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

lincroft1710

slackgarry said:

Watched Martin Lewis TV advice to check neighboring equivalent properties' banding.

Just starting to look into this now, Is it okay to check on other streets around in the same area, Up to 1/2 mile away.

Trying to sell my parents old property and noticed there are larger sq meter properties 1 band lower.

Thanks

By checking more streets, you will get a better picture of the banding in the area. The larger house with lower band may be incorrectly banded or may have an extension which cannot be reflected in the band until the property is sold. 

whatsitworth68

I live in an old council house which is one of a few that have been sold in my street. The first listing of my property I can find is in 2015. When comparing the price of the sold properties in my town (all identical to the last brick) the range in value covers 1000s. Taking this info and using the calculator provided on the MSE site, my property guide price in 1991 puts me in band (A) the higher valued are in the correct band (B). As it's been mentioned so many times that house prices back at the time of the banding are not available to the public, which makes the re-banding of my property an impossible task. All these house in my town could all be paying more council TAX than they should be. How can we be certain of a fare system?

lincroft1710

whatsitworth68 said:

I live in an old council house which is one of a few that have been sold in my street. The first listing of my property I can find is in 2015. When comparing the price of the sold properties in my town (all identical to the last brick) the range in value covers 1000s. Taking this info and using the calculator provided on the MSE site, my property guide price in 1991 puts me in band (A) the higher valued are in the correct band (B). As it's been mentioned so many times that house prices back at the time of the banding are not available to the public, which makes the re-banding of my property an impossible task. All these house in my town could all be paying more council TAX than they should be. How can we be certain of a fare system?

Presuming you are in England, Council Tax came into being over 30 years ago. It is therefore more than likely there has been an appeal on at least one of the identical houses during this time. I'm ex VOA and in the areas I dealt with, there were many appeals on council built properties, but none were successful as actual 1991 sales proved the bands.

MSE (and other) house price calculators are from 100% accurate, most considerably underestimating 1991 values. 

The only way to ensure your band is correct is, if you are within the 6 month time limit, to make a formal appeal. Although you will struggle to find evidence to support this, if the appeal reaches the Tribunal stage, the VOA will provide evidence to support Band B, so you would see that the band was fair.