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

tarinilie

stphnstevey wrote: »

What year pre 1990?

But surely if you can work out past house prices for council tax you could do the same for water rates. If the valuation is significantly different from the water rates valuation, you should be able to contest this.


The water companies were required during privatisation to stop using the rateable values of houses . This was rental value which ended in 1990 when the poll tax started.

They don't seem to have got their act together except of course more modern houses have meters.

You really need to speak to your water company .

My advice is to get a water meter. I got one a couple of years ago and my water bill was slashed.

I feel this is much fairer as you pay for what you use etc.

I wish the television licence would work in the same way!!

As for size of preoperty relating to use of services - well it's always been like that and it is assumed bigger houses have more occupants therefore using more services.
People living in bigger houses are generally wealthier and so the tax is higher for those who can afford it.

This might not be so for pensioners but perhaps they should consider dowmsizing or extract the 'untaxed' increase in equity they enjoy to pay the tax.

I expect Lyons review, however, will recommed more adequate provision for CT relief for pensioners.

A new revaluation and higher bands will certainly help those people in smaller dwellings.

shezbabe11

Thanks to MSE i went on the council tax banding website and discovered that all the street bar 3 houses were on band A and the 3 houses including my boyfriends were on band B, some of the houses in band A are bigger than my boyfriends house. After telling my boyfriend i subsequently informed the 2 other neighbours and last week my boyfriend received a letter from the listings officer saying that they have rebanded his property, the 2 neighbours also received letters saying the same. Today he has received a letter from the council tax saying they are going to refund him £568. :T Whoo hoo :money: WE ARE NOT WORTHY :beer:

shezbabe11

jamesiebabie wrote: »

Elliebabe,

this sounds terrible treatment and very unlike the VOA. I would give the VOA one more chance, make sure you use the telephone number that appears on the website [use my link at the botttom if need be and click at the top left CT home] and go to the top right hand side where it says 'where to find us'. Click on your relevant location and you'll find the telephone number and a contact name for the customer service manager. you need to speak to them. If you then have no luck do as Zebedee says and contact your local MP, you'll soon get a response.

I hope that helps.

J

YOU SHOULD BE CONTACTING THE LISTINGS OFFICER IN YOUR AREA

guppy

stphnstevey wrote: »

What year pre 1990?

Water rates are based on the 1973 revaluation for local rates. Which makes a 1991 council tax valuation look bang up to date.

As far as I know, there is no way to make the water company change it. They'll just offer you a meter.

guppy

cooperjul wrote: »

Thanks for you advice it does make sense, unfortunately it looks like they will probably just say no it's out of time, it's just annoying when the house across the road from you is a bigger house and worth more money and is in a lower band (it just doesn't make sense). Do they not have an obligation to give you a reason for the difference in banding? I thought it was supposed to be on the valuation of the property, the houses were only built 2 yrs ago and when they were banded were still for sale, i think there has been a mistake made and nobody's accepting the blame.

Just because you are out of time to make a formal appeal does not mean you that you are powerless to do anything. It just means you may have to work a bit harder to get your situation looked at. You have no formal right of appeal so get your facts right first time around.

See Bronking's very useful post (#836)

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=4555455&postcount=836

The Valuation Office has a legal duty to make sure properties are banded fairly and consistently, remind them of this at every opportunity. Of course this means Bands go up as well as down if mistakes are pointed out. So again, get your facts right first.

Finally, I would advise writing in, a letter won't go away once someone (who may be relatively junior) has put the phone down.

If you truly believe something is wrong, don't give up. If it is, they will probably know, even if they don't want to admit it.

katie1407

Hi
I am in band E which in Scotland is for properties valued at £58000-£80000 in 1991. I bought my house in 1993 and then it was valued at £56000! Queried it then and was basically told it was new housing in 1991 and that had been their estimate of its value, and that nothing could be done about it.
My house is a 3 bed semi. All other identical semis in the estate are also E. However, there are band D houses which are exactly the same as ours, same land etc, but are joined on to terrace instead of other semi.
Wrote to council and got letter saying it was too late to query it, but that they would send someone out to re-assess. Spoke to him on phone and he said that it would not only be the value of our house which would be taken into consideration, but the value of other similar houses in the area!
He's coming out beg of April to reassess. Will post outcome. Wish me luck!

hamsterholly

I have been querying my band C as alot of similar houses on my estate who are detached (I am a link detached) are in a band B.

I had the VOA assessor come out last week and measured up my house and took pictures. He was saying something along the lines of because our garage has been converted into a playroom (done before we moved in) we now have more living space and the council tax goes on house prices and also living space. I advised him that in 1991 it would have still been a garage.

He has a month to reply and is finding out sales prices of houses similiar to ours in 1991 in the area.

However we now have a tribunal date for mid April. Has anyone been through the tribunal process ? Hopefully we will have an outcome from the voa before the tribunal.

Thanks

Tracey

marianm2001

Hey,

I have had my council tac band reduced from a C to a B and am now wondering if I can also get my water bill reduced nd rebated the same way? For further discussion on this subject i have a thread here :

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=403841

in the water utilities forum.

Thanks

Maz

jamesiebabie

katie1407 wrote: »

Hi
I am in band E which in Scotland is for properties valued at £58000-£80000 in 1991. I bought my house in 1993 and then it was valued at £56000! Queried it then and was basically told it was new housing in 1991 and that had been their estimate of its value, and that nothing could be done about it.
My house is a 3 bed semi. All other identical semis in the estate are also E. However, there are band D houses which are exactly the same as ours, same land etc, but are joined on to terrace instead of other semi.
Wrote to council and got letter saying it was too late to query it, but that they would send someone out to re-assess. Spoke to him on phone and he said that it would not only be the value of our house which would be taken into consideration, but the value of other similar houses in the area!
He's coming out beg of April to reassess. Will post outcome. Wish me luck!

Good luck Katie1407,

Keep us posted and we wish you well, if you need advice just post it on here and some of us will try and help youand support you.


J

jamesiebabie

hamsterholly wrote: »

I have been querying my band C as alot of similar houses on my estate who are detached (I am a link detached) are in a band B.

I had the VOA assessor come out last week and measured up my house and took pictures. He was saying something along the lines of because our garage has been converted into a playroom (done before we moved in) we now have more living space and the council tax goes on house prices and also living space. I advised him that in 1991 it would have still been a garage.

He has a month to reply and is finding out sales prices of houses similiar to ours in 1991 in the area.

However we now have a tribunal date for mid April. Has anyone been through the tribunal process ? Hopefully we will have an outcome from the voa before the tribunal.

Thanks

Tracey

Tracey,

It lookks as though you may have to play this one carefully. Am I right in thinking that you bought the house after 1993 and before the conversion was done? If so be warned that this one may go the wrong way or at best the banding will stay the same. I say that because even though there was no 'logged report' raised by the VOA, you have asked them to review the banding and they MAY have the right to increase it. The house may have just had the garage back in 1991, but that date is only used as the 'Antecedant Valauation Date' [the base date], and it is the circumstances as to when you bought it that counts, i.e. if the converstion had been done after 1/4/1993, then the banding would take effect from then. If you were in ownership back in 1993 and the garage was still a garage, the VOA would have to use those details.

I hope I am wrong and that I have misundertstood you, please keep in touch and ask any relevant questions.

J