Council Tax vs Service Charge

glottalstop

A couple of years ago I challenged my council tax, because I was paying as much for a 2 bed flat as some 4 bed houses do. The review took ages, and came back with a "tough luck" - the tax is based on projections of values and nothing to do with bedrooms etc. It made me feel maybe a poll tax would have been fairer !

Since then it has struck me that I pay a second council tax, by way of service charges - in fact the service charges are even more than council tax. This is because the block is on a private estate where we pay for the maintenance.

Houses on public roads do not have this cost at all.

Do houses on private roads / estates get a reduced council tax ?

ILW

Council tax is based on the value of the property, nothing to do with what services are used.

I do agree that the poll tax would be a fairer system.

kerri_gt

I agree, although the poll tax wasn't popular with many, for some of us a poll tax would deff be 'fairer'

ILW

I think it was unpopular with a noisy minority who suddenly found they would have to contribute something.

paddedjohn

Ive always thought the poll-tax was the most fair system. My dad lived on his own in a large house(all payed for by hard graft) and he had to pay more in rates than the family of 5 adults living next door. It doesnt take a genius to work out who used the most services

glottalstop

What I'm getting at is that Council Tax provides for a range of local services. If you provide some of them yourself, for example because you are on a private road with your own street lighting etc does that entitle you to a discount.

For example, I have a vague idea that if you have an old fashioned cess pit rather than being connected to the main sewers, you get a discount on your water rates.

mjm3346

glottalstop wrote: »

What I'm getting at is that Council Tax provides for a range of local services. If you provide some of them yourself, for example because you are on a private road with your own street lighting etc does that entitle you to a discount.

For example, I have a vague idea that if you have an old fashioned cess pit rather than being connected to the main sewers, you get a discount on your water rates.

Nice and easy---No, it does not entitle you to a discount.


(I doubt if much of your service charge goes towards any services the council has to provide either)

chris_m

ILW wrote: »

I think it was unpopular with a noisy minority who suddenly found they would have to contribute something.

Ten out of ten.

casper_g

mjm3346 wrote: »

(I doubt if much of your service charge goes towards any services the council has to provide either)

+1.

The Service Charge goes towards things that a freeholder would have to pay as and when they arose: maintaining the outside of the property, the garden, the parking areas (note: think of these as equivalent to the driveway of a house, not the council-adopted street outside) etc.

[Deleted User]

last year, while owning a leasehold property, we had to pay £2400 pa service charge plus £1500 pa council tax. We moved and now pay £2300 pa council tax. We don`t expect a discount when we improve our surroundings. The village is pitch black at night as there isn`t even one street light but we know the £2300 goes into the kitty for works everywhere

p00hsticks

glottalstop wrote: »

Since then it has struck me that I pay a second council tax, by way of service charges - in fact the service charges are even more than council tax. This is because the block is on a private estate where we pay for the maintenance.

Houses on public roads do not have this cost at all.

Like Casper-g says, the service charge for flats is mainly to cover the maintenance of the communal areas of the building (e.g. halls, stairwells, lifts, roof and outside walls, car parking, gardens etc) - things that householders living in individual houses will have to pay for themselves.

I would have though you should have been given some information on what this covers and how it is spent when you purchased your flat (if you own it) and when you are billed - there will be a management organisation of some sort dealing with it.