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

abbottw_2

Thank you both so much for replying so promptly, I will now complete the form and send it in.

tarinilie

poorperson wrote:

Sorry about that altarf; you are indeed correct. In my annoyance at receiving the letter I wasn't thinking straight. I cannot see where they have got the info. from. I have written again to them to reassess the position. I have definite info. regarding selling prices in 2000+ and the 1991 valuation is nowhere near the CT valuation. Indeed, a property has just sold for nearly £100000 and using the calculator, the 1991 value is only £33000 now. I haven't decided yet whether to report the VOA for sending someone elses rejection with mine. I spoke to a manager and he is sending me an envelope to forward the letter on to the other person. I let him know how I felt and I may contact my MP regarding the other persons information. No doubt the DP people would be interested.

Highly unlikely your MP would waste his time on such a trivial matter as an admin error

bellabong

Hi there, Ive been in touch with my valuation officer, who has told me that certain information was supplied by the council (in 1991) and they would also ask for information on house sales from the land registry. Apparently, they are allowed the inormation from the Registry, but we aren't. I've also been to the library and looked through old Property News and local newspapers for April 91 but didn't find any matching properties at all. Any ideas or thoughts?

poorperson

tarinilie wrote:

Highly unlikely your MP would waste his time on such a trivial matter as an admin error

Although not quite the same thing, there is a thread on the CAG site where someone received someone else's bank statements. Would you class this as an Admin. Error? The MP was involved as was the Chairman of the bank concerned.

Maisie

bellabong wrote:

Hi there, Ive been in touch with my valuation officer, who has told me that certain information was supplied by the council (in 1991) and they would also ask for information on house sales from the land registry. Apparently, they are allowed the inormation from the Registry, but we aren't. I've also been to the library and looked through old Property News and local newspapers for April 91 but didn't find any matching properties at all. Any ideas or thoughts?

Has anyone tried to get April 1991 house sale information from the Land registry ?

What about Freedom of information act ?

The_magician_2

The VOA will tell the sales they have based you band on.

Newspaper ads are a waste of time as they do not give the full address random sales from the Land Reg are no use . Base your requests on location location location Same type etc

Write and explain what you want they will help

Remember 1991 is a very long time ago !!!

Maisie

The_magician wrote:

The VOA will tell the sales they have based you band on.

Newspaper ads are a waste of time as they do not give the full address random sales from the Land Reg are no use . Base your requests on location location location Same type etc

Write and explain what you want they will help

Remember 1991 is a very long time ago !!!

Magician. Do you mean ask the voa ? I wrote to them with 1991 newspaper sales information and also some documents I have here. They wrote back and didn't agree with my information on prices then and said they would not divulge where they get their information from.

In fact have said my request is invalid. Despite about 10 similar houses in local vicinity being in a lower band.

They say their band is incorrect and won't lower ours to the same as theirs. !!

The_magician_2

PM sent

I will try to help

typical_blonde

Hi, not sure if I'm doing this right - new to all this. However, need advice. Purchased house 1996 - it was a disused office building, no bathroom, no kitchen, just 2 loos and offices. We had to get permission for change of use from council, which was given (obvioiusly). However from first council tax bill they rated us Band E. Now ok it is a fairly big detached property, but we had no home comforts. We are still in the process of renovating, but have at last had the huge glass shop fronts taken out and now have started to look like a house!

I went on web site to see about banding and they have put a little symbol beside the house which means that they want to reveue the rate. I suspect it will be up not down!

So, do I try to reclaim for the past 10 years bearing in mind that it had none of the facilities of a Band E property and risk that they might put it up, or shall I just hold tight and see what happens?

Any help would be appreciated as I am useless with money, hence the fact that I've joined up - to try and become a sensible adult!

Zebedeee

Maisie wrote:

Magician. Do you mean ask the voa ? I wrote to them with 1991 newspaper sales information and also some documents I have here. They wrote back and didn't agree with my information on prices then and said they would not divulge where they get their information from.

In fact have said my request is invalid. Despite about 10 similar houses in local vicinity being in a lower band.

They say their band is incorrect and won't lower ours to the same as theirs. !!

Maisie, this sounds a bit simillar to our situation. However, I got some advice and was told that they have to reconsider under certain circumstances, one of which being that if you can find a property in your area which is in a simillar situation to you which has been rebanded following a tribunal within the last 6 months, then you too can push for a tribunal (which I think may be your only recourse here). It has made them start looking at our case once again.

You can find tribunal results at the Valuation Tribunal Service website https://www.valuation-tribunals.gov.uk

Its possible that there is no such property close to you at present, but the chances are that one will come up in the near future. Meanwhile, I'd keep on at them and see if you can get them to come round and see your house so you can show them it is not what they think.

Nil desperandum!