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

bronking

carrying on from a successful rebanding,

here are my tips on rebanding stratergy:

1 gather as much info as possible good or bad (act as though your in there shoes, remember if you cannot fully justify rebanding to yourself your unlikely to convince them)

2 have more than 1 evidence of each subject in your favour, they are likely to argue each part. so if you say your house was bought in 2000 and according to your calculation as to its value in 1991 would put it in say band D instead of E, look for other evidence i.e. the house may have been bought earlier say 1997 http://www.nethouseprices.com/index.php recalculate again to see if this would also give same outcome.

3 Take pictures of reasons for reband, ie buildings next door, road changes,look at virtual world ariel photos to enphasise changes in environment

4 always keep things looking professional in correspondence and make notes of all telephone conversations

5 see how your property was calculated, in the case of extremely large houses, have a look into the size of your hall/stairs it could be argued that your house looks grand outside but in fact if alot is taken up with large hall/stairs/landing this gives a false impression of floor space when they do their calculations

6 if first knocked back do not go straight off to tribunal, these guys are snowed under at the moment and don't need the hasle, so if you go at things informally thay will check things out, then and only then if you go to tribunal and it becomes formal they will need to do the work again which they will be reluctant to do.

so in order:

phone up, strike up a friendly conversation and always converse with the same person, they will probably ask you to send a letter detailing the reasons why your rebanding is wrong.

send letter to that person, they will send you a letter back saying you property is in the correct band,

phone up again (with all your info in front of you) and state why you disagree (politely) with their assessment and then hint at tribunal

they will say that you need to fill in (formal application) form, then if its rejected, then you can go to tribunal.

as last resort (before formal letter) ask them to come out in person to see for themselves

but remember you will know yourself if your just trying it on, so only go down this route if your not

tarinilie

Maisie wrote: »

How does the system work when houses have been extended?
Does the council inform the voa when work is finished?

I'm wondering why so many extended houses are not brought to the attention of the voa ? Especially after a sale when the council tax banding might change.

I've noticed in this area that many extended some years ago (and house sold) have not had a c/tax banding change but recently extended houses have had an indicator( i) put on their banding or banding changed.

Are the councils/voa more on the ball now and keeping their records up to date?

Maisie,

the planning department informs the VOA when alterations have occurred - Out of c. 400 councils some are better at informing the VOA then others.

The VOA is also told when houses sell and should look at the banding in such cases where alterations have been carried out .
Naturally not all alterations will result in a band change - It will depend whether it kicks it into a higher band.


Tarin

tarinilie

lostnfound wrote: »

Im sitting here absolutely furious with the scottish assessors office after being told on the 1st of February that my re-band had been successful i have now recieved this years council tax bill and guess what im still a bleedin band C, phoned the assessors and they say it hasnt even been dealt with yet,wish i could get my hands on that mans scranny neck id wring it for him,gentleman in question will get back to me tommorrow so he better have a good answer for me..... :mad:

Calm down dear , calm down, this media attention has caused a huge number of enquiries and there might be a small delay , If your band has been reduced you will get the reduced bill in good time.
Threatening violence will not necessarily help things

Maisie

lostnfound wrote: »

Im sitting here absolutely furious with the scottish assessors office after being told on the 1st of February that my re-band had been successful i have now recieved this years council tax bill and guess what im still a bleedin band C, phoned the assessors and they say it hasnt even been dealt with yet,wish i could get my hands on that mans scranny neck id wring it for him,gentleman in question will get back to me tommorrow so he better have a good answer for me..... :mad:

The council tax bill was probably produced weeks ago before your rebanding.

poorperson

poorperson wrote: »

Top man from the VOA rang me yesterday while sitting in the club playing doms. Fortunately for him, things were going well. However, he still insisted that the VOA's valuation was correct but I was adamant that it was not I stuck to my guns and told him no matter what he came up with to prove his point, I would disagree. He has been making a comparison with larger properties up the road and I told him that was not feasible. I let him know repeatedly that I had a valuation (31400, way below the band B threshhold) for a remortgage in 11/92 and that is what he should use. He disagreed obviously but I stressed that I would stick to my guns and anything else would mean that the listings was not a true reflection of the valuations at the time and therefore the VOA would be dishonest and not acting in a fair proper manner regarding the listings, as they are supposed to do. I'm not giving up until they drag me off to the funny farm.

Following my conversation last Friday 2/3, the guy from the VOA was supposed to return to me no later than yesterday with information backing up his side of the argument, and did he? Did he hell as like. Earlier in the week I made further investigations and I found that my next door neighbour's house is larger than mine (only by 50 square feet but who cares?) despite having 2 bedrooms when I have 3. I obviously let the VOA know about this but still they haven't come back. Can't wait for Monday morning.

Maisie

bronking wrote: »

carrying on from a successful rebanding,

here are my tips on rebanding stratergy:

1 gather as much info as possible good or bad (act as though your in there shoes, remember if you cannot fully justify rebanding to yourself your unlikely to convince them)

2 have more than 1 evidence of each subject in your favour, they are likely to argue each part. so if you say your house was bought in 2000 and according to your calculation as to its value in 1991 would put it in say band D instead of E, look for other evidence i.e. the house may have been bought earlier say 1997 http://www.nethouseprices.com/index.php recalculate again to see if this would also give same outcome.

3 Take pictures of reasons for reband, ie buildings next door, road changes,look at virtual world ariel photos to enphasise changes in environment

4 always keep things looking professional in correspondence and make notes of all telephone conversations

5 see how your property was calculated, in the case of extremely large houses, have a look into the size of your hall/stairs it could be argued that your house looks grand outside but in fact if alot is taken up with large hall/stairs/landing this gives a false impression of floor space when they do their calculations

6 if first knocked back do not go straight off to tribunal, these guys are snowed under at the moment and don't need the hasle, so if you go at things informally thay will check things out, then and only then if you go to tribunal and it becomes formal they will need to do the work again which they will be reluctant to do.

so in order:

phone up, strike up a friendly conversation and always converse with the same person, they will probably ask you to send a letter detailing the reasons why your rebanding is wrong.

send letter to that person, they will send you a letter back saying you property is in the correct band,

phone up again (with all your info in front of you) and state why you disagree (politely) with their assessment and then hint at tribunal

they will say that you need to fill in (formal application) form, then if its rejected, then you can go to tribunal.

as last resort (before formal letter) ask them to come out in person to see for themselves

but remember you will know yourself if your just trying it on, so only go down this route if your not

Thanks Bronking. That's very useful.

Maisie

guppy

moose_2000 wrote: »

:eek: I don't know if anyone can offer advice on my council tax rebanding. I live in Telford and Wrekin and recently appealed my banding as I am a D and a property that is exactly the same and similar properties are all band C. I received a letter stating that my band is correct and therefore they are going to put up the other properties instead! Not only am i going to be off everyones christmas card list when I asked how to appeal they said i couldn't as I have lived in the property for over 6 months. I bought the house in 1998 and paid under the price bracket for band D then and the other propery has been sold twice so ample opportunity to reband I would have thought. I am really at a loss as to what to do next, any ideas?

I'd advise not mentioning it to your neighbours for a start!

As someone else said the VOA don't put up people's bands lightly so they must have good evidence your band is correct.

Your irate neighbours will be able to appeal the band increase and if they win you can get your's put down too. And of course them all paying more might knock a couple of pence off your bill

sunshineface_2

After viewing the articles and links in this case we have seen that our tax band is B. Next door who have an identical property (in fact it is in better condition than ours as ours has been ripped apart for renovation) are in band A.

We have owned the property since 2001 so we cannot appeal under the six months rule. Should we try and get our tax band put down to A and if so how do we go about it beings we don't have a 'valid reason' for a reduction?

Teresa60

I dont want to trawl this this whole thread to see if I can find an answer, can you help? We moved into a 2 bed semi in 2006 and have extended it to 4 bedrooms. We are in Band B, but people in the same road have extended their semi and are in Band C. Who would you think is in the right Band? Or how can I can compare?

Altarf

sunshineface wrote: »

After viewing the articles and links in this case we have seen that our tax band is B. Next door who have an identical property (in fact it is in better condition than ours as ours has been ripped apart for renovation) are in band A.

We have owned the property since 2001 so we cannot appeal under the six months rule. Should we try and get our tax band put down to A and if so how do we go about it beings we don't have a 'valid reason' for a reduction?

Unless there are only two houses in the street what about the properties in the rest of the street? It could be either of you that is in the wrong band, so you need to establish which band your house should be in to determine your course of action.

If the whole street is band A apart from you, then request a review of the banding as the VOA have a duty to 'maintain the integrity of the list'. If the whole street is band B apart from your neighbour, then even if you do contact the VOA if your banding is right then they won't change your because your neighbours is wrong, but they may or may not change your neighbours (see earlier posts for an explanation).