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

avnire

Hello all,

I live in a Victorian terraced house in Camden, London, which is converted into 13 bedsits. All flats share 3 toilets and showers. Previously the council tax was built in our rent but as a bedsit apparently counts as a dwelling, we have to pay our council tax. The landlord initially offered to reduce the rent accordingly - as you may have guessed it never happened.

I have just received my first council tax bill which is 119 pounds per month, as we were ranked to Band C. It means that my lodging with shared toilets/shower costs more than 16% more! Honestly, it's shocking!

I understand the steps to take to check other similar properties'banding. In terms of checking house prices how can I prove that my room cost less than 40K in 1991? Shall I check the full price of a terraced house and divide it by the number of rooms to estimate how much a bedsit would cost?

I really hope to get rebanded to Band A. I live in a room with an electric hob (=self contained kitchen) and shared toilet/shower, it's not even a studio! It's just ridiculous that we have to pay council tax at all in my opinion!

Any advice you could give me would be kindly received.

Thanks in advance.

lawrence88

Hi again Lincroft 1710, sorry if I seem to be confused, you appear to be backing the VOA & BA with this time limit of 6 months, am I getting wrong what you are saying? All these threads indicate successes going back many years with large refunds, so my question was is the information on this site that mse has given re Brandon Lewis of no use? Is the VOA officer I am dealing with correct when she says she has made a decision, there is no appeal. Seems an autocratic system to me.

arthur22

I'd be grateful for any advice - I'm considering asking for a rebanding on my house which cost £110,000 in 2010. I know that it sold for £42,500 in 1998 and was bought as a new build for £31,400 in August 1986. It is band B currently which would mean that it was valued at over £40,000 in 1991 which does seem high compared to the 1986 price.

It's a bit tough to compare locally as it's a one-bedroom house with no garden so can only really be compared with cheap one-bedroom flats (the handful of other one-bedroom houses on my road are also band . I've found a number of flats within just a few streets of me that sold for more than £110k in 2010, some selling for up to £120k, that are in band A.

Would this be enough info to ask for a reband? I am also thinking of looking at the local paper archives to see if any of the small houses in my street were on sale in 1991 but it's a long shot as there are only five or six.

And I'm wondering if it is best to find prices in 2010 to compare with, as that's when I bought the house, or to go back as far as possible and look at prices then? For example there was a sale of a one-bedroom house in my road in 1995 that was for £35,000.

Any help would be gratefully appreciated!

lincroft1710

Yes the info re Brandon Lewis is of no use.

Parliament decided that 6 months was sufficient time to appeal against a CT band. Outside this time limit, the VOA would review any band if requested to do so, but there could be no appeal to a Valuation Tribunal against its decision.

lincroft1710

arthur22 wrote: »

I'd be grateful for any advice - I'm considering asking for a rebanding on my house which cost £110,000 in 2010. I know that it sold for £42,500 in 1998 and was bought as a new build for £31,400 in August 1986. It is band B currently which would mean that it was valued at over £40,000 in 1991 which does seem high compared to the 1986 price.

It's a bit tough to compare locally as it's a one-bedroom house with no garden so can only really be compared with cheap one-bedroom flats (the handful of other one-bedroom houses on my road are also band . I've found a number of flats within just a few streets of me that sold for more than £110k in 2010, some selling for up to £120k, that are in band A.

Would this be enough info to ask for a reband? I am also thinking of looking at the local paper archives to see if any of the small houses in my street were on sale in 1991 but it's a long shot as there are only five or six.

And I'm wondering if it is best to find prices in 2010 to compare with, as that's when I bought the house, or to go back as far as possible and look at prices then? For example there was a sale of a one-bedroom house in my road in 1995 that was for £35,000.

Any help would be gratefully appreciated!

The chances are that the VOA will say that houses should be compared with houses, not flats. Because of the fall in prices from 1991 to 1995 a sale at £35K indicates a 1991 value in excess of £40K.

1991 sale prices will always be the best comparison, but these will be difficult to find as they are not in the public domain.

I would just present the info you have to the VOA and see what they say.

arthur22

Thanks for the advice lincroft. I've done a bit more digging on rightmove and managed to find one row of one-bedroom houses fairly close to me that look so similar to mine they might have been built by the same developer.

Most are band B but five are band A. Interestingly, all the band A house have a "with effect from" date on the VOA database - am I right in thinking that means the owners have challenged the banding at some point? If so that might mean this row of houses is my best comparison for my own challenge. The houses are very similar in price to the ones on my road and the historical prices they sold for in the past are very similar as well.

lincroft1710

Either they have been reduced or they weren't built until that effective date

lincroft1710

avnire wrote: »

Hello all,

I live in a Victorian terraced house in Camden, London, which is converted into 13 bedsits. All flats share 3 toilets and showers. Previously the council tax was built in our rent but as a bedsit apparently counts as a dwelling, we have to pay our council tax
we were ranked to Band C.

Shall I check the full price of a terraced house and divide it by the number of rooms to estimate how much a bedsit would cost?

I really hope to get rebanded to Band A. I live in a room with an electric hob (=self contained kitchen) and shared toilet/shower, it's not even a studio! It's just ridiculous that we have to pay council tax at all in my opinion!

Having checked the VOA Council Tax Manual -http://manuals.voa.gov.uk/corporate/publications/Manuals/CouncilTaxManual/council_tax_man_pn/m-ct-man-pn5.html#TopOfPage -
it would appear that the VOA are correct in applying separate bands to each bedsit.

Finding the 1991 price of a house of a similar size and type and dividing by 13 won't give you the price for an individual bedsit. Phone the VOA and ask why these non self-contained bedsits are in Band C (I presume all 13 are each Band C). Secondly, try to find bedsits or studios in the area in Bands A or B.

PipsyPea

Hi,
All the terrace houses on my road are band B, but even in 1999 (this is the earliest date I've found specific prices) they were selling for less than 40k. Surely they are all supposed to be Band A? But reading the article is basically says not to bother challenging. Surely this can't be right. Any comments?
Thanks.

lincroft1710

There is a possibility that prices remained depressed in your area until after 1999. Are these council built houses? Was this 1999 price for a repossessed or run down property?

It would do no harm to ask the VOA why the terrace houses are in Band B.