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

CIS

diane456 wrote: »

Can someone please advise on just how the council tax bandings are arrived at? I am in an identical property to my 6 neighbours. They have slightly smaller plots than me and we have what valuation office have classed as a double garage (maybe if they were smart cars but definitely not two small hatchbacks!). The houses were built in 1999 and sold in 2000. The other 6 went for £54500 but ours was the show home and went for £58000. We are band C and all the other houses are band B. The VO have said they are the top end of band B and we are the bottom end of Band C and that's it. Our houses are currently all valued at within £1000 of each other. Any advice please.

It based on what the open market value would have been if the property was sold on 01 April 1991 (or 2003 in Wales). If the property was not built at the time then they will apply a value as if it had been.

The banding ranges are shown here - https://www.gov.uk/guidance/understand-how-council-tax-bands-are-assessed

Craig

diane456

CIS wrote: »

It based on what the open market value would have been if the property was sold on 01 April 1991 (or 2003 in Wales). If the property was not built at the time then they will apply a value as if it had been.

The banding ranges are shown here - https://www.gov.uk/guidance/understand-how-council-tax-bands-are-assessed

Craig

I understand that and the nationwide calculator puts all the houses in band B. But the VO are saying that mine should be band C because the garden is slightly bigger and the detached garage is slightly bigger, even though the actual houses are identical in size and layout.

lincroft1710

diane456 wrote: »

I understand that and the nationwide calculator puts all the houses in band B. But the VO are saying that mine should be band C because the garden is slightly bigger and the detached garage is slightly bigger, even though the actual houses are identical in size and layout.

There is logic in the VOA's assertion, and it is quite possible if the other houses would have been worth £52,000 (Band B max), yours could have been worth £100 more, putting it into Band C. However unless your garage was a genuine double and other houses only had a single, many VOAs would not apply higher band to your home.

diane456

Thank you for that reply. I'm not sure what constitutes a genuine double. It is certainly spacious but there is no way you could fit two cars in it, unless they were smart cars. It is detached from the house, but so are all the neighbours. My house sold for more money when the properties were built because it was the end of the development so has a slightly larger plot, plus it was the show home so had all the top of the range fittings and the garden had been landscaped. My house was purchased for £58k in April 2000, the other homes were £54500. It was then resold in Feb 2002 for £58500 and then we got in a bidding war with another couple moving back North from being down South and we paid £99k in March 2003 but that included a plot of agricultural land, which I've been told doesn't affect council tax banding as it's not part of the 'domestic domicile'
Is it worth appealing do you think? It does make me a bit mad that one of the homes was 'sold' to the site foreman and banded as B and then straight away extended into a 5 bed home with a triple garage whilst the builders were still working on the rest of the development, yet it is still band B and will stay that way till it is sold, but that's another story!

lincroft1710

Diane - as you have occupied the house for 13 years, you have no right of appeal against their decision, you can only ask them to reconsider giving them anymore info than you submitted originally. How big is this plot of ag. land, has it been incorporated into your garden?

diane456

Hi, no the plot is not incorporated into my garden. It's a brownfield site behind and to the left of my garden. I used it as a field for my horses when we moved here. We had to remove the garden fence to gain access to it. Now we have replaced the boundary fence as I am unfortunately disabled. The reason the VO is giving for us being higher band than next door is on a smaller domicile plot (our overall garden excluding the field is about 10 metres square larger, and we have the larger detached garage. They accept that the houses are identical in every way and accept that mine initially sold for a bit more as it was the show home. Is there anywhere I can find out what constitutes a double garage? Measurements etc? We have a peugeot 306 and an old Beetle and we would never be able to get them both in the garage at the same time. And why is this even taken into account, it's not like it's part of the house and we can use it as living accommodation.
The VO has said I can ask for it to be relooked at if I'm not happy with her response. I'm trying to weigh up if it's worth it.

lincroft1710

I agree the field should be ignored for CT purposes. Can you tell me internal length and width of the garage pleasw

FionaJLa

Hello, I recently emailed the Council about our tax band, as all our neighbours are in B but we're in C, and we have identical houses.

They replied (really quickly too) asking for this info:
"You will need to supply me with full and specific reason why you believe the current band is wrong.

The evidence that I expect would include the following:
• Information specific to the property, being direct and substantial evidence that an error may have been made when carrying out the original banding.
• Sales evidence in the locality, very close to the 1st April 1991, which suggests that the property might be incorrectly banded. We do not accept figures from house price indices/calculators.
• Evidence that identical or very similar properties in the locality are in a different band, inconsistent with the subject property. You will need to provide addresses."

Has anyone successfully answered the above questions? I would like to make sure I don't leave anything out when replying to them.

thanks in advance!

macha81

Hi Everyone,
I was wondering if anybody came across the same situation please?

We moved into a new built 2 bedroom flat, we are yet to be sent the council tax bill. Having done some reserach we discovered that all 2 bedroom properties in the development were banded E, whilst 1 bedroom flats D and 3 bedroom houses F.

The flat is a 2 bed (70 sq m), 4th floor with 1 bathroom and 1 shower room with a balcony/terrace. In the neighboring area there is no newbuilts to compare, however the 3 bed room houses ( over 90 sq meters!) with gardens are on band E as well. The 2 bed houses just across the road are on Band D.

I was wondering if they could be knowingly placing us on a higher band because it is hard to challenge?

I'd like add that the development is quite simple and nothing luxurious like gyms, pools or concierge etc. The cost of the flat was £455K.

Thank you very much for your help in advance!

CIS

The valuation office have no incentive to place your in an incorrect band. There's nothing financial in it for them.

Craig