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

Dibdob

Dibdob wrote: »

Can anyone advise me please? We have been in our house 3 years and just found out that our neighbours are in a band D, but we are an E. We are in a cul-de-sac and there are only 15 houses in it. We are semi detached (link garage) and 3 bed, yet the other houses are 4 bed detached and they are also band D. We do have a small extension on our house, which has created a utility room, but I cannot see how that small room has pushed us up a band when the 4 bed houses are much bigger than ours? Anyone know what the rules are with extensions? It was obviously here before we moved in, yet when I do the look up in 1991 for our house, neighbours and the larger 4 bed properties they do not fall into the E banding? Dunno if I am being 'thick' with the 1991 tool, so would appreciate any help from you council tax claim back gurus!! Many thanks!

Any help would be appreciated??!!!! Thanks!!

jollyanna

Dibdob, you don't say when your house was built but if it was pre 1991 have you been to check out archived estate agency advertisments to see what the asking price was for a house matching yours (same location and specification). Go to your library to view archived local newspaper (on microfiche), begin by looking at January 1991, printing off any that match your property. Keep these to send to VOA in support of your case. You may need to visit the library in two or three sessions but it's worthwhile for the potential results and possibly conclusive proof that your property was incorrectly banded in 1991. Good luck.

Dibdob

Thanks Jollyanna! Havent been to the library since I was a child!!! Is is free and is it easy??

Dibdob

OOPS..found out that our house was actually built AFTER 1991...around 13 years ago. So how do I now proceed to prove banding error?

Have also found another house which has gone up for sale this week which again is larger than ours and on next estate, 2 minutes from ours, all similar in style to ours as built same period, has got extension, is detached and also got ensuite is still a lower band than us and is a band D where as we are E!? So infuriating!!

SOLIS_2

tarinilie

Thanks for that, which in my case means that I will not try and pursue this avenue of investigation as I do not see any benefit coming from it.

However, it raises the spectre of another whole avenue of investigation to find out the incompetence of the relevant authority, which (although older) still comes down to the faults of the VOA.

jollyanna

Check your library opening hours online. Mine is open to 7pm several nights a week which is good for working people. Archived newspapers containing estate agents ads. will usually be found in the reference library and one of the librarians will get out the reel you request and load the machine. You don't need to show a library ticket to use this service (well, not at mine you don't). I took a magnifying glass with me as the photo quality wasn't good on some pages and it helped me identify houses I knew to be in certain roads in my area.
It's worthwhile reading the whole of the council tax threads (and Maisies closed thread) to get a thorough picture of how people have done research to support their case. You'll also be able to check on your situation of house being built after 1991, I think they work out what your house would have cost had it been on sale in 1991, but there are plenty of threads relating to this and I don't want to give you mis-leading info.

lesleyoxley

I've been following the comments on getting council tax re-banded. I assumed that as my property was built after 1991 there would be nothing anyone could do as I thought banding would be carried out on the new house values.
I was wrong. I found my banding letter which states that the 'new band is estimated on the market value of the property at 1 April 1991 subject to certain statutory assumptions'. I would be intersted to know what these assumptions are?!!!!
I followed Martin's instructions and found out that all the houses in my postcode, the same type as mine are in band C . Even so, i continued to check the house prices. I first checked the average house values on sales in my postcode for 2006 (even though there are different house types, the prices are not so different from each other) the calculation gave me and average price of £141,600. When I checked this out to find the 1991 prices, the value came to £45606, which comes in council tax band B. I also checked the values for the properties at the time of the new build when most of the properties were sold for the first time. I thought I'd do this as this was when the bands were originally set. I checked 2001 Q4, which gave an average value of £78,314. When checking this average value against 1991 it gave the value of £46,903, still within Band B. The only way I can get band C is if I put the original selling price for the time of purchase in 2001, which gives a 1991 value of £54,376, which I assume the council would have gone by. I dispute this way of them making the calculation as the properties similar to mine sold at the time for varying values depending on location, etc, but they were all given the same tax band. Therefore they should have used the average value not the literal one. I also assume that as my property was one of the first to sell all bands were based on this property value.
Obviously my property does not fit in with any of the reasons for requesting that the band be re-evaluated. But I do believe that as it is in the 'starter' price for 3 bedroomed properties, it should be in band B and not C. After all people with properties worth millions only pay the higher tax band, nothing near to what should be appropriate for their property value. In fact those of us unfairly banded are probably done so just to subsidise the wealthy........ But that's another story.
If anyone has any ideas about appealling if you are in a new property and how to go about it i'd be grateful. Especially if you think it's worth a try after reading the above.

Thanks for allowing me to let off some steam............

Zebedeee

Hi Lesleyoxley

I too am in a property built since 1991 so understand your frustrations. From my experience with the VOA so far it seems that they don't use the house price indices as they only give vague averages and don't seem to be very accurate (and I can see their point there).

What holds much more weight with them is comparing simillar properties. If there are houses simillar to yours, not necessarily identical but with substantial simillarities these would be worth comapring with yours. Also, if you can go to the library and check out the local property pages from the newspaper from early 1991 you will get a good idea of the asking prices for houses like yours from the time that the valuation took place. Then, check those houses on the VOA website for their banding and see how you compare.

That is what I have done, and after many months of to-ing and fro-ing the VOA are looking at my case seriously.

I know effort is involved, but it could be worth it! This is the only way you will know!

Zebedeee

paula72 wrote: »

I've found out that i was paying a band b for 7 years when i should have been a band a but i moved in 2005. Can i still claim?

Check out my post #789 on page 40, and quite a few others since for guidance on this. You lose your right to ask for a rebanding once you move, but there is still hope!

Hope that helps!

ellieblack

dave747 wrote: »

The price your house was worth in 1991 dictates how much council tax you pay. If your house was built after April 1991 then an assumption is made to what would have been its value in 1991. I would advise anyone who thinks they were in the wrong band to ask the Listings Officer at your Valuation Office for the information he is using to value your property and in addition to trawl through local newspapers from Jan 1991 to April 1991, usually on record at Public Libraries. Look at the estate agents pages to see if any houses in your locality were up for sale and what they were valued at, and if necessary take a copy to the Listings Officer. We had our house band reduced and the Listings Officer has a duty to ensure that the valuation list is correct so he had to alter my neighbours as well.

i dont know wot to do we are in a row of cottages 2 of wich are in band A but me and somebody els in in B,although we do ha an extra room to everbody else. o tried to do the 2 steps but cant get the right info.please help.jen