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

clairey22

Hello,

Hoping someone can help. We have recently moved into a new 4 bed house. The previous owners made some changes to it as follows:

1) Knocked down wall between dining room and kitchen to make one large kitchen. The kitchen units cover all walls if that makes sense it isn't a kitchen/diner just a very large kitchen.

2) Added a single story extension on the back of the house brick walls and flat roof (not a conservatory).

We have been moved from band E to be band F and I want to know if this is correct? The property still has the same number of bedroom and reception rooms as before (two reception rooms - the lounge and extension) as we no longer have a separate dining room. There is no new bedroom as extension is single story. The footprint of the house has increased though because of the extension at the back.

Looking at similar properties in the road shows me the following:

House that was sold on same day as ours (identical but without the extension or changes to kitchen and dining room) sold for 40K less but is still band E

House that sold for same price as ours 6 months ago but has a conservatory-type extension but has kept the dining room (ie so now has 3 reception rooms) is band F

Majority of the other 4 bed houses (probably about 30 houses) are band E apart from one that is band F and that has no extension or changes to it as far as I can see.

What do people think? I was hoping to appeal. When I put my postcode in the checker it comes back as the value in 1991 was £114K

Thanks in advance

Claire

lincroft1710

VOA compare size rather than number of reception rooms and/or bedrooms. The extension could have brought the size into line with houses which sold for £120K plus in 1991. Any house price index or calculator can only be a guide and these can easily be 10% inaccurate.

The two examples you quote don't help your case, so you would need to find some better evidence if you intend appealing.

hyposmurf

There are the same housing types on the development I live on that are the same tax band.If though I look at a neighbours house that is similar size and number of bedrooms they are on a different tax bands?They both sold during the same period, but this neighbour's house sold for more, but is on a lower council tax band so they pay less council tax.
If I run the calculator here:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/council-tax-bands-change
for my house when I bought it (at discount) and then for the owners who initially bought the house before me, I also get different tax bands.

So I'm a little confused as to how the council tax banding is applied.Is the council tax banding calculated on the initial sold for price of the property if it is after 1991?

lincroft1710

hyposmurf wrote: »

So I'm a little confused as to how the council tax banding is applied.Is the council tax banding calculated on the initial sold for price of the property if it is after 1991?

Although the best method would be to find 1991 sales of similar size and type houses, or to compare with established bands of similar houses, some VOAs will look at the sale price and either use house price index or compare the sale price with those of existing similar houses being resold at the same time and band the new house, the same as the existing.

There is a possibility that the neighbouring house with a lower band has been incorrectly banded.

liddiaellen

Hi

I was reading the guide to getting re-banded last week and phoned the VOA who called back today ran through the details and asked me to send them an email.
I am not sure what and what not is really important in my claim and am hoping for some advice as it is an odd one like my house.

I live in a road that is mainly 1900s ish and no more than 8 or so houses of anyone style.
The terrace next to me has four houses originally built in the same style as my house three are band D rebanded in 1993 one is band e no different from other four. The terrace my house was attached to was built identical to the next terrace and then many years ago three of the houses in my terrace were demolished to allow for a new access road. My house is now detached but has the inherent issues of an internal wall with pebble dash skim functioning as a full flank external wall and the roof has little to no support on the side, where the other properties were demolished. I understand this could be considered to be an inherent fault not maintenance and affect valuation.

We bought this house as it was the only house we could afford in the road and with the hope of extending or demolishing and rebuilding ,;life dosent always go to plan.

We purchased the house in 1992 after long negotiation in 1991 . We paid 70k originally offering 60 and 65 and then accepting lights, carpets and curtains and paying 70k.
We have been banded as band E

We do have a detached external garage middle of back garden (yes its odd)but the turning angle is to tight to use as a garage even in a mini and it is asbestos so not safely use-able and now derelict anyway.

Any help of salient points would be so gratefully received.

lincroft1710

liddiaellen wrote: »

My house is now detached but has the inherent issues of an internal wall with pebble dash skim functioning as a full flank external wall and the roof has little to no support on the side, where the other properties were demolished.

We purchased the house in 1992 after long negotiation in 1991 . We paid 70k originally offering 60 and 65 and then accepting lights, carpets and curtains and paying 70k.
We have been banded as band E

We do have a detached external garage middle of back garden (yes its odd)but the turning angle is to tight to use as a garage even in a mini and it is asbestos so not safely use-able and now derelict anyway.

Any help of salient points would be so gratefully received.

My first question would be, why didn't you appeal back in 1993?

With regard to the construction, as the house hasn't fallen down in the 22 years, it doesn't seem to be that much of a problem.

Asbestos cement sheet garages are perfectly safe to use and in 1993 asbestos wasn't a safety concern. There would be far more value in the off street parking element, rather than the inexpensive building erected thereon.

But as you paid £70K in 1992, I can't see that this house would have achieved in excess of £88K in April 1991, which is an extremely salient point and probably the only one you need.

liddiaellen

lincroft1710 wrote: »

My first question would be, why didn't you appeal back in 1993?

With regard to the construction, as the house hasn't fallen down in the 22 years, it doesn't seem to be that much of a problem.

Asbestos cement sheet garages are perfectly safe to use and in 1993 asbestos wasn't a safety concern. There would be far more value in the off street parking element, rather than the inexpensive building erected thereon.

But as you paid £70K in 1992, I can't see that this house would have achieved in excess of £88K in April 1991, which is an extremely salient point and probably the only one you need.

Thanks for the help
You are correct I should of appealed back in 1993 and if this happened now yes i would of appealed asap. The thing is in 1992 before we moved in here on Christmas eve to be a family we were living apart me with my parents and our son and my now husband with his parents.
I was 20 years old and busy with living with the love of my life for the first time, living away from my parents for the first time, bringing up our first child and being a new Mum. So much so new, appealing council tax bands is something that i would not of deemed possible if i had thought of it.
Short answer as why i did not appeal I was young naive and very much in love.

I am not sure what exactly is classed as an inherent problem would it be falling down as that could be maintenance issues which this is not. It has taken a lot of maintenance to keep this place standing. And trust me an internal wall functioning as external is a severe issue and can cause many ongoing issues that a true external wall does not.

Asbestos is a big issue for me as I have lost multiple family members to illnesses that have now been linked to asbestos. Some lived in Asbestos houses now demolished some worked in the Asbestos factory.

Thanks for all the advice will wait and see what happens not sure how long it will all take.:T:beer:

lincroft1710

Sorry to hear about your family members.

If you have a list of all the maintenance done on the rogue wall, it may strengthen your case even more. I'm surprised planning allowed the other houses to be demolished without requiring that wall to be reconstructed to external wall standards.

The reason I asked about appealing earlier was that when I worked in the VOA, one of the common reasons for rebanding was "I bought my house for less than £x" when x was the lowest figure of the respective band. Also you could have gone to Tribunal if a reduction was refused. Unfortunately some councils will now only backdate reductions 7 years, so if did get a reduction you might get back only a third of the overpayment

liddiaellen

lincroft1710 wrote: »

Sorry to hear about your family members.

Unfortunately some councils will now only backdate reductions 7 years, so if did get a reduction you might get back only a third of the overpayment

Now I know that council will be mine they have a very bad reputation

hyposmurf

lincroft1710 wrote: »

Although the best method would be to find 1991 sales of similar size and type houses, or to compare with established bands of similar houses, some VOAs will look at the sale price and either use house price index or compare the sale price with those of existing similar houses being resold at the same time and band the new house, the same as the existing.

There is a possibility that the neighbouring house with a lower band has been incorrectly banded.

Thanks for your reply.It seems from what I can see is that they have banded the houses of similar size/bedrooms by housing type rather than their size or sale price.For instance I live in a house that is housing type A and my neighbour is housing type B.Both houses are the same floor area and same number of bedrooms.Type B's initial sale price was higher then type A, although type A pays the higher band.Quite odd.