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

redlady

i just telephoned my local office as i wanted to collect some information on the surrounding properties and properties on my street and had a lengthy discussion with the assessor who told me that i must of been reading a website as i had put in my letter "the listing officer".. who doesnt exist in scotland im now told! he basically said the market for flats (which mine is) is very good and that my property is a modern desirable flat he finds it is adequately banded. There are properties adjacent to me that are local authority (council) houses who he said despite being of similar size are banded band A as they are council flats but should they be revaluated now they would all come up to par with my band C. Also he said my flat which isnt ginormous is bigger in sq footage than a previous 2 bedroom upstairs/downstairs house with front and back garden and so really theres no need for him to write to me now. looks like i failed miserably despite having all my points and really believing my band was unfair and not really relevant to property prices in 1991. also mentioned to me that he has changed one band in the whole of the city due to half of the house being demolished that they did not know about but thats it.. generous chappy!

Zebedeee

redlady, I'm not sure if you mentioned it, I haven't been able to find it anyway, but was your flat built before 1991? As that is the year the valuations are based on, I can't see how your valuation chappy can start saying, 'if those other flats were rebanded now, blah, blah, blah' as that is not really relevant, unless the area has substantially changed in a material way, not simply that property prices have gone up since 1991!

Do as Maisie says and get solid evidence of prices of flats like yours (as simillar as possible) and compare those with the 1991 banding figures. If you still feel you have a case, keep on with it. It may be worth copying your MP too.

Hope that helps!

Zebedee

Zebedeee

jo7679 wrote: »

Could any-one please offer any advice, you seem to know what you are talking about, I told one of my neighbours about this site and they moved into their property (which is the same as mine) in 1997 and paid £37,000 so they are looking into it. I'm still unsure wether it'll be worth my while.

Jo

Jo, house prices in many places did rise steeply prior to 1991 and then fall again afterwards, which the house prices indices don't always take account of, so you need more evidence. You need to find out selling prices of actual houses like yours from quarter 1 1991 and see how it stacks up. It could well be that you are in the correct band and for some reason your neighbour has been very lucky!

As Maisie says, read back on this thread as there is loads of good advice about what to do next.

HTH!

Zebedee

ginnygee

Hi everyone.

This is my first message ever on this website!

I am looking into the banding for my house and I have checked the houses close to me in my road. We are all Band C. However, having checked the price of my house in 1991, according to the calculations, it should have been in Band B. As the houses next to me are in Band C as well, but the houses further down the road seem mainly to be in Band D (they do sell for about £20k more than ours), I cannot go to the valuation people saying that my house is in a different band to the others. However, the calculation definitely puts me well in Band B as at 1991. Can I still apply for a rebanding and will it effect my neighbours.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks.

Ginnygee

sap1

Trying to find out if it is possible to reduce previous banding, looking at all details my house was incorrectly banded in band B from 1994 when I moved in until 2005 when they were banded correctly in band B. The house should have been in band A, but looking at houses around me they are also all in band B, would I have a case to challenge it or would I be better speaking to neighbours for us to join together to challenge it. I would be grateful for any advice.

Maisie

ginnygee wrote: »

Hi everyone.

This is my first message ever on this website!

I am looking into the banding for my house and I have checked the houses close to me in my road. We are all Band C. However, having checked the price of my house in 1991, according to the calculations, it should have been in Band B. As the houses next to me are in Band C as well, but the houses further down the road seem mainly to be in Band D (they do sell for about £20k more than ours), I cannot go to the valuation people saying that my house is in a different band to the others. However, the calculation definitely puts me well in Band B as at 1991. Can I still apply for a rebanding and will it effect my neighbours.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks.

Ginnygee

Hello Ginnygee and welcome to this council tax thread and MSE.

You cannot use the Nationwide price calculator alone. The voa won't accept the figures from that.

Have you any other information to back your claim.? ie sales figures from 1991? You can get these from archived newspapers at the library or valuation reports from your house sale.

Try to find out what similar houses have been selling at in recent years and base the 1991 figure on them. The closer to any 1991 sales you get the better.

Have a look back at the posts on this thread. There's lots of expert advice but post again if you're still unsure what to do.

We're a friendly bunch on here and try to help each other out.

Good Luck. Maisie

Maisie

sap1 wrote: »

Trying to find out if it is possible to reduce previous banding, looking at all details my house was incorrectly banded in band B from 1994 when I moved in until 2005 when they were banded correctly in band B. The house should have been in band A, but looking at houses around me they are also all in band B, would I have a case to challenge it or would I be better speaking to neighbours for us to join together to challenge it. I would be grateful for any advice.

Hello sap1 If you're just going on the Nationwide house price calculator... well frankly don't !

voa don't accept just that. As I mentioned in previous post you need some other evidence like house sales valuation etc.

Have you looked at the voa listing to see if any of the other houses have had their band reduced or changed? It will tell you on the voa site and if changed you'll have some more backing to support your claim.

Have you read though the thread? jamiesbabie, zebedee and altarf and others have posted some expert advice if you look back.

Hope this helps. If not post again someone will help you.

Good luck. maisie

Npatricia

My valuation officer has turned down our application to drop a band, and has said there is no right of appeal. Is this correct, or can I contact someone else?

DebbieR

I applied about six weeks ago for our band to be lowered as I thought I had plenty of proof that we were in the wrong banding. I got the usual two letters via email saying I was out of time etc but they would re-assess my band. After hours of research I sent off a long letter explaining my reasons and saying that I had details of similar houses(taken from estate agents brochures) if they needed them to compare with my house. I meticulously copied all the details of the houses and cross referenced the with the VOA site to make sure I was right. I've now got a bog-standard letter saying they're not going to do anything as they think they're right. The reasons they give are a) the house price calculator is based on national prices- I told them I'd used the one showing regional Stockton on Tees prices.b) the houses I'd compared mine with could have had extensions etc so they should be in a higher bracket now-I've got the estate agent details, they're all fairly new houses and don't seem to have been altered in any way.c) other smaller houses in the same band in my street have appealed at tribunal and have been refused so the banding is right-I'd already checked on the VOA site and according to that none of the houses have had a tribunal hearing, would it definately show up? They've taken absolutely no notice of the fact that I mentioned a similar house in the next street having its banding reduced by tribunal. Sorry to be long-winded but I'm just so frustrated at having spent so much time on research. Does anyone have any pointers as to whether I can go further on this? Thanks

Newbe_3

I followed all the instructions about checking banding with neighbours etc and it shows that 4 of the houses in our crescent - all similar properties - are on a lower banding than ours. If I get in touch with the council about this will I be able to change our banding to the lower banding as the other 4 or will it increase their banding to the same as ours? I don't want to ring and cause difficulties for these 4 neighbours so would be grateful for some advice from anybody out there who can help! Thanks....