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

jamesiebabie

marianm2001 wrote: »

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

Maz,

Are you going to claim interest back from the VOA?

J

Maisie

jamesiebabie. Does the voa come under the jurisdiction of the Local Govt Ombudsman and is it worth going to them if all else fails with rebanding?

Thanks.

Maisie

lucygotit

i am just beginning in getting in touch with the VOA. I have filled the questionaire in about how many rooms we have that they sent me after emailing them website. Our detached house is Band E but neighbours detached house is Band D with more living space than us and more land. What do you think our chances are?
What will be the next step after sending questionaire back brcause when we eceived this it said we couldn't do it or words to that effect.
Please help....we built the house in 1983 and obviously still live here

iglimpse

DLA Mental capacity

Not sure if this is the right place for this but relative aged 19 has a learning disability. Lives with his mum (single). We have only just found out that she is entitles to a 25% reduction in council tax.

Rules are that they have to be getting DLA middle or higher rate and GP has to agree that it has been diagnosed (sign the form). We were put off because it says for severe mental impairment. You can get the forms from council offices

MinMoz

What tact do I take now? Spent the last 6 months getting past the non-existent but threatened appeal hearing.

I live in a 2 bed, 1 bath end terrace in Scotland and am in band C. Through the wall is a 3 bed, 2 bath terrace in band B.

Purchased the house in 2002 for £48k, but the valuers have claimed it was worth £40k in 1991 (1991 band C was 35k-45k) so they do not believe I have a valid appeal.

Havent even bothered taking the unfair stance but can see from their website that a 3 bedroom house in the street was rebanded in 2001 to band B. Does this set a precedence for the street?? Does it work this way? Can they just ignore their previous decisions because they are getting inundated now?

April_Farnath

I have followed all Martins instructions regarding the above without success. I have just received a letter from the Nottingham Valuation Tribunal Service saying "I must inform you that under the regulations, you had the right to make a proposal challenging the accuracy of your council tax band, providing the proposal was served on the Listing Officer by November 30th 1993 or within six months of the date that you became the council taxpayer. With this in mind, I regret that you have no right of appeal to this tribunal against the listing Officer's refusal to reduce your band with effect from 1st April 1993. Unfortunately, I can only advise you regarding the law as it is and not what I think it should be".

We have lived in our property since 1975 and four of our neighbours (who all live in similar properties) are in a band lower.

Have I come to the end of the line with this? If anyone can let me know as what to do next if your Valuation Tribunal Service will not accept your appeal because it is approx. thirteen and a half years too late, please let me know, it would be greatly appreciated.

hamsterholly

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.

Thanks for your reply. We purchased the house in 2000 and the conversion was done before we moved in (approx 1998) by the previous owners. So I presume now they would take in the extra living space we now have ? If this is the case then I think we would just be left in band C.

I did actually query the banding when we purchased our house as we bought it for 49k and the C banding started at 52k but was just told the house could have been priced higher in 1991 so I just left it.

Hopefully will hear back from the assessor soon.

Thanks

Tracey

Zebedeee

April_Farnath wrote: »

I have followed all Martins instructions regarding the above without success. I have just received a letter from the Nottingham Valuation Tribunal Service saying "I must inform you that under the regulations, you had the right to make a proposal challenging the accuracy of your council tax band, providing the proposal was served on the Listing Officer by November 30th 1993 or within six months of the date that you became the council taxpayer. With this in mind, I regret that you have no right of appeal to this tribunal against the listing Officer's refusal to reduce your band with effect from 1st April 1993. Unfortunately, I can only advise you regarding the law as it is and not what I think it should be".

We have lived in our property since 1975 and four of our neighbours (who all live in similar properties) are in a band lower.

Have I come to the end of the line with this? If anyone can let me know as what to do next if your Valuation Tribunal Service will not accept your appeal because it is approx. thirteen and a half years too late, please let me know, it would be greatly appreciated.

Hi,

It's a common problem and you will be able to find a number of posts on this thread to help. Have a look at Altarf's post #759 and mine #639. All is not (yet) lost, so if you are pretty certain you are in the right don't give up!

HTH

Zebedee

lancastrian21

I am trying to challenge the council tax band for a retirement development of 48 flats. We have a sister development across the road which has successfully had their bands reasssed from C & D to B & C. Each time we apply, we are told we are in the correct banding and cannot appeal. Our development was built 12 years ago and is C & D. The other development is only 5 yrs old and the flats are very similar to ours. We think this is very unfair

Maisie

lancastrian21 wrote: »

I am trying to challenge the council tax band for a retirement development of 48 flats. We have a sister development across the road which has successfully had their bands reasssed from C & D to B & C. Each time we apply, we are told we are in the correct banding and cannot appeal. Our development was built 12 years ago and is C & D. The other development is only 5 yrs old and the flats are very similar to ours. We think this is very unfair

lancastrian. There's a post #24 from Dog Kennel Hill Dave on the 'success' thread about their rebanding of flats. Don't know if you can glean anything from that or maybe DogK.Hill Dave would give you some help.

Good luck. Maisie