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

Samc87

We purchased our house in Oct 2015 for 295k. It was a band D along with the rest of the street. In April 16 our council advised they were with immediate effect increasing our band to an E. It was clear that they had done this as a result or reviewing the purchase price from 2015

The previous owners built an single storey extension about 7 yrs ago which increased the size of the kitchen and created a second living room (no change to number of bathrooms, bedrooms etc.). Similar properties have sold on the street recently (with no extension) for 255-265k (likely we paid over the odds for this as the extension isnt exactly palatial).

Is this response from the council commonplace and are we in a position to query our changed band?

Thank you in advance

CIS

The re-banding is done by the Valuation Office Agency (E & W) or Scottish Assessors - the council don't get involved and can only act once the banding has been altered. There would have been an improvement marker placed on the property when the extension was built, this caused the re-banding to take place on sale - it can take a while after the sale before they catch up and review the banding.

To query the banding you need to contact the Valuation Office Agency / Scottish Assessors directly but you'd appear to be out of time for a formal appeal . You can ask then to look at the banding to check if it's correct but the options are more limited.

Craig

Craig

John_Payne

Does anyone know where Mr Lewis sourced his information on what constitutes severe mental incapacity, as YouGov gives no exemplification. The problem is, that some GPs are reluctant to commit themselves to signing the exemption form for Parkinsons Disease sufferers. Martin Lewis, however, cites PD in his blog and was very adamant about it on TV recently - but on what basis? Some sufferers will, I fear, be exempted, some not - which is manifestly unfair.

CIS

John_Payne wrote: »

Does anyone know where Mr Lewis sourced his information on what constitutes severe mental incapacity, as YouGov gives no exemplification. The problem is, that some GPs are reluctant to commit themselves to signing the exemption form for Parkinsons Disease sufferers. Martin Lewis, however, cites PD in his blog and was very adamant about it on TV recently - but on what basis? Some sufferers will, I fear, be exempted, some not - which is manifestly unfair.

This query has come up before - there is no specified illnesses in legislation. The qualifying criteria are shown in the Local Government Finance Act 1992 and the Council Tax (discount disregard) order 1992 (as amended) - summarised here. If they meet the criteria then they can be disregarded - any refusal generally comes down to the Dr not signing the forms (I've seen it happen many times over the years)

Craig

praby

I followed the guidance on MSE and lodged an appeal online using the GOV.UK service. I received a letter headed invalid appeal. The letter said that the proposal had not been validly made because I had not served the proposal correctly on the listing officer.

The letter provides details of appeal to the valuation tribunal against the invalidity.

Does anyone know what I did wrong, what I need to do to put it right, and whether I can continue with the process of getting a revaluation after apparently I messed up? All I did was fill in the form online!

Thanks

lincroft1710

praby wrote: »

I followed the guidance on MSE and lodged an appeal online using the GOV.UK service. I received a letter headed invalid appeal. The letter said that the proposal had not been validly made because I had not served the proposal correctly on the listing officer.

The letter provides details of appeal to the valuation tribunal against the invalidity.

Does anyone know what I did wrong, what I need to do to put it right, and whether I can continue with the process of getting a revaluation after apparently I messed up? All I did was fill in the form online!

Thanks

The most common reasons for proposal not being validly made is that it is out of time. The next is that you omitted to fill in a required "field"or filled in a field erroneously. The third would be that you do not appear to be the council taxpayer and thus have no right of appeal. If your proposal is out of time, there is no point in appealing to the VT. If you omitted or incorrectly filled in a required field, then I would suggest you submit a further proposal and forget this one.

sazzlebgood?

Hi trying to find out if we can get a council tax rebate and reduction. A friend ( who has a disabled adult son) told us we should be able to get one but I'm not convinced Our situation is that our daughter is 12 get high rate DLA care and mobility due to her multiple disabilities and had to have handle rails installed all around the house to help her get around. I get carers allowance. So was wondering if anybody could offer me some advice as the info on MSE seems to only talk about been able to get a rebate if its in relation to an adult. Thanks

macman

Children under 18 are disregarded anyway for CT, and you can't be disregarded yourself as a carer if the person you care for is your own child, partner or spouse.
If your 12 year old daughter and you are the only people living there then you should already be getting the 25% single person discount. But since you refer to 'our daughter' then I guess this is not the case?
Your friend's son is an adult, so that's an entirely different situation, as will yours be when your daughter reaches 18.

talisay

I have received notification that my property has been rebanded from E to D. Thanks to all on here who helped.

I have not received a letter from the Council about a refund, just a few statements on the internet which look as though I have been awarded a four figure amount, although it doesn't mention the exact amount, and this has been deducted from the the balance I am due to pay over the next year.

My question is do I have to accept this method of refund ? I would much rather any refund in cash and pay off my credit card which has a high interest rate and then make payments when they fall due saving myself the interest. As it seems to me the way the council are doing it gives them the interest and not me.

Where do I stand on this? Can I insist on them paying the amount due to me? As I understand it and correct me if I'm wrong but do I have the right to pay my Council Tax monthly?

Thanks again fo the help

talisay

I have re-read my previous message and apokogise that it's not very clear.

What I was trying to ask was:
It looks like I am due to receive about £1300 refund due to rebanding, but the local authority are planing to take it off my liability for 1917/18. Do I have to accept this as it would be far better if the paid me the refund and pay the council tax monthly as I have been doing in the past. Hope this is clearer. Many thanks