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

jamesiebabie

stabs wrote: »

I followed the advice posted a few weeks ago and to my delight found that my house fell some £8000 into the lower tax band on 1991 house prices which meant my house should have been banded in band D not E as it is. I also found that a number of similar looking properties in my street alone were banded one lower than mine.
Armed with this information I contacted my local VOA who stated that as I had been in the property more than six months I had no right to appeal formally however they would review the bandings for me. I received a reply a few weeks after which in short stated that they believed the band my property was in was correct and they would not alter it.
I contacted them to challenge the decision they made and was told that I had no right to a tribunal because I had been in longer than six months, this I find extremely unfair. They did state however that they would have the decision reviewed by somebody else within their office.....well call me cynical but if the decision changes when it is being reviewed by somebody from the same office then I will eat my hat.
Does anybody know if there is another channel I can pursue once the inevitable decision comes back from the same office? Surely the right to a tribunal cannot be removed because I didn't properly appeal within six months of moving in?
Your comments are welcome.:mad:

Stabs,

Have patience and have faith in the system. The VOA have various grades within the organisation and the people who do the initial reviews can pass it to a higher grade [usually the council tax caseworkers] as they generally have the better knowledge. If the reply still comes back in the negative, then you will have to step up the pressure and you may have to do some more work yourself. The first port of call would be to write directly to the Listing Officer and mark it as Private and Confidential and write a letter of complaint, if that then fails you can always write to your MP, but the VOA will still need some evidence as to why it is wrong.

You can get some more facts from the VOA by asking pertinant questions under the 'Freedom of Innformation Act' and get all the details of the relevant properties in your strret/area, but you will have to be specific about the comparables you are looking at. This just for starters, if you get any further and have no luck, then just put another post on here and I'll try and help.

J

Maisie

Jamesie. I have had my claim reviewed by another member of voa staff and the latest letter says she found the same with no rebanding.

What information should I ask for under the FOI act? I have already asked how they defined my house price and placed it into this band. They have previously said they will not divulge the procedure!

I am just in the process of writing another lengthy letter with further evidence of why this D band should be lowered. It includes 2 market valuation reports from 2 surveyors showing prices in 1983/84 when we purchased this ex-council house. They equate to about halfway through band C.
Also details of several (same) houses that are lower banded to C. (15 total). Voa tell me the lower banding on these other houses is wrong.

I have included house sale prices for several other larger and more highly valued houses in this road all band D.
Aso included adverse changes to the area and the fact that we are unable to park our car outside (we are on a green with no car parking facilities and no garage.) The road is too dangerous to park on as is at bottom of steep hill and there's limited vision. We have to rent a nearby garage.

They sent a sheet with 1-13 reasons why I could appeal but don't come into them. They have given me 4 weeks to reply to 'notice of invalid proposal' and say they will reconsider on receipt of this. I have to hurry now as only have about 9/10 days left to reply. Delay caused by trying to think of more evidence.

Have you any other ideas I can back my letter up with?

Thanks for any help.

maisie

ps Have looked at the archived house sales in the library and quoted those too.

jamesiebabie

Maisie,

It sounds like you are having fun. OK, where do you start. First thing first, the VOA are unlikely to look at the figures from 1983/84 as this is so far away from the AVD [Antecedant Valuation Date of 1/4/1991]. there was a marked increase in high prices between then and 1991, along with a housing market crash, subsequently then sales from say 1 year either side would be used. The VOA would also consider the original sale as 'Not Arms Length' [NAL] as it was a 'Right to buy' [RTB]sale and therefore you would have had a discount on the Open Market Value [OMV]. What you need is evidence of any subsequent transactions in your street., if this is possible.

I would ask the question as to what the VOA are going to do about all those properties that they say are in the wrong band as they have a duty to maintain an accurate list. This should be copied into your local MP and Caroline Spellman MP [Conservative] as she is consistanatly on the back of the VOA and is the main cause of all tabloid press against the VOA. Shje is also the main person who is asking all the FOI questions, but this does not stop you.

You can request under the FOI all the property details of every house that you think is similar to yours and ask for the total number of rooms, number of bedrooms, age, size [floor space of the house], plot size [footprint of the total area of the house and gardens]. If you are contending the banding you should ask what comparables are they relying on to base your valuation. You could state that the VOA are not being transparent and that they hold the information and what are they scared of.

Have any of the houses been appealed and reduced do you know Maisie?

If you do not come under any of the criteria to appeal, then they are right in stating you cannot have a valid appeal and therefore will not get an oppotunity to appear at VT. Sorry.

This will have to be a case of applying the pressure slowly until you get a decisive answer, this can then be done by writing to the CEO himself [Andrew Hudson], you can tell them the same story and provide them with all the relevant info.

The Chief Executive
Valuation Office Agency
New Court
Carey Street
London
WC2A 2JE

Wait for the reply, if that is not satisfactory then write to the The Adjudicator
Haymarket House
28 Haymarket
London
SW1Y 4SP

Their service is free and is your last port of call!

PM me if you need further advice. I hope this helps.

J

tgr_3

Martin sets out how to do the background work on checking your council tax band, this is all free and the appeal to the Valuations Officer is also a free service. HOWEVER, some company is trying to make money out of you for this!!! BEWARE!!!

I was checking my band (unfortunately seems right!) and discovered this website where they will charge you £19.95 for a report on your banding - what a right cheek!!!

Martin please warn all your subscribers about the website below, looks like a right scam. Charge you £19.95 but I can't see any address for this company, CTR Consultants. They will, I think, disappear with your money without a trace!!??

http://www.counciltaxrefunds.com/?gclid=CLTIxOOFg4sCFQ2IlAodF3pMEg

I've had this kind of thing happen for business rates. The Valuations Officer service is free and when I contacted them about my business they were really helpful - don't get sucked in to these money making schemes. PLEASE BEWARE.

pingua

jamesiebabie wrote: »

Pingua,

Sit back, relax, enjoy the battle. If I was you I would wait and see what they do, if you don't have a response within the next couple of weeks, then by all means hit them all that you have got. You could even copy in your MP if you are that miffed, that sometimes brings them to heel quite sharpish!!;)

I am relaxed now cheers. I will be ready if I have to do battle. So shall I not bother sending the form back??? Just see what they do next??? Or send it in and set the ball rolling??

lucygotit

HELP NEEDED PLEASE.............

I have been in touch with the VOA who sent me a letter and a questionaire. I have filled the questionaire in about how many rooms we have that they sent me. Our detached house is Band E but neighbours detached house is Band D ( they were debanded about 5 years ago ) with more living space than us and probably same amount of land. What do you think our chances are of being rebanded?
What will be the next step after sending questionaire back because when we received 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.
What strong points do I need to make to them for them to consider. We live in a small village with only a villlage pub, not even a childrens play area or shop.

Any help will be appreciated and I thankyou for that.

frugalpam

Firstly apologies for putting this post in the 'Successes' thread by mistake !!

OK, I've followed the steps exactly as Martin set out in his article
I'm in Band C, and I've discovered that my neighbours in our Close are also all on Band C (apart from 2 who've added extensions / conservatories in recent yrs, and are on band D.
I checked my house value at 1991 levels, and discovered that it would have been worth approx £44844 in 1991 (its currently worth approx £160,000 and I've been here 10 yrs). That falls into Band B £40001 - £52000 for 1991 property values.

Is it worth me going ahead, do you think, to apply to be re-banded to Band B? I'm hesitant because the vast majority in our Close are Band C - but maybe we should all be re-banded to B? Also, as I've been here 10 yrs, would they turn me down anyway?

Any advice most welcome - you guys have solid experience in all this

Pam

Maisie

ukpam2000 wrote: »

Firstly apologies for putting this post in the 'Successes' thread by mistake !!

OK, I've followed the steps exactly as Martin set out in his article
I'm in Band C, and I've discovered that my neighbours in our Close are also all on Band C (apart from 2 who've added extensions / conservatories in recent yrs, and are on band D.
I checked my house value at 1991 levels, and discovered that it would have been worth approx £44844 in 1991 (its currently worth approx £160,000 and I've been here 10 yrs). That falls into Band B £40001 - £52000 for 1991 property values.

Is it worth me going ahead, do you think, to apply to be re-banded to Band B? I'm hesitant because the vast majority in our Close are Band C - but maybe we should all be re-banded to B? Also, as I've been here 10 yrs, would they turn me down anyway?

Any advice most welcome - you guys have solid experience in all this

Pam

Pam. Did you check your house prices with the Nationwide calculator and today's value?

It's better if you have documents/valuation reports from 10 years ago when you moved in and checked again.
It's closer to 1991 then.

Hve you checked on the voa website to see if any of the bandings (except the D ones) have changed? It gives you somewhere to start then.

HTH maisie

frugalpam

Maisie wrote: »

Pam. Did you check your house prices with the Nationwide calculator and today's value?

It's better if you have documents/valuation reports from 10 years ago when you moved in and checked again.
It's closer to 1991 then.

Hve you checked on the voa website to see if any of the bandings (except the D ones) have changed? It gives you somewhere to start then.

HTH maisie

Hi Maisie - thanks for your reply.
Yes, I checked it out on the Nationwide site, using their calculator.

I bought the house in Aug 1997 for £55,000 - am just trying to track down confirmation of that from the Solicitors who acted for me in the purchase. Seeing as Band B (the band I think I should be in) prices for 1991 were £40001 - £52000, I think I must have a strong case. What do you think?

thanks
Pam

Zebedeee

ukpam2000 wrote: »

Hi Maisie - thanks for your reply.
Yes, I checked it out on the Nationwide site, using their calculator.

I bought the house in Aug 1997 for £55,000 - am just trying to track down confirmation of that from the Solicitors who acted for me in the purchase. Seeing as Band B (the band I think I should be in) prices for 1991 were £40001 - £52000, I think I must have a strong case. What do you think?

thanks
Pam

Hi Pam

I think you'll find that the VOA do not take the house price indicator as evidence for a band change. It is merely an indicator and is probably more trouble than it is worth! You will need to find solid evidence in the form of actual prices of houses the same as/simillar to yours taking place round about Q1 1991. You can do this by going to a library and looking at the archives of the property pages of your local paper.

The fact that your neighbours are in a lower band is also very strong evidence that you should have your band looked at again, providing their houses are like yours.

Although you are outside the 6mths you still have a right to ask for your banding to be looked at as the VOA have a duty to maintain their lists accurate and up-to-date.

HTH!

Zebedee