation changed and property owners were no longer liable to be charged for "underpayment" due to incorrect banding.....

Here's my point: I consider that since we have an identical property to next door, even if they are in the wrong band, we have suffered a loss due to paying council tax at a higher band. Therefore, I consider that we are legally entitled to a refund of this overpayment - certainly as the law states that the council are unable to charge the other property for a shortfall. They can't have it both ways.....

I said to the man, that I was not worried if they re-band next door and leave us the same - but will be requiring a full refund of the excess council tax paid over and above next door's liability.

The man gave me his superior's name and address details and said I should take it up with him (his superior is the Customer Services Manager for Council Tax West).

Please comment on the above and give any advice about what my next steps should be. I hope some of you on here can help.

Oh - and sorry for the massively long post.

All best,

CIS

Here's my point: I consider that since we have an identical property to next door, even if they are in the wrong band, we have suffered a loss due to paying council tax at a higher band. Therefore, I consider that we are legally entitled to a refund of this overpayment - certainly as the law states that the council are unable to charge the other property for a shortfall. They can't have it both ways.....

The council can only apply the banding date given by the Valuation Office - all that happens in the case of a property being under-banded would be the Valuation Office would set a new band with a current date and not backdate it to prior years.

If you were over-banded and it was wrong then you would be refunded and overpaid council tax from the date the band was reduced - if this is deemed to have been wrong from the beginning then it would be amended back to that date.

I said that even if they re-band next door up from D to E, we have been treated unfairly since we moved in (Feb 2008) and that we should receive a refund of the unfair charge.

Your council tax in this case would be right so you haven't personally suffered any loss.

Not_Watson

Thanks for your reply.

Is there not an "unfairness" case if they put up next-door's band ? We've paid in excess of £2,000 more than our neighbours since we moved in, back in Feb 2008.

If your answer is "no" to this question, what is my next step in trying to get the VOA to reduce my band to match that of the identical house next-door (the reason I applied in the first place is that I thought, and indeed still do think, that our house is in too high a band) ?

Thanks again.

CIS

If your answer is "no" to this question, what is my next step in trying to get the VOA to reduce my band to match that of the identical house next-door (the reason I applied in the first place is that I thought, and indeed still do think, that our house is in too high a band) ?

If they think your band is correct then they won't reduce it on the basis that a neighbouring property may have been under-banded. If you think your band is too high then the only option is to ask that the VOA re-consider it.

blackcat01

Hi all,

Sorry if this is in the wrong place, but I was hoping someone could offer some advice with regards to my current council tax claim.

I have lived in my house for almost 11 years at band D council tax.
After a recent query the VOA have now rebanded me and I am now in band C. When I spoke to the local council about a back dated payment, they told me they would only back date payments for 6 of the 11 years.

They told me this had something to do with a court ruling( ARCA vs Carlisle city council)?

Has anybody had an experience like this when dealing with their local council?

Has anyone appealed this with success?

I was obviously angry and it seems strange that the government thinks its ok to keep 5 of the 11 years of my honest overpayments through their own fault.

If anybody could shed anymore light on this it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

lincroft1710

The Arca case (and others) rule that the council(s) involved should refund 6 years of overpayment. However these cases do not relate to band reductions but to other reliefs.

The council is not "government", the VOA is part of HMRC and has nothing to do with your local council.

blackcat01

[QUOTE

The council is not "government", the VOA is part of HMRC and has nothing to do with your local council.[/QUOTE]

Hi, thanks for the reply.

The voa is responsible for dealing with any rebanding but the coucil deals with the back payments.

My local council has told me that if I want to appeal the decision about banding then I need to appeal to the voa. However, if I want to appeal this 6 year back dated payment rule then I must appeal to the the local council.

Why would my local council enforce this 6 year rule if it does not apply to down banded back payments?

Thanks.

lincroft1710

It may be that the council believe that the Court of Appeal's 6 year ruling sets a precedent for all forms of refund.

If you appeal to the council and the matter is heard by the Valuation Tribunal then if the council get an unfavourable decision, they may well appeal further to the High Court.

CIS

It's an odd situation as legislation does not prevent backdated reductions or discounts being applied going back to the start of council tax. My local authority is still refunding in any cases like this (very rarely for discounts but regularly for banding changes) as far as I'm aware.

The tribunal have no powers, in principal, to time limit any backdating other than on a matter of fact that has occurred. They did however in this case state that the Limitations Act 1980 prevented anything over 6 years back and therefore that prevented the backdating.

Any refusal to award and or pay out for a backdated reduction could certainly lead to an interesting court case but it would need someone with the time and inclination to fight it.

DragonQ

Since I'll have to start paying council tax soon I thought I'd take a look at the banding my property is in. Turns out it's Band C, and every other flat in my complex is also Band C. Checking historical sales over the last 25 years shows 2 Band A matches, 11 Band B matches, 14 Band C matches, and 1 Band D match. I assume because the earliest record of a sale was in 1995 and the fact that all of the other flats are Band C, that it's not worth appealing?