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

CIS

Lawsy72 wrote: »

So I have successfully been re-banded!

Does anyone know who I write to about the rebate?
Is it my local council or the VOA?

Thanks in advance

The council will organise any refund once they have been officially informed.

abigailflo

Hi
I have the same build property as my father built on the same estate by the same company at the same time. He and my late mother bought their property in 1984 as a new build for £22000. According to our council tax band (we are both in this is for properties valued over £40000 at 1991
I find it hard to believe the property shot up that much in 7 years in our area. I bought my property in 2004 for £42,502. Is this worth reclaiming a reband. All the sane properties ie three bedroomed in my cul de sac are classed as band b but similar three bed roomed properties in my local area just down the road are all classed as band A. Any advice would be most appreciated

lincroft1710

abigailflo wrote: »

Hi
I have the same build property as my father built on the same estate by the same company at the same time. He and my late mother bought their property in 1984 as a new build for £22000. According to our council tax band (we are both in this is for properties valued over £40000 at 1991
I find it hard to believe the property shot up that much in 7 years in our area. I bought my property in 2004 for £42,502. Is this worth reclaiming a reband. All the sane properties ie three bedroomed in my cul de sac are classed as band b but similar three bed roomed properties in my local area just down the road are all classed as band A. Any advice would be most appreciated

£42,502, as well as sounding an odd amount seems very cheap for a 2004 purchase. Unless the 3 bed Band A houses are on a council estate it is possible they are underbanded. Can you find out if any of your neighbours bought in around 1991?

abigailflo

Sorry I should have said I bought this property from a housing association purchasing a quarter for £11,000 in 1999 and then the remaining three quarters for that figure in 2004 (that was the housing association valuation) I have checked nationwide price valuation website for 1991 house prices and by putting in total price paid its giving a valuation of £24,119. Just wondering whether I have a case to challenge the band I'm in

lincroft1710

abigailflo wrote: »

Sorry I should have said I bought this property from a housing association purchasing a quarter for £11,000 in 1999 and then the remaining three quarters for that figure in 2004 (that was the housing association valuation) I have checked nationwide price valuation website for 1991 house prices and by putting in total price paid its giving a valuation of £24,119. Just wondering whether I have a case to challenge the band I'm in

Your purchase price is probably not open market value, so of no use in trying to calculate a 1991 value using NW house price index which is inaccurate anyway. Without some actual house sale price evidence from around 1991, in short the VOA will not do anything.

abigailflo

lincroft1710 wrote: »

Your purchase price is probably not open market value, so of no use in trying to calculate a 1991 value using NW house price index which is inaccurate anyway. Without some actual house sale price evidence from around 1991, in short the VOA will not do anything.

Thank you for replying

Edgehill

I rang the valuation office Agency to make an enquiry about my council tax band . As I believe the CT banding of my house is incorrect. My house was built in 1973. The CT band is G. I gave 5 examples of detached 4 bed houses in the immediate vicinity which were in lower bands. I was told that I needed evidence of detached properties which were built 1965-1972. My first question is : Has anyone else been given a timescale like this? My second question is: Where did you find the date in which other houses were built? It seems to be a disadvantage having a detached house as most have been built at different times in my area. I have driven around trying to guess if any of the detached houses were built 1965-72 but I have no way of checking . I tried the land registry and they couldn't help. Hope you can help

abigailflo

Edgehill wrote: »

I rang the valuation office Agency to make an enquiry about my council tax band . As I believe the CT banding of my house is incorrect. My house was built in 1973. The CT band is G. I gave 5 examples of detached 4 bed houses in the immediate vicinity which were in lower bands. I was told that I needed evidence of detached properties which were built 1965-1972. My first question is : Has anyone else been given a timescale like this? My second question is: Where did you find the date in which other houses were built? It seems to be a disadvantage having a detached house as most have been built at different times in my area. I have driven around trying to guess if any of the detached houses were built 1965-72 but I have no way of checking . I tried the land registry and they couldn't help. Hope you can help

Martin Lewis talks about this in tv and makes it sounds easy and its not, I've given up, confused about the whole rebanding, others use the nationwide tool and I've had advice saying its not reliable. Confusing!

CIS

Edgehill wrote: »

I rang the valuation office Agency to make an enquiry about my council tax band . As I believe the CT banding of my house is incorrect. My house was built in 1973. The CT band is G. I gave 5 examples of detached 4 bed houses in the immediate vicinity which were in lower bands. I was told that I needed evidence of detached properties which were built 1965-1972. My first question is : Has anyone else been given a timescale like this? My second question is: Where did you find the date in which other houses were built? It seems to be a disadvantage having a detached house as most have been built at different times in my area. I have driven around trying to guess if any of the detached houses were built 1965-72 but I have no way of checking . I tried the land registry and they couldn't help. Hope you can help

They're giving the dates as examples of similar age properties for comparison purposes. The value of those properties around 1991/92 is then needed. The land registry won't directly provide data but where they can provide it (and you know what you're looking for), it's for a fee.

abigailflo wrote: »

Martin Lewis talks about this in tv and makes it sounds easy and its not, I've given up, confused about the whole rebanding, others use the nationwide tool and I've had advice saying its not reliable. Confusing!

The Nationwide tool is indicative only, it's not accurate enough for the finer levels of the sale prices that are needed. The process is not always easy when it comes to rebanding and it's not always available.

I'm still seeing an increase in the number of banding queries that come in to my work email box - I tend not to deal with banding issues but I'm starting to wonder if I should !

jks2019

Following a successful re-banding activity, the Valuation Office (VO) confirmed the new band to me and advised the local authority (LA) had also been notified. I waited for just over a week and then telephoned the LA to be informed they had not received anything. I checked again a few days later, still nothing apparently. I then rang the VO who confirmed the re-banding notification had been sent to the LA electronically on the same day I had been notified. I rang the LA again last week and was given a direct line number to ring today to speak to the member of staff dealing with the re-banding and related issues. I rang the number to find it was the now defunct telephone number of a local theatre - I would like to think this was an error, but not too sure.

I rang the council tax LA number again today and was advised they do have the notification, but as the lady who deals with this is only in three days a week and they have a back-log from beginning of February, they are unable to tell me when it will be dealt with. Very fed up with being given the run-around by the LA.

Has any other successful council tax re-bander had problems sorting out their re-banding with their local authority? Any ideas/suggestion on how to get things moving on this?